World Cup Brazil 2014

The contract for reconstrucion of Maracana will be the biggest for the World Cup 2014: the estimated cost is R$ 720 million (about US$ 400 million).

The State of Rio, owner of Maracanã, informed yesterday that one company and five consortiums will participate of the bidding process to take the contract. These consortiums paid 1% of the estimated total cost (i.e., about U$ 4 million) just to have the right to present their bids.

As expected, all major Brazilian companies will be participating of this process; these companies are the same ones which will be building or rebuilding the other stadiums of the World Cup 2014.

The company bidding alone is OAS.

The Consortiums are:

Consortium Brasil 2014: Sanerio, BA Engenharia e Meio Ambiente and Hexagonal Construções.
Consortium Construcap-Cetenco-Convap Maracanã: Construcap-CCPS Engenharia, Cetenco and Convap.
Consortium Novo Maracanã: Queiroz Galvão, Carioca Christiani-Nielsen.
Consortium Novo Maracanã Paulitec-Estacon-Recoma: Paulitec, Estacon Engenharia and Recoma.
Consortium Maracanã Rio 2014: Andrade Gutierrez, Odebrecht and Delta.

The biggest civil engineering companies in Brazil are: OAS, Queiroz Galvão, Andrade Gutierrez and Odebrecht.

These companies operate most major civil works in Brazil (roads and bridges, public buildings, hydroelectric plants, etc), they have contracts in several countries (particularly Latin America and Africa).

These companies will certainly get contracts not only to rebuild the stadiums, but to work in all major infrastructure work for the World Cup 2014: airports, ports, new roads, etc. Update, July 22nd: Andrade Gutierrez and Via Engenharia have just won a contract to rebuild the Brasilia Stadium, the second most expensive project for 2014.

The President Lula recently issued a Provisional Law reducing bureaucracy to build airports, but such Law doesn’t benefit Stadiums. So, the bidding process will to have to go through several steps, and it will take at least a couple of weeks for the process to finish and the contractor to be known.

Maracanã was built to host the most important matches of the 1950 World Cup; unfortunately, the stadium also staged Maracanazo, the winning of Uruguay against Brazil in the final match.

Below, an image of Maracanã in 1950; as shown, the Brazilians attended matches in the stadium even before it was completely ready. Original capacity of Maracanã was 166,369, and current is 114,145.

Maracanã is a name of Indigenous origin. Maraca is a rustic musical instrument (basically, small stones in empty coconut shelves, which produce sounds when shaken) used by the indigenous. Maracanã means “sounds like maraca”, which was given by the Indigenous to a small river which runs across the area, from there to the neighbourhood, and from the neighbourhood to the stadium.

The official name of Maracanã is Mário Filho, a journalist who was very vocal in supporting the  building of the stadium.

Maracanazo is just one of the reasons why Maracanã will be the stage of the the final match of the 2014 World Cup; other cities – namely Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte – are disputing the right to stage the opening match, but nobody in Brazil dares to consider a place other than Maracanã for the final.

Other reasons for the uncontested supremacy of Maracanã are: gathered the biggest crowd ever for a football match (nearly 200,000 people in the final of the 1950 Cup); gathered the largest audience for an artistic show (Paul McCartney, 1991, 184,368 people – not to be confused with the largest rock concert of all times, performed by the Rolling Stones in the nearby Copacabana beach to 2,000,000 people in 2006); historical performances by Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, Madonna, Prince, the Stones; historical meetings called by Pope John Paul II; several of the most memorable matches of Brazilian football (including Pele’s 1000th goal).

Below, an image of Maracanã today. The arena is Maracanãzinho (little Maracanã), used for indoor sports. The swimming pool is Aquatic Park Julio Delamare, which used to be the most important venue for aquatic sports, but no longer  - a new complex called Maria Lenk replaced it (there are discussions about whether or not Julio Delamare should be demolished for the expansion of Maracanã).

The new Maracanã will have the capacity reduced to 90,000 people. Below, an artistic image of new Maracanã, produced by the architects hired by the government of Rio to prepare to project to be presented to FIFA.

Below, an image of the neighbourhood of new Maracanã. The stadium is situated in a populated area of Rio, and building the  infrastructure of access to and dispersion from the stadium will be a major challenge.

In the project below, catwalks (in orange) will be built linking the stadium to a large train station to be built; besides, the stretch of railway near the stadium will be roofed, and parking spaces will be built on those roofs.

Despite all challenges, it is certain that CBF, FIFA and Rio will do all they can to prepare Maracanã to justify the status of main temple of football in 2014.

There are few doubts that Maracanã will be the stage of the final match of the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. São Paulo, the most powerful Brazilian State (both in economic and sports terms) is claiming to have the right to stage the opening match of the Cup (in a fierce competition with Brasilia and Belo Horizonte), but nobody dares to claim the final match from Rio and Maracanã.

Yesterday, Flamengo (the most popular team in the World, measured by number of fans) and Goias had a match; Flamengo had a chance to take the leadership of the Brazilian League 2009 (the match ended 0 x 0, Flamengo missed this chance, but is just one point behind leader Sao Paulo FC).

The match was in Maracanã, the largest stadium in Brazil, the largest football stadium in the World. The match was attended by (official numbers, lower than real numbers, as many people get in unregistered) 83,489 people.

This figure is far from the record attendance of nearly 200,000 people in the final of the 1950 World Cup; however, as security measures oblige stadium to decrease capacity, it is unlikely that any other stadium in the World will see such big crowd in the near future.

The biggest attraction of the match were not the players or the goals; it was the crowd. Flamengo is not only the biggest, but also the most passionate supporting crowd in Brazil. After several years (last time was in 1992), Flamengo has strong chances to become the Brazilian champion.

To mark the event, Flamengo’s fans created the largest human mosaic of all times. See below.

The human mosaic reads, against a background with the colors of Flamengo, the message: “A Maior Torcida do Mundo Faz a Diferença” (The Biggest Supporting Crowd in the World Makes the Difference).

Flamengo will play again in Maracanã on December 6th, against Grêmio (another ex-Brazilian and World champion), and the match may be deciding the Brazilian championship. Another big party is expected.