Rodolfo Landimpresident of Flamengogave an interview to “GE” and talked about the Rio team’s dream stadium. Rubro-Negro’s representative said that the club’s new home should be in vertical stylesimilar to Santiago Bernabéustadium Real Madridand have capacity for 80 thousand people.
“When you use Maracanã, it has an older design, an open design. It’s similar to old stadiums, where you still had a track around it. And the idea is for it to be a much more integrated stadium. An example is Real Madrid, a much more vertical stadium.”
“All of this has already been thought out. When it was tested, it was tested for a capacity of 80 thousand people, but of course all this took into account some expectations in relation to exit space demands, for example, to comply with Fire Department legislation and a series of things . Even taking all this into consideration, a stadium of 80,000 would fit, it would be a much more vertical arena.”
The location to be chosen for the construction of the stadium should be the Gasometer region, in Rio de Janeiro. The land, which belongs to a fund managed by Caixa Econômica Federalhas an area of 87 thousand square meters.
“Yes, it is (possible to place a stadium with 80 thousand people in an area of 87 thousand m²). We have already created a preliminary project for the placement of this stadium. It would still give us the chance to create a large square in front. Around this square, we could put a series of restaurants, spots and so on.”
“In this square, we could even put up big screens for those who don’t have the means to go to the big games or for those who can’t get a ticket,” explained Landim, who said he was confident in the possibility of acquiring the land by December of this year.
“I believe so, I don’t see why we can’t do this by then. This isn’t just Flamengo, right? It involves the holder of the land, you convincing the holder of this land that currently belongs to a fund that is managed by Caixa Econômica Federal that this is a good deal for them”.
“So this will depend on negotiations and the will of third parties, but what we want to show is that this all makes perfect sense.” For the club, the cost of building the stadium ranges from R$1.5 to R$2 billion.
Despite the optimism, Flamengo’s president made it clear that the entire process was “not short-term” and stipulated a period of five years between all stages until the construction of the stadium was completed.
“What we have to understand is the following: making the stadium viable for Flamengo is not a short-term thing, it is a medium-term project.”
“So, if you consider the licensing time, construction time and structuring of all of this, we are talking about a project lasting five years. So the first five years of this Maracanã concession would already be used”, he explained.
