DEVELOPMENT-BRAZIL: Privatizing a Landmark

By Fabiana Frayssinet Reprint | | Print |

Fabiana Frayssinet

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 19 1996 (IPS) - The privatization process in Brazil will score a spectacular breakthrough when the state of Rio de Janeiro, leases its Maracana Sport Complex, which includes the city’s world-famous soccer football stadium.

The state will collect bids next month in response to proposals which stipulate a 30-year concession to administer the complex, which includes a track and field stadium, a water sport complex and a smaller stadium known as “Maracanazinho.”

The company which ends up managing the complex could rent the Maracana stadium which, when built, could accommodate 180,000. Now, due to security concerns, the stadium capacity has been reduced to 120,000.

According to a Maracana spokesman, the soccer stadium will generate between six and seven million dollars in 1996 between advertising, concessions and a percentage of ticket sales.

Soccer matches between the two most popular teams, Flamingo and Fluminense grosses de Rio de Janeiro Sports Authority (Suderj) around 120,000 dollars. Suderj spends approximately 10 million dollars a year maintaining the complex.

Raul Raposo, president of Suderj, said his office didn’t have the funds needed to bring the stadium, which was built for the 1950 World Cup, up to current world soccer standards.

Deteriorated facilities, lack of security and computerization, are some of the things that have made the stadium almost obsolete. “We don’t have any alternative,” lamented Raposo in an interview with IPS about the forthcoming privatization.

“If we don’t make the needed investments,” the stadium will have to close, and the Maracana would no longer be a soccer stadium, but “a post card, some prehistoric structure.” The alternative is to “allow it to be administered by the private sector,” he added.

According to Suderj, the company that gets the contract will most likely have to invest between 60 and 70 million dollars in a three year span, to modernize the complex.

In case the contractor doesn’t live up to this agreement the state government could take over the complex, stated Maracana spokesman Guilherme Pereyra.

The reason this is being done so quickly is that Rio de Janeiro has submitted its name as a contender to host the 2004 Olympics. The city needs to plan to put in place the infrastructure demanded by an event of that magnitude.

Sports teams, communication companies, and religious groups will be excluded from the process. However, foreign companies may participate.

The reason for these limitations is to protect the Maracana as a “democratic venue,” in which such diverse events such as a Pope John Paul II mass and a Madonna concert have taken place, said Raposo.

The Maracana Museum is known for these and other moments considered memorable by Brazilians. Like that day in 1950 when the Brazilian national team lost the World Cup to Uruguay, before 183,000 people in the stands.

To Isaias Ambrosio, who helped build the stadium and know is a tour guide there, the Maracana is much more than its 195,600 square meters of cement and grass.

“It’s like a cathedral,” says Ambrosio, who defines himself as a man with “an Israeli name, Italian last name, Brazilian nationality, African color, Portuguese language, and Argentinean heart.”

The modernization efforts will include the building of new shopping centers, movie theaters, and recreational areas. However, to protect the symbolism of the stadium, its facade should be protected. This is part of the Rio panorama along with other icons, like the gigantic statue of Christ that overlooks the city.

“The Maracana is a national passion,” affirmed Roberto Araujo, 52, of Sao Paulo who, like most Brazilians visiting here made a trip to the stadium a must. “It’s the best stadium in the world – it’s our national pride!”