Brasilia, Brazil´s capital since 1960, is located in the Federal District in the central west region of the country, on a plateau known as the Planalto Central, around 1,000-1,200m above sea level. A planned city like Australia’s Canberra, Brasilia currently has an official population of around 2.56 million (fourth largest in Brazil), although there are around 3.6 million inhabitants in the wider metropolitan area.
The capital houses all three branches of the Brazilian government and the headquarters of many important public and private organisations, as well as 91 foreign embassies, including Australia’s, headed by current Ambassador to Brazil Neil Mules. Brasilia features many iconic examples of Brazilian architecture and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, while it is also considered an important model of urban planning.
For the 2014 World Cup Brasilia is currently in a tight battle with Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo for the right to host the opening ceremony, with each candidate presenting quite diverse mixes of positives and negatives. For its part, Brasilia gains ground as being an important symbolic location for such an event and having the best transport and urban infrastructure, however the city lacks the strong and diverse football culture of the other candidates, a fact that has even led to various questions, including one from Brazil’s Sports Minister, over the viability and sustainability of the larger size stadium required to host the opening event, particularly as the facility to be expanded has not had a permanent tenant since 2003.
Despite the doubters, for the moment the plan remains the almost complete demolition of the 45,200 capacity Mané Garrincha Stadium, which opened in 1974, and construction of the National Stadium of Brasilia (Estádio Nacional de Brasília) on the same site. The new design, by São Paulo’s Castro Mello Architects, will see a major expansion to a capacity of 71,000 at a cost, one of the highest of all 2014 Cup projects, of R$745.3 million.
The project will be a Public Private Partnership, with the maximum per-stadium finance of R$400 million available through Brazil’s National Development Bank to be utilised, and the remainder the responsibility of the Federal District and City government. After a number of delays to the main construction tender, a decision is set to be made within the coming weeks and construction should begin by the end of July. Although the management model for the stadium is yet to be defined, it is expected that a private operator will eventually be appointed; up until now the government of the Federal District has managed the facility.
Given the size of the new stadium, key opportunities will revolve around ensuring the economic sustainability of the facility post 2014, as football matches alone will not be enough.