There were three days left until the first round of the municipal elections when federal deputy Pedro Paulo (PSD) and the municipal secretary of Sports of Rio de Janeiro, Guilherme Schleder, dressed in Flamengo shirts, handed over a key to the Gasometer, in the center of the city. symbolic for the club president, Rodolfo Landim.
The event on October 3rd was the formalization of possession of the land by the red-black association, which plans to build a stadium there for around 79 thousand people, a project taken over by Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) in an election year.
The ceremony was the end of a triple journey for the mayor, who would be re-elected. In addition to the campaign and mandate commitments, he went to Brasília at least twice to talk to President Lula (PT) about the stadium.
At the meeting where the project was presented, Lula, according to people present, was not convinced at first, but accepted arguments about the urban transformation of the port region. The president participated in the event to formalize the inauguration agreement via videoconference.
Lula’s role was to lead the conciliation with Caixa Econômica Federal, the former owner of the land. The AGU (Attorney General of the Union) and Minister Esther Dweck (Management and Innovation) also participated in the negotiations.
Paes celebrated the agreement during the campaign. His main opponent, Alexandre Ramagem (PL), called the transfer a “political gain in an election year”.
The stadium plan could also be successful for Landim, who concludes his term as president of Flamengo in December. Since 2019 in office, he has been trying to elect the current vice-president, Rodrigo Dunshee de Abranches.
In the negotiations, Flamengo did not present an economic or engineering plan. The project is being developed by a stadium architecture company.
With around 86,000 square meters, the Gasologista site, in São Cristóvão, is shaped like a pentagon and is close to Rio’s main bus station, Avenida Brasil and the Rio-Niterói bridge. It is also next to the Gentileza intermodal terminal, opened this year.
Until 2005, the former CEG (State Gas Company) stored the city’s manufactured gas on site. Empty after the transition to natural gas, the land passed to the Caixa Econômica Federal Real Estate Fund and, in 2022, aroused the interest of Flamengo.
Landim and Carlos Vieira, president of Caixa, sat down to talk, but never reached a consensus on values or objectives — Caixa expected to negotiate the area with the real estate market.
This year, Pedro Paulo, already considered Flamengo’s political godfather in the idea of the stadium, joined Paes in the battle for the land.
The mayor’s allies admitted the political calculation of garnering sympathy from red and black people in an election year. Pedro Paulo said that the election speeded up the process, but that there were no problems.
“When you use the electoral calendar for good, so that projects get off the ground, I don’t see it as a problem, but as an advantage. If there was political interest from the mayor and the president in doing this before the election, the city was the winner” , he stated.
Behind the scenes, some allies compare the situation with the demolition of the Perimetral viaduct in 2013. The Gasologista stadium would be a landmark in Paes’ fourth term. Pedro Paulo disagrees.
“They are different. The stadium is an equipment that boosts the region, but it is privately built.”
In June, Paes announced the expropriation of the land and the auction.
Caixa questioned the value of the land in court, but the auction took place. Flamengo, the only participant, bid R$138.1 million and won the area. With an additional R$7.9 million determined after a judicial review and R$23.9 million in supplements to be paid to the bank, the club will have to pay around R$170 million.
Lawyers filed class action lawsuits. The main argument is that the land belonged to the Caixa Real Estate Fund, which, despite having a different legal personality, had the bank as an exclusive shareholder. The municipality would be overriding the Union, according to lawyers.
One of them, Vinicius Monte Custódio, was dismissed by governor Cláudio Castro (PL) due to popular action. Legal advisor to a secretariat, Custódio was fired for advocating against institutions. The lawyer argues that the statute of the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) differs from Castro’s understanding.
After the agreement reached by Lula, Caixa suspended legal actions and treats the case as closed.
Internally, members of Flamengo’s legal team understand that popular actions pose a low risk for a possible embargo on the work.
The next step will be to send a bill to the Chamber to authorize the transfer of construction potential, an urban planning tool to finance construction. In parallel, the club must decontaminate the ground.
Another challenge is financing. Flamengo is studying the sale of “naming rights”, a modality in which a company pays to name the stadium. A section of the board, however, argues that the club has its own resources to finance the construction, estimated at between R$1.5 billion and R$2 billion.
In addition to Gasometer, Flamengo will manage Maracanã with Fluminense. The duo won the bid for the next 20 years.
Shared management will coincide with the construction of the new stadium, which could make Maracanã, in practice, a Fluminense arena.
Flamengo directors state that one of the plans to occupy Maracanã is to use it for important youth and women’s football games, in addition to hosting concerts.
The bid, however, determines at least 25 official dates for men’s football, 75% of which include the Brazilian Championship and Copa do Brasil.
Severiano Braga, CEO of Maracanã, does not see a risk of underutilization of the stadium.
“There is a contract signed between the two clubs with the state government to honor the number of games planned per year. The possibility of shows only applies after the end of the football season and before the lawn maintenance scheduled annually.”
