Sport plans to place chairs throughout Ilha do Retiro and expand capacity to 35 thousand people

The current president of Sport, Yuri Romão, revealed ambitious plans for Ilha do Retiro. With renovations taking place since the beginning of the year to replace the pitch and all electrical parts, the Arena de Pernambuco has been Leão’s temporary home. This Tuesday (23), in an interview with the Léo Medrado e Traíras channel, the The red-black representative revealed that the club is organizing itself to place retractable chairs and coverings in all sectors of the stadium. In the new proposal, it is also planned to create new boxes above the front bleachers, which would increase the capacity to 35 thousand people. Today it is 32,983, but there is only authorization for 26,418 fans.

“We are not yet carrying out structural reforms. We are processing it and have already presented our project to three City Hall bodies. We are preparing the executive project to be submitted to the competent body (CCU) for approval”, he begins.

“We are going to line it up, put in boxes and the idea is to close the entire stadium with this screen that is used in more modern stadiums. The increase is not that significant from the public’s point of view, but in terms of comfort”, adds Yuri Romão.

Another idea from Sport is to re-allocate the visiting fans in the so-called “curvinha”. Today the opponents have all the toboggan on the scoreboard, but they hardly fill the place, meaning that Leão has less attendance. To do this, however, the club will need to increase the number of exits available to receive approval from the Fire Department.

According to Yuri, the Red and Blacks should return to play on Ilha do Retiro in July, if the weather cooperates. This period is known for heavy rains in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, which can postpone return planning. However, none of this will be an impediment to the broader reform scheduled to come to fruition next year.

“We need to approve it at city hall to have the permit. I have a meeting today with the company that will do the financial modeling, so we can see how this will go. This year I will have everything ready to start when the time comes”, he concluded.