Portuguese Stadium Operator Partners With Brazil Agency, Looks To Run Maracanã

Portuguese stadium operator Lusoarenas and Brazilian sports marketing agency Traffic Sports have partnered "to dispute the control of the Maracanã," according to Almeida, Castro & Konchinski of UOL. Lusoarenas President Marco Herling confirmed the partnership. Herling said that the company "will look to take control of the administration of a number of stadiums in Brazil, amongst them the Maracanã." The Rio de Janeiro government has already said that it will charge R$231M ($109.9M) divided in 33 parcel payments of R$7M ($3.3M) to the company that assumes control of the stadium. The amount "is close" to 26% of the money that the government invested in the construction reforms for the arena (UOL, 12/5). PORTAL 2014 noted that until now, Brazilian sports and entertainment agency IMX, owned by Brazil's richest man Eike Batista, was the only company to have "manifested interest" in operating the arena (PORTAL 2014, 12/5).