Rio de Janeiro and Niterói estimate at R $ 3.8 billion the expense of holding the Pan American Games of 2031. Cities will formalize joint candidacy for the event by the 30th.
The amount refers to the cost of operating the games with suppliers, logistics and marketing. This budget does not include urban infrastructure works, such as Metro Line 3 and VLT expansion, also promised as a legacy.
The application dossier, obtained by Sheetalso does not indicate the sources of resources for the cost of competitions. Event organizing committees raise private funds with sponsorship and ticket sales, but often need public resources as a complement.
The document displays a letter from President Lula. He states that the federal government, “in addition to ensuring financial support, ensures that all the structures of its administration will work intensively to organize, promote and perform and celebrate the 21st Pan American Games 2031”.
Pan-07, held in Rio de Janeiro, has debts pending to this day. The 2016 Olympics Organizing Committee, also in Rio, was funded with private funds, but needed emergency help from the International Olympic Committee) to close debts with suppliers after the three levels of government were refused to cover the breach left by the event.
The PAN-2031 candidacy dossier, still on completion, should be delivered until April 30 to Panam Sports, responsible for defining the headquarters. In addition to Brazilian cities, Asuncion (Paraguay) expressed interest in hosting the event.
The general plan of the candidacy is similar to that of the 2016 Olympics, with four large competition areas in Rio de Janeiro: Barra da Tijuca (where the Olympic Park), Copacabana, Deodoro and Maracanã (now called the Port Zone, due to the location of the new village of Athletes).
The difference is the presence of competition sites in Niterói. The city will host the surfing disputes, beach back, candle, 3×3 basketball, handball, sports climbing, skiing, karate, weight lifting, fights, skating, basque pellet, racketball, rugby, squash, archery and triathlon.
The project foresees the reuse of most of the structures that remained from the 2016 Games. The only new works for competitions are the Acoustic Shell Sports Arena (already under construction) and a convention center on the Niemeyer path, both in Niterói.
According to the dossier, the two new competition places “have a solid business plan that guarantees long -term sustainability for sports development and community participation.”
The renovation of the Caio Martins Gymnasium is also planned. There will also be temporary arenas in some areas, such as Deodoro, where this has already occurred in 2016. The other facilities will be the existing ones.
The main urban legacies promised in the document are the construction of the subway line 3, linking Rio de Janeiro to Niterói, and the depollution of Guanabara Bay, promise not fulfilled for the 2016 Olympics.
Metro line 3 is already registered as a project to be supported by the new PAC (Growth Acceleration Program), the Federal Government. However, it still depends on the completion of the project to be bid by the state government.
The end of the sewage eviction in Guanabara Bay is expected to end 2026, according to the basic sanitation concession agreement signed in 2021. However, delay in project analysis indicates that there will be a new postponement of promise fulfillment, repeated more than 40 years ago.
The application dossier promises to expand the VLT network and the conversion of bus corridors built to the Olympics to the rail system. It also states that there will be new boats using clean energy and electric buses for public transport.
The two cities of Rio de Janeiro were approved as postulants from the country in the dispute at the meeting of the COB (Olympic Committee of Brazil) held in January. They received the support of 48 of the 50 voters – there is a opposite vote and one blank, in secret vote – after São Paulo gave up receiving the event.
The Pan-2031 dispute restarts a cycle in Rio de Janeiro that began in the 1990s with the city’s failed candidacy to host the 2004 Olympics. Subsequently, the municipality received the Pan-2007, lost the dispute for the 2012 Olympic Games and won the fight for 2016.
