Rio de Janeiro opened a design competition for a new stadium in 1947. Seven architects, among them Raphael Galvão, Pedro Paulo Bernardes Bastos and Orlando Azevedo, are credited with the Maracanã. A workforce of 1,500 built it, with 2,000 more added in the final months, and FIFA sent Ottorino Barassi to help when work fell behind. It opened on June 16, 1950, still without toilets or a press box, and it was finished only in 1965.
On July 16, 1950, Uruguay beat Brazil 2–1 in the World Cup final before an official attendance of 199,854.
A major reconstruction began in 2010 for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. The two-tier bowl was demolished and replaced with a mostly one-tier bowl, and the concrete roof gave way to a fiberglass membrane coated in PTFE, covering 95 percent of the seats. The stadium reopened on May 30, 2013, with Brazil and England drawing 2–2. Current capacity is listed as 73,139.
Comments