Stadium hosting NFL's first Rio game has rich history, including World Cup title games
American football will make its debut in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at a futebol cathedral.
The 78,000-seat Maracana Stadium is a revered soccer venue that has hosted two World Cup championship games, Olympic gold medal matches for men and women, and numerous clashes between South America's biggest teams. Now the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys will play the NFL's first game in Rio there, one of a record nine international contests on the league schedule this season.
Built for the 1950 World Cup, the Mário Filho Stadium in the northern end of the city is universally known as the Maracana due to the river that flows behind it. Locals have nicknamed it "the Maraca" and its current tenants are Brazilian soccer club giants Flamengo and Fluminense.
"It makes perfect sense for the NFL, reinforcing our commitment to Brazil. Hosting a game at the Maracana will be historic, capitalizing on everything Rio has to offer to locals, Brazilians, international visitors and the NFL," Luis Martinez, general manager of NFL Brazil, told The Associated Press.
The NFL has been playing in Brazil since 2024, but the two previous games were at the 48,000-seat NeoQuimica Arena in Sao Paulo, a larger market where both games were sellouts. Some tickets remain for Sunday's game in the considerably larger venue. The stadium made news this week after some soccer players raised concerns about the field conditions, though the NFL says it's confident the playing surface will be fine.
A stadium built with championships in mind
The stadium opened in 1950 to host the World Cup, the first after World War II and at a time when Rio was Brazil's capital. The government had hopes it would help Brazil's national team win the championship.
Instead, Uruguay lifted the trophy in front of 200,000 fans after a 2-1 win over the hosts on July 16, 1950.
"Only three people have silenced the Maracana; the pope, Frank Sinatra and me," Alcides Ghiggia, the Uruguayan striker who netted the winning goal, said repeatedly in different interviews over the decades until he died in 2015.
Ghiggia is deemed the main player responsible for the historic upset that fans know as "the Maracanazo."
Brazilians had to wait another eight years to win the World Cup title for the first time, and would add another four years later.
The Maracana also saw the goal that three-time World Cup winner Pelé said was his 1,000th. He scored during Santos' 2-1 victory against Vasco da Gama and wept for joy in front of the cameras and 70,000 people. FIFA has a different goal count for the football great, who died in 2022 at age 82.
Frank Sinatra said his 'greatest moment' was at the Maracana
Ghiggia's often repeated references to Pope John Paul II and Sinatra were about other memorable events at the stadium.
Sinatra performed at the Maracana in 1980 for an estimated crowd of 175,000.
When he forgot the lyrics to "Strangers in the Night," the fans continued.
"This is the greatest moment I've ever experienced in my life as a professional singer," Sinatra said near the end of his performance. "Never before have I experienced anything like this before, never."
Other stars including Madonna and the Rolling Stones have also performed at the stadium.
The pontiff was at the stadium in 1980 and 1997 during two of his three official visits to Brazil. After the first one, Fluminense fans began displaying banners with his face as a good-luck charm. They also sing "Bless us, John of God" during their most hotly contested matches.
Other big events have included a 1951 visit from the Harlem Globetrotters that drew 50,000 fans and a fight the same year between legendary Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter Helio Gracie and Masahiko Kimura, deemed by many judokas as the best ever from Japan. Kimura broke Gracie's arm and won after his rival's coach threw in the towel.
The stadium capacity was reduced to less than 100,000 during a remodel ahead of the 2014 World Cup — old standing areas and tiered concrete benches were removed — but it remains one of the largest in South America.
A new era begins
Business consultant Rafael Salies, a hardcore Flamengo fan who spent part of his childhood in Oklahoma, is excited about the NFL coming to the Maracana but he won't attend. A fan of the Miami Dolphins who used to play football on the Rio beaches, he said $100 is pricey to watch the Ravens face the Cowboys.
But he is also keen to spend more than $1,500 to go to Uruguay in November if his team reaches the final of the Copa Libertadores, which is the main club competition in South American soccer.
"This game in Rio is more about the stadium than the city. It might look a little empty in some parts because it is just too big, but it will be a beautiful scenario," Salies said. "There will be some soccer stadium culture involved, but there won't be fireworks, flags, drum sections. It will be a different Maracana."
Source: Associated Press
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