Rio Olympic Stadium Or Joao Havelange Stadium

Joao Havelange Stadium or Rio Olympic Stadium is located in Rio de Janerio, Brazil and is a multi-use stadium being prepared for the 2016 Olympics Games to be held in Brazil. The stadium is named after Joao Havelange who presided over FIFA from 1974 to 1998 and was designed by Carlos Porto. Rio Olympic Stadium is officially owned by Prefecture of Rio de Janeiro but it’s operated by Botafogo. The athletic competitions of both the Summer Olympics and Paralympics would be held in this stadium. It is used mostly for football or soccer games but other athletic games can also be held here.
The stadium was built with the heavy budget of 192 million dollars. The amount required to build the stadium was much higher than what was originally estimated by the Mayor’s Office. It took almost four years to build this mega structure and it was under construction from 2003 to 2007. The stadium was opened on June 30^th, 2007 and the first game that was held here was a Campeonato Brasileiro Série between the teams of Botafogo and Fluminense. There were a total of 43,810 people present in the stadium that eventful day to see the first match. The first goal was scored by Alex Dias from the Fluminense and he was later awarded a prestigious award for being the first person to score in this huge stadium.

Joao Havelange Stadium

There have been a few minor accidents since the stadium was opened. In August 2007 a 6 meter high wall collapsed but luckily no one was hurt in this incident. In March 2013 it was found out that the roof of the stadium was not structurally very strong and could put the spectators sitting in the stadium under potential risk. Therefore the stadium was closed for the repair and has not been opened yet. It was decided that the seating capacity of the stadium would be increased to 60,000 in preparation for the Olympics whereas right now it can seat almost 45,000 people. Currently the stadium is under vigorous preparations so that it would be fully furnished and ready to host the Olympic Games of 2016.

Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium

Rio Olympic Stadium