Estádio do Maracanã

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Maracanã

Full name	Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho
Nickname	Maraca
Built	1950
Opened	June 16, 1950
Capacity	105,000 all-seated (originally 180,000)
Home of	Botafogo Flamengo Fluminense
Pitch size	110 x 75 m

The Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, commonly called Estádio do Maracanã ("Maracanã stadium"), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is one of the largest football stadiums in the world. Owned by the government, it is named after the Maracanã neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. It was opened in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup. Since then, it has mainly been used for football matches between the biggest football clubs in Rio de Janeiro, including Flamengo, Botafogo, Fluminense and Vasco da Gama. It has also hosted a number of concerts and other sporting events. The stadium currently seats 97,000 spectators.

1 History
2 Non-footballing events
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Construction

After winning the right to host the 1950 FIFA World Cup, the Brazilian government sought to build a new stadium for the tournament. The plans for the stadium were drawn up by two Brazilian architects, Raphaël Galvão and Pedro Paulo Bernardes Bastos. The first stone was laid at the site of the stadium on August 2, 1948.^[1] With the first World Cup game scheduled to be played on June 24, 1950, this left little under two years to finish building. However, work quickly fell behind schedule, prompting FIFA to send Dr. Ottorino Barassi, the head of the Italian FA, who had organized the 1934 World Cup to help in Rio de Janeiro.

The stadium in between events.

[edit] Opening

The opening match of the stadium took place on June 16, 1950. Rio de Janeiro All-Stars beat São Paulo All-Stars 3-1; Didi became the player to score the first ever goal at the stadium.^[2] Despite hosting a match, the stadium was still unfinished. It lacked toilet facilities and a press stand, and still looked like a building site. It was said that the stadium could house 200,000 standing spectators, making it easily the largest stadium in the world at the time. Despite being unfinished, FIFA allowed matches to be played at the venue, and on June 24, 1950, the first World Cup match took place. Brazil beat Mexico with a final score 4-0, with Ademir becoming the first scorer of a competitive goal at the stadium with his 30th minute strike. 81,000 spectators attended the game. Eventually, Brazil progressed to the final round, facing Uruguay in the final match of the tournament on July 16, 1950. Brazil only needed a draw to finish top of the group, but Uruguay won the game 2-1, shocking the thousands who attended the game. This match has since been known as the "Maracanaço" (or in Spanish, "Maracanazo"). The official attendance of the game was 173,830, with the actual attendance estimated to be about 210,000.^[3]^[4]

[edit] Post World Cup years

The Maracanã stadium hosts a Rio derby between Botafogo and Vasco

On March 21, 1954 a new official attendance record was set in the game between Brazil and Paraguay, after 183,513 spectators entered the stadium with a ticket. In 1963, stadium authorities replaced the square goal posts with round ones, but it was still two years before the stadium would be fully completed. In 1965, 17 years after construction began, the stadium was finally finished.

Since the World Cup left Brazil in 1950, the Maracanã Stadium has mainly been used for club games involving the three big football clubs in Rio— Botafogo, Flamengo and Fluminese. The derby game between Flamengo and Fluminense is famously dubbed the Fla-Flu. The stadium has also hosted numerous domestic football cup finals, most notably the Copa do Brasil and the Campeonato Carioca.

In 1966, Mario Filho, a Brazilian sports figure, died, leading to the administrators of the stadium renaming the stadium after him to Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho. However, the nickname of Maracanã continued to be used. Mario Filho was a prominent campaigner who was largely responsible for the stadium originally being built. In 1969, Pelé scored the 1,000th goal of his career at the Maracanã against Vasco in front of 125,000 spectators. In 1989, Zico scored his final goal for Flamengo at the Maracanã, taking his goal tally at the stadium to 333. This record still stands today.

[edit] Modern day

On July 19, 1992, an upper stand in the stadium collapsed, leading to the death of three supporters and 50 more being injured.^[5] Following the disaster, the stadium's capacity was greatly reduced as it was converted to an all-seater stadium in the late 1990s. Despite this, the ground was classified as real estate in 1998, meaning that it could not be demolished. The stadium hosted the first ever FIFA Club World Cup final match between Vasco da Gama and Corinthians, which Corinthians won on penalties.

Following its 50th anniversary in 2000, the stadium underwent renovations which would increase its full capacity to around 103,000. After years of planning and nine months of closure between 2005 and 2006, the stadium was reopened in January 2007 with its all-seated capacity to 97,000.

[edit] Non-footballing events

The stadium has been host to other famous celebrity visits. In 1952, an exhibition basketball match took place, involving the Harlem Globetrotters. Pope John Paul II has also visited the stadium; blessing everyone in the crowd. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the stadium, on January 26, 1981, Frank Sinatra played to a then world-record crowd of 175,000, prior to a friendly Brazil football match against The USSR. Other notable musicians to perform at the stadium include Kiss, Sting, Paul McCartney, Madonna and The Rolling Stones. 1983 even saw a volleyball match between Brazil and The USSR played at the ground.

In 1988, Tina Turner's "Break Every Rule" show, set a world-record by drawing a crowd of 182,000 to the stadium for a single-night Rock & Roll show by a single performer. Three years later in 1991, another record was broken as Norwegian group A-ha set a world-record in the Maracanã by drawing a crowd of 198,000; the largest ever paying audience by a single band.

Madonna performed her Girlie Show Tour at the stadium in 1993 and had a show scheduled in 2006 as part of the Confessions Tour that was canceled later.