Arena MRV is a soccer stadium currently under construction, located in the Brazilian city of
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...
. The arena belongs to
Clube Atlético Mineiro
Clube Atlético Mineiro (), commonly known as Atlético Mineiro or Atlético, and colloquially as Galo (, "Rooster"), is the largest professional football club based in the city of Belo Horizonte, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mi ...
, which will host its home games there.
History
The initial step to kick off the construction of a new stadium to house
Atlético Mineiro
Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to:
Sports Teams Athletico
*Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy
*Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...
began in September 2017, with the approval by the club's Deliberative Council. The vote, at the club's headquarters in Lourdes, was supported by 325 of the 337 councilors, including several former club presidents such as Ricardo Guimarães, Afonso Paulino, Ziza Valadades and
Alexandre Kalil
Alexandre Kalil (Belo Horizonte; March 25, 1959) is a Brazilian politician and sports administrator. He served as mayor of Belo Horizonte from 2017 to 2022. He served as president of Clube Atlético Mineiro, a football club based in Belo Horizo ...
, then mayor of
Belo Horizonte
Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...
.
Rubens Menin
Rubens Menin Teixeira de Souza (born 12 March 1956) is a Brazilian billionaire businessman and co-founder, in 1979, of MRV Engenharia, Brazil's leading home builder, which has a market capitalization of $1.4 billion. As of March 2022, his net wor ...
, president of
MRV Engenharia
MRV is the biggest Brazilian homebuilder and real estate company. The company was founded in 1979 by Mário Lúcio Pinheiro Menin, Rubens Menin Teixeira de Souza and Vega Engenharia Ltda and is headquartered in Belo Horizonte. The company's maj ...
, Atlético's main sponsor, announced that he would donate the land where the stadium were to be built, a plot estimated to be worth R$60 million at the time, in the California neighborhood of Belo Horizonte.
Financing
To fund the project, which had an initial estimate cost of R$410 million, the club sold 50.1% of its stake in Diamond Mall shopping center for R$250 million. Also as part of the agreement, MRV acquired the naming rights of the future arena for R$60 million for a period of ten years, with the possibility of extension. The club also sought to receive R$100 million for the sale of club seats and luxury suites, with 60% guaranteed by the
Banco BMG
Banco BMG is one of Brazil's major retail banks. The bank, formerly known as Banco de Minas Gerais S.A., was founded in 1930.
Banco BMG had a minority share in a joint venture with Brazil’s Itaú Unibanco
Banco Itaú Unibanco S.A. is a Brazil ...
bank.
Project
The arena is located on a plot of land with 56 thousand square meters, in the Northwest Region of the city, on the banks of Avenida Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek, close to the Annual Rodoviario highway and the Eldorado Metro Station. The total area to be built is 114,656.99 m
2, of which 35% will be occupied by the arena, 30% by the esplanade, 23% by preserved green areas and 12% by "gardens on natural terrain and paved accesses". The stadium has 47,000 seats, which places it among the ten largest stadiums in the country at the time of its completion and the sixth largest private stadium. Major concerts will take place in the inner area of the arena, with a specific acoustic system of insulating layers and perforated tiles to improve acoustics and protect the sound output. Shows will not be held in the outdoor area, on the esplanade, of the stadium. The project was designed by the architect Bernardo Farkasvölgyi, advisor to the club. Its approval went through discussions at the city's municipal assembly, where a bill was unanimously approved. Before consideration by the plenary, the project passed through select committees on Legislation and Justice, Environment, Public Administration and Budget and Public Finance.
Environmental impact
In April 2019, the Municipal Environment Council of the Municipality of Belo Horizonte (Comam) unanimously approved the preliminary license for the project. In addition to the stadium, the club was required to create a health care station (UBS) and a day care center in the esplanade section of the stadium land. The club was also required to create a not-for-profit institution named "Instituto Galo", with the goal to reinforce the social interest character of the project. Once the permit was obtained, the land clearing work began.
The environmental license for the execution of the work was granted through a list of 55 counterparts and conditions. Among them, the establishment of bike paths between the Arena and the Eldorado Metro Station and the creation of a program to protect the species of capetinho-do-oco-de-pau, a bird that is at risk of extinction.
An Executive Forest Compensation Project was also carried out, in which the club committed to be in charge of land conservation in a conservation area that corresponds to more than twice the native vegetation that would be suppressed by the stadium construction. The chosen location is in the
Serra do Gandarela National Park
Serra do Gandarela National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Serra do Gandarela) is a national park in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
It protects a mountainous region holding a remnant of Atlantic Forest that is an important source of water for th ...
, located in the municipality of
Rio Acima
Rio Acima is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. As of 2020, the estimated population was 10,420.
The munici ...
, in the metropolitan region. Arena MRV purchased the land and donated it to the
Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation
The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm."Brazilian Federal Law 11.516/2007 (Por ...
(ICMBio). The two sites, in the neighborhood of California and in
Rio Acima
Rio Acima is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. As of 2020, the estimated population was 10,420.
The munici ...
, share the same watershed as the
São Francisco River
The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...
and have similar characteristics.
Construction
April 20, 2020 marked the beginning of the works on the new stadium. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a small ceremony was attended by ten people who celebrated the entry of the first digging heavy machinery on the site. The country was already experiencing health restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and activities would continue respecting the determinations of health bodies and municipal and state legislation in force, with all employees working with masks and following safety and hygiene protocols to try to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. A bid defined Racional Engenharia Ltda as the construction company responsible for the works. Just before a year after the start of the construction, the schedule was already 18% complete, with completion scheduled for October 2022.
References
External links
Official Website of the Stadium*
*
*
*
Arena MRV no LinkedIn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arena MRV
Football venues in Minas Gerais
Sports venues in Belo Horizonte
Clube Atlético Mineiro
Football in Belo Horizonte
Stadiums under construction