Flamengo ‘phew! moment’ over new venue plans

Image: Maracanã Stadium, Adam Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0

The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A team CR Flamengo is almost having the last laugh when it comes to building its own home venue as the financial services group Caixa Econômica Federal has agreed not to proceed with legal action over the sale of the Gasômetro site.

The top-flight plans to open its new home ground by the year 2029.

‘gazetadourubu.com’ stated that the above site was owned by the Porto Maravilha Real Estate Investment Fund (FII PM) and was managed by Caixa.

The Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multisports club based in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in the neighborhood of Gávea best known for their professional football team which has never been relegated from the top division. It plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top of the Brazilian football league system. Flamengo is the most popular team in Brazil with more than 46.9 million fans equivalent to 21.9 percent of the population that supports a team in Brazil.

The 73,139-capacity Maracanã Stadium, officially named the Jornalist Mário Filho Stadium, is an association football stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It serves as the home field of the CR Flamengo and the Fluminense Football Club which also plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. Owned by the Rio de Janeiro State Government, the stadium is now managed by the clubs Fluminense and Flamengo. It is located in the Maracanã neighborhood, named after the Rio Maracanã, a now canalized river in Rio de Janeiro.

The Caixa Econômica Federal, also referred to as Caixa, is a State-owned Brazilian financial services company headquartered in Brasília, Brazil. It is the fourth largest banking institution in Brazil as well as the fourth largest in Latin America and the 83rd largest bank in the world.

The Gasômetro site in Rio de Janeiro is a former coal-fired power plant built in the late 1920s. The site is located on the banks of the Guaíba River and features a 350-foot brick smokestack, theaters, meeting rooms, and exhibit spaces. The site has been managed by the Brazilian financial services company Caixa since 2009.

‘gazetadourubu.com’ further stated that recently, a meeting was held at the Rio de Janeiro City Hall which was attended by the President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes and the Caixa President Carlos Vieira, apart from several other senior officials. In the meeting, it was decided to bury the hatchet over the Caixa legal action issue and allow Flamengo’s venue project to begin.

Officials from the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Office and the Ministry of Management and Innovation (MGI) were present. The next meeting is scheduled to take place in the coming weeks.

Talks were also held between representatives of Flamengo and Caixa to sell the above site to the former directly. But the ‘Rubro-Negro’ and Caixa could not reach an agreement over the value of the location.

In July-end, an auction was held and the ‘Rubro-Negro’ purchased the land for R$138 million. The Rio club does not yet have a project report ready but it intends to build a stadium with a capacity to accommodate circa 70,000 spectators.

Rodolfo Landim, President of CR Flamengo, had said back in May that he envisions a vertical design facility for the Flamengo similar to the 81,044-capacity Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain, and the 81,365-capacity Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany.

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