New Maracana set to symbolise modern Brazil
Reuters - Thursday 28 July 2011, 17:22
RIO DE JANEIRO - Tourist guidebooks
describe Rio's vast Maracana Stadium as the most famous building
in South America, but at the moment a more accurate description
would be that it is the most famous building site.
According to local tourist officials, it is the second most
visited place in Brazil after the statue of Christ The Redeemer
and on a par with the Sugar Loaf mountain.
But with the 2014 World Cup and Rio's 2016 Summer Olympics
on the horizon, bulldozers, earthwork machinery, giant drilling
equipment, cranes and a concentrated battalion of construction
crew are feverishly working where once Pele and Garrincha
displayed their sublime skills.
Like those Brazilian football gods, they too are striving to
create something of memorable beauty.
The Maracana, famous for hosting the greatest crowd that
ever watched a football match for the 1950 World Cup decider
between Brazil and Uruguay is being completely transformed in
advance of the 2014 World Cup finals, the first time the World
Cup has returned to Brazil for what will be 64 years.
The stadium will also be a venue for Rio's Summer Olympics,
but unlike Wembley Stadium, the world's other great football
cathedral, which was completely demolished and rebuilt for the
modern age between 2000 and 2007, the new Maracana will be
enclosed within the outer shell of the old stadium.
Naturally, as there is with almost every stadium development
the world over, there have been delays in the process.
But as Icaro Moreno Junior, the man responsible for
overseeing the 931 million reais (US$595 million) project is
delivered on time, told Reuters: "We will be ready.
"We cannot fail. And at the same time, we want to retain
some of the past history of the Maracana, but we are also making
something new.
"It is like a pie with a new filling. It is not a simple
job, retaining something from the 1950s for the 21st century,
but I am certain the new stadium will be special for Rio, for
Brazil and for the whole world."
The Maracana holds attendance records that are unlikely ever
to be broken. Some record books put the attendance for the 1950
final between Brazil and Uruguay as 205,000, others at 199,000 - no-one was ever certain then, and they aren't now.
What is certain is that the old stadium, built in the space
of two years and first used for the 1950 finals, was a vast
bowl, which regularly held crowds of over 150,000.
Not only does it hold the world's attendance record, but it
also holds the record for a World Cup qualifying match when
162,764 saw Brazil play Colombia in 1977.
BRAND NEW
"Obviously the new capacity will be nothing like the old,
but we will have 80,000 in a brand new stadium with
state-of-the-art facilities, with a fabulous sound system,
lighting, everything you see in a modern multi-purpose stadium,"
Moreno added.
"It will be an "intelligent" building, eco-friendly with no
black spots or poor visibility for fans. Part of the challenge
is to structurally recover part of the old building, some of the
pillars which are now more than 60 years old and restore them
for the next 50 years or more.
"At the moment we have 1,600 workers, but in a few months
this will increase to 4,500 working round-the-clock, 80 per cent
at daytime, 20 percent at night.
"FIFA will be proud of this stadium for the World Cup and we
will be proud of it as Brazilians. The new stadium in a way
symbolises the new Brazil. We have many challenges to face but
we are in a very good moment.
"The Brazilian economy is strong and we have sustainable
growth, and we will show the world that not only can we win
World Cups, but we can organise them too."
The current refurbishment is the third in the last 11
years, but the previous two were not on this scale and did
little to avert the structural decline and general feeling of
neglect that enveloped the stadium for over two decades.
Alcino Rocha, the special secretary for football in the
Ministry of Sports, told reporters at a briefing at the stadium:
"In 1950 the Maracana gave the world an image of Brazil it had
never seen before and 61 years later we are creating a new
Maracana with a new image for a new Brazil.
"But the one thing we hope the new stadium will have which
the old one didn't will be to see Brazil crowned world
champions."
Brazil, in one of the great World Cup shocks, lost the 1950
title decider 2-1 to Uruguay which sent the country into a state
of national mourning.
Seeing Brazil finally erase that still-felt national
nightmare would complete the Maracana's perfect re-birth.