Host cities: Brasília
04 Sep, 2013
READ IN ENGLISH BELOW / LEIA EM PORTUGUÊS AQUI
by Welligton Medeiros
Translated by Harriet Batey
This month we are giving a brief introduction to Brasília as a host city for the World Cup 2014, in going through the cities in alphabetical order we should start with Belo Horizonte, but instead a series of events dedicated to the Minero city will be presented in September. So we decided to start with Brasília and present Belo Horizonte in September.
Made up of people from all corners of the country, the Brazilian capital has a rich cultural and gastronomic mix, as well as being the third richest city in the country. Declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, the city ‘opened’ in 1960, was designed by the architect Lúcio Costa, with buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer.
Challenges for the Federal Capital
Brasília’s first challenge is in viably maintaining the new Mané Garrincha Stadium (named after the Brazilian idol and winner in both 1958 and 1962 World Cups) after the tournament. The capital does not have sufficient sporting potential to maintain the new space only via money made from local football teams, given that Brasília does not have any of the country’s great teams. The most viable alternative is to adapt the development to also host concerts and other large-scale entertainment events, which already make up part of day to day Brasília. However, the new 73,000 capacity arena must be flexible in receiving various types of events. Another issue is preparing the city to host major international conferences, with more than 5,000 participants, requiring new event spaces with the communication and data infrastructure necessary for this type of activity. The city already has a dynamic hotel complex which could benefit from this type of tourism after the tournament.
Public opinion on Brasília and the Mané Garrincha Stadium
Brasília is not a well liked city for most Brazilians firstly because of its history and being the core of Brazilian politics and secondly, for people today it represents corruption. Thousands of workers from all over Brazil, particularly from the North and North East, moved to the capital to help build the ‘perfect’ city. However, after construction was completed the impoverished workforce was effectively expelled from the capital as ‘the poor’ were not accepted there. Today, one of the most dangerous areas in Brazil is found around the edges of Brasília, called the satellite cities. Small settlements were formed around the city outskirts and the population here still to this day suffer government disregard.
Opened in 1974, the Mané Garrincha Stadium had a 45,200 person capacity. Since renovations between 2010 and 2013, the capacity has increased to 72,788 people, becoming the second largest stadium in Brazil and one of the largest in the Americas, only beaten by Maracanã. With an initial budget of R$ 697 million, it reached a total of R$ 1,284 billion in May 2013. Due to this, the government has added multipurpose utilities to the stadium and are considering promoting large scale shows and events, as well as hosting special matches with carioca teams to generate box office sales. Situations like this destroy the political image of our leaders who rely on the laws of democracy and the use of police force to use the people’s money in the way that is convenient for them.
