Arena Palestra Italia: the new stadium of Palmeiras
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July 27th, 2010
The President of Palmeiras (one of the most important clubs in Sao Paulo) informed that this week the club signed the contract for the building of the Arena Palestra. The contract was signed between Palmeiras and WTorre, one of the largest engineering companies in Brazil.
This stadium was not listed as one of the venues of the World Cup 2014; however, since CBF declared that Morumbi is out of the Cup, there has been undefinition about the stadium which will stage matches in in Sao Paulo – and Arena Palestra is one of the candidates.
Arena Palestra Italia will be a renovation of the current stadium Palestra Italia (Palmeiras was founded by the Italian community in Sao Paulo, with the name Palestra Italia; during the World War II, when Brazil sent troops to fight against Italy, the team was forced to change name to Palmeiras).
The capacity will increase from 28,000 to 45,000 people; according to FIFA requirements, this stadium can stage matches up to the quarter-finals of the World Cup (but won’t host the opening match).
The stadium was designed by Portuguese architect Tomas Taveira, the same who redesigned the stadiums of Sporting, Leiria and Aveiro, to be used in the Eurocup 2004 in Portugal.
The President of Palmeiras say that Arena Palestra will be the most modern stadium in Brazil.
The estimated cost is R$ 300 million (about US$ 170 million); WTorre is to find funding for the project. According to the contract, Palmeiras will keep all the proceedings from matches staged in the Arena; WTorre will have, for 30 years, other revenues sources, such as shows, rentals, the restaurant, etc – of which they will still pass between 5 and 20% to Palmeiras.
The new Stadium should be ready by the end of 2012.
Ironically, the stadium which is not under scrutiny by FIFA and CBF and doesn’t depend on public money is the one which seems to be more prepared to host the World Cup 2014.
See more images and videos of Arena Palestra (registration required).
