Featured image credit: Rodrigo Castro on Unsplash
Flamengo president Rodolfo Landim has detailed his vision for a new 80,000-seat stadium for the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A football club, signalling his intention to buy the necessary land by December.
Flamengo currently plays at the Maracanã (pictured) and Landim has previously said that the club was in talks over using the Gasômetro site in Rio de Janeiro for a proposed new stadium, stating in July 2022 that it was an “area of interest”.
In an interview with Brazilian news outlet GE, Landim discussed the logistics of building an 80,000-seat stadium on the Gasômetro site, which only spans 87,000 square metres. The club would need to build a much more vertical stadium than the Maracanã for it to fit into the relatively small Gasômetro site, but Landim believes it is possible.
“We have already created a preliminary project for the placement of this stadium,” he told GE. “It would still give us the chance to create a large square in front. Around this square, we could put a series of restaurants and so on. In this square, we could even erect big screens for those who don’t have the means to go to the big games or for those who can’t get a ticket.”
Landim pointed to Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park and Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu as stadium designs Flamengo could look to replicate. The Flamengo president is hopeful that a land purchase deal can be agreed by the end of the year.
“I believe so, I don’t see why we can’t do it by then,” he said. “This isn’t just Flamengo, right? It involves the land holder, and convincing the land holder that currently belongs to a fund managed by Caixa Econômica Federal that this is a good deal for them. So, this will depend on negotiations and the will of third parties, but what we want to show is that this all makes perfect sense.”
A new stadium for Flamengo could cost between R$1.5bn (£236m/€275m/$296m) and R$2bn.
In November, Flamengo and Fluminense claimed a one-year extension to their deal to operate the Maracanã, hitting out at Série A rival Vasco da Gama in the process. Vasco had earlier claimed that it would drop out of the process after making a failed appeal to the Rio de Janeiro State Government over the terms of the tender notice.
The one-year deal with the Government for 2024 is for the Maracanã Complex, which includes both the iconic stadium and the adjacent Maracanãzinho arena. It is intended to be a stop-gap measure amid a tender process which is currently taking place for a long-term contract.
Discussing the suitability of the Maracanã moving forward, Landim added: “When you use Maracanã, it has an older design, an open design. It’s similar to old stadiums, where you still had a track around it. And the idea is for it to be a much more integrated stadium. An example is Real Madrid, a much more vertical stadium.”
Gasômetro is close to the Maracanã, along with Estádio São Januário, the home of Vasco da Gama, and Estádio Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima.
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