Lagardère Agrees In Principle To Take Over Maracaña Stadium

French media company Lagardère "reached an agreement in principle" with Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht "to take over operations of the iconic Maracanã Stadium," according to Nelson Belen of the RIO TIMES. The details of the deal have not been officially disclosed, but various reports indicated that Lagardère agreed to pay "upwards of" R$30M ($9.6M) to assume stadium operations until '48. In addition, this month, Lagardère is reportedly prepared to invest R$20M ($6.4M) for "the stadium's debts and much-needed structural repairs." This "will not be Lagardère's first foray into Brazil." The Paris-based conglomerate "already manages two Brazilian stadiums," Arena Castelão (one of the 2014 FIFA World Cup stadiums) in Fortaleza and Arena Independência in Belo Horizonte. Since late February, when multinational consortium CSM/GL Events/Amsterdam Arenas "took itself out of consideration," Lagardère had been the "sole bidder to take over Maracanã management" from the Maracanã SA consortium (RIO TIMES, 4/6).