Face-Lift for Rio’s Maracana Stadium Which
Will Host World Cup and Olympics
RIO DE JANEIRO - Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana
Stadium, which is due to stage the opening
and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics
as well as the 2014 World Cup final, is to
get a 300 million US dollars face-lift,
announced the city’s Secretary of Sports and
Tourism.
The work on the iconic stadium, the largest
in the world when it was inaugurated in 1950
for the World Cup, is planned to be
completed by December 2012.
Marcia Lins Lins said: "The start of
renovation work at the stadium is planned
for March 2010 but it will only close
completely in September."
The Maracana is classified as an historic
monument so the facade will be maintained
but a roof will be added to the five-storey
oval stadium.
Originally built to hold 200,000, the
present capacity will be reduced from 87,000
to 82,000 at the recommendation of FIFA,
football's world governing body who are
overseeing preparations for the 2014 World
Cup.
Lins said: "Before, stadiums were
practically just large pitches but today
they are multi-disciplined arenas."
The renovation to the stadium, which will
also host the finals of the Olympic football
tournament in 2016, includes upgraded
changing rooms, a new area for the media,
new seats, toilets and restaurants while the
northern area of the city has also been
earmarked for regeneration.
The stadium, named after the region it is
located in, was originally built in only two
years after Brazil were awarded the 1950
World Cup, although several aspects were
left uncompleted, including the toilet and
press facilities.
The attendance for the final game of that
tournament was officially 199,854, with the
actual attendance estimated to be about
210,000.
Due to the schedule for that World Cup,
there was no final match that year.
But Brazil faced Uruguay in the last match
of the tournament, needing only a draw to
finish top of the group, but Uruguay won the
game 2-1, shocking the thousands who
attended the game.
It is an event that remains deeply burnt
into the psyche of many Brazilians.
The stadium was finally fully completed in
1965 and has continued to be the scene for
several historic football moments, including
the 1,000th goal of Pele's career in 1969,
and some non-football ones, such as Paul
McCartney playing to a world record crowd of
180,000 there in 1990.
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