Today, July 31, 2024, is a day that will go down in Flamengo history as one of the most important days in the club’s prestigious 128-year history.
The reason why today, a random Wednesday, will forever hold so much significance for the team based in Rio de Janeiro is because it was announced that Flamengo acquired the land needed to finally build their own stadium.
The team, which for decades has been playing at Rio’s historic Maracanã Stadium alongside Fluminense, is finally ready to take the steps needed to construct a stadium that their millions of fans can truly call their own. This is due to the fact that Flamengo, nor Fluminense, actually own the Maracanã, and instead, both teams rent the stadium.
As a result, Flamengo doesn’t have full autonomy over the stadium and instead has to adhere to rules put in place by the state. But now, with the new stadium plans, Flamengo plans on creating a ground over which they will have full control to do whatever they see fit.
The location of the stadium will be in the Gasômetro area, which is located in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro.
The area is approximately 86,000 square meters in size and was acquired by Flamengo for the equivalent of over 27 million dollars.
The land, which was previously owned by Caixa, had been recently expropriated by the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, and bought by Flamengo in an auction.
The project of building the stadium is set to take up to six years with the inauguration planned for November 2029, which would align with the club’s anniversary in the same month.
The stadium has been a long-awaited dream for many of the club’s supporters and because of that, today is a day that will forever be ingrained in Flamengo’s history.
Beyond the big announcement, today was also a big day for Flamengo due to another reason: their big Brazilian cup win against Palmeiras.
The match, valid for the first leg of the round of 16 of the Brazilian Cup, was played at the Maracanã, and when two teams as big as Flamengo and Palmeiras play each other, the whole country stops to watch.
Many were expecting a tight match, with a tie being the most likely result.
However, Flamengo didn’t take Palmeiras into consideration and put on a show.
The match ended 2-0 for the “Rubro-Negro” and truthfully, Palmeiras were lucky to get out with only a two-goal deficit. Flamengo’s superiority is clearly shown in the game’s stats.
Flamengo had 60% of possession and 17 more shots than Palmeiras did.
The “Rubro-Negro’s” defensive solidity was also on display today as throughout the whole game the opposition was only able to get two total shots and none of those were on target.
Hearing all this, it might seem like Palmeiras is any old team, but keep in mind we are talking about the current Brazilian champions, a team which many times is considered Brazil’s Manchester City.
With all this in mind, one can really begin to understand the significance of such a big win.
Now, when you combine the stadium announcement with the important first-leg cup victory against Palmeiras, you can see why July 31, 2024, has been such an amazing day for Flamengo fans across the globe.
Both events perfectly symbolize everything Flamengo is about: dominance now and stability in the future.
The stadium project is a very tangible step towards ensuring long-term success, which is stability.
On the other hand, today’s victory against Palmeiras shows just how dominant Flamengo are in the Brazilian soccer scene, even when put face to face with the best the country has to offer.
For Flamengo fans, today will be a day to remember, and by the way things are looking, there seem to be many more of these coming in the near future.
And you already know where to keep up with all that—the Roadrunner.
