Featured image credit: Rio City Hall
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A football club Flamengo has been given the go-ahead to participate in an auction for a package of land which it intends to use to build a new stadium.
Yesterday (Monday), Flamengo’s Deliberative Council approved the club’s proposal to take part in the auction, which is scheduled for tomorrow. The proposal passed with a majority as 602 councillors voted in favour.
Earlier this month, the City of Rio de Janeiro scheduled the auction for the package of land, with the minimum bidding price having been set at R$138.195m (£19.1m/€22.7m/$24.6m). Flamengo is not the only interested party, although the club is in the box seat to secure it.
The City last month said it would expropriate land for the project. The site formerly housed the São Cristóvão Gasômetro and has been managed by financial services group Caixa Econômica Federal since 2009. Flamengo expressed an interest in taking over the 86,000-square-metre site back in 2022.
Flamengo is seeking to build an 80,000-seat stadium on the site but has faced obstacles in recent years as negotiations with the state-owned institution did not progress. However, the talks have been progressed by Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, who is a fan of Flamengo’s rivals Vasco da Gama.
The winner of the auction will be required to present a final project within 18 months of signing the purchase and sale agreement, and then complete the stadium itself within three years.
Flamengo president Rodolfo Landim said: “The overwhelming approval we received here demonstrates how important this stadium is to us. I have no doubt that this will be a great achievement for Flamengo.
“A united Flamengo, as we saw here, makes all the difference and is unbeatable. Now we hope to win the auction; for now, we only have the authorisation. Then, once we get the land, we will have to do several studies, and there is still a long way to go. But this is the first step.”
Flamengo has played at the Estadio de Maracanã since it was constructed in 1950. Last month, the Rio de Janeiro State Government confirmed that a consortium formed by Flamengo and Fluminense had been awarded a contract to manage the stadium for the next 20 years.
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