Corinthians home expansion may reap rewards

Article posted by Coliseum, February 27^th, 2025

Image: Arena Corinthians, Leonardo Lourenço/Portal da Copa, CC BY-SA 3.0

The Brazilian professional football club – the Sport Club Corinthians Paulista – recently revealed an increase in the capacity of their home ground – the Neo Química Arena in São Paulo, Brazil – thus allowing the venue to accommodate 48,905 spectators for the football matches starting this season.

‘AZSCORE’ stated that the above expansion follows a new safety report issued by the Military Police (the uniformed preventive State Police of the States and of the Federal District of Brazil) which has authorized the addition of 1,060 more fans during the Corinthians’ games.

The Corinthians are hoping that the above capacity rise will help in generating more revenue.

The Sport Club Corinthians Paulista is a Brazilian professional sports club based in São Paulo in the district of Tatuapé (Brazil). The club is best known for its professional men’s football team which plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top tier of Brazilian football.

The Arena Corinthians, also known as the Neo Química Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a sports stadium located in São Paulo, Brazil. It is owned, operated and used by the Corinthians. It has a seating capacity of 48,905 making it the fifth-largest stadium in the top tier of the Brazilian League and the 13th-largest stadium in Brazil.

‘AZSCORE’ further stated that the capacity rise was accomplished without any alterations to the stadium structure per se. While no changes were made to the Upper East Stand the VIP Box area saw 462 new seats installed.

Two hundred and twelve (212) additional seats were added to the South Stand while 203 seats were added to the Lower West Stands.

Eighty-three seats were added to the North Stand and 50 seats each were added to the Upper West and Lower East Stands.

The capacity rise will enable the Corinthians to cater to a larger fan base per match. If the club matches the number of games played at the Neo Química Arena last year the expansion effected could result in 37,100 additional tickets sold.

Moreover, if the ticket prices remain consistent with the average seen during the 2024 Brasileirão season (read Campeonato Brasileiro Série A) the capacity rise may generate over R$ 2.1 million in revenue for the club.

Recently, the Neo Química Arena set a record attendance during a match between the Corinthians and their peer team the Santos FC with 48,169 fans present for the 2025 Paulistão (São Paulo’s top professional football league clash). With the capacity rise this record is likely to be surpassed soon.

The above record attendance pertains strictly to matches involving the Corinthians. The Neo Química Arena saw the highest overall attendance during the 2014 World Cup Semifinal between the Netherlands and Argentina which drew a crowd of 63,267 due to temporary seating in place at the time.

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