Flamengo secures land for new stadium

Image: Rio City Hall

Brazilian football club CR Flamengo has submitted a winning bid to secure land at the Gasômetro site in Rio de Janeiro for its new stadium.

AZ Score said Flamengo was the only club to make a bid and secured the land at the minimum offer of R$138.195m (£19.9m/€23.54m/$25.49m). Flamengo can now kick-start its plans to construct its own stadium.

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.

The club plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top of the Brazilian football league system. They are one of two clubs to have never been relegated from the top division.

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.

The 73,139-capacity Maracanã Stadium, officially named the Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho or Journalist Mario Filho Stadium, is an association football stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It serves as the residence of CR Flamengo and the Fluminense Football Club. 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.

In an interview with the club’s website, President Rodolfo Landim commented on the new chapter being written in Flamengo’s history.

He said, “We are happy, but more relieved because we know the responsibility that comes with working to fulfill the dreams of so many people. We understand the positive impact such news can have on our supporters. Being the football club with the largest fan base and the greatest passion in the country, the sky’s the limit.”

Rio’s Mayor, Eduardo Paes, was also present at the event, alongside key figures in the club’s hierarchy, including General Vice-President Rodrio Dunshee, Vice-President of Heritage Marcos Bodin, and Marcos Braz, the official responsible for the club’s football operations.

Paes praised the step taken by the board and stated that the stadium’s construction would be a significant advancement for football in the State of Rio de Janeiro.

He added, “A stadium for Flamengo is beneficial for the city. We are making a fundamental urban transformation for Rio. From the beginning, we aimed to bring iconic facilities to the area, and this stadium will be very good for the city, attracting investments and improvements.”

Braz said, “Without fear of being wrong, the president has twice won the Libertadores, twice the Brasileirão, the Copa do Brasil, the Recopa, as well as the World title, but the most important title of his administration is this one. It’s a feeling of duty fulfilled by this management. We will work until the end to leave Flamengo even better.”

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.

The land was expropriated by the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, in June.

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