Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos is a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

located in the

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

of Engenho de Dentro in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Nilton Santos is the home stadium of

Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas (; ''Botafogo Football and Rowing'') is a Brazilian sports club based in the neighborhood of Botafogo, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Although it competes in a number of different sports, Botafogo is mostly known ...

, where games from the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

, Brasileirão,

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil () is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and it is the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de Portugal, ...

and other championships take place. It is used mostly for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches and it hosted the

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

competitions at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

and the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

.The stadium was built from 2003 through to 2007, opening in time for the

2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Rio 2007, were a major Americas, continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of ...

. The stadium was one of the five venues for the

2021 Copa América The 2021 Copa América was the 47th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football, football championship organised by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament took place in Brazil from 13 June to ...

. The stadium is known by Nilton Santos. The nickname Engenhão () refers to the location of the stadium in Engenho de Dentro neighbourhood. The previous name of the stadium was João Havelange Stadium, since 2015 the name is Estádio Nilton Santos (English: ''Nilton Santos Stadium''). The name honors

Nílton Santos Nílton dos Santos (; 16 May 1925 – 27 November 2013) was a Brazilian footballer who primarily played as a wingback. At international level, he was a member of the Brazil squads that won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups. Regarded as one of ...

, who spent his whole career with Botafogo and is regarded as one of the greatest defenders in the history of the game and a member of the World Team of the 20th Century. In February 2017, the city of Rio de Janeiro officially renamed the stadium Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos. The stadium's capacity was increased to 60,000 for the Games. Nilton Santos is one of the 10 biggest stadiuns of Brazilian Série A. According to an exclusive survey conducted by BolaVip Brasil, Nilton Santos Stadium, leads the Série A ranking with 185 bars and restaurants within a 2km radius. It is the best-served stadium in the country in this regard and one of the best places for the pre-game with the fans.

History

Construction and opening

The stadium cost (US$192 million) to build, which was six times the stadium's original construction budget of R$60,000,000 The Mayor's office estimated in 2003 that the total construction cost would be of R$60 million (US$30 million); the actual cost was thus 533% higher than early estimates. Monumento_de_Garrincha

The stadium opened on 30 June 2007. The first match held was a

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian" or "Great Brazilian"), the Série A or the Brazilian Série A (to distinguish it from the I ...

game between

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

and Fluminense. 40,000 tickets were available for the match and were exchanged for donations of

powdered milk Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...

. In all, 43,810 people were at the stadium to watch the inaugurating match, where Botafogo beat Fluminense 2–1. The first goal of the match was scored by Fluminense's

Alex Dias Alex Dias de Almeida (born May 26, 1972) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Honours *Winner of Pará State championship in 1993 and 1994 with Clube do Remo *Winner of Goiás State championship in 1997, ...

. As Dias scored the first goal in the stadium's history, he was awarded the Valdir Pereira Trophy (''Taça Valdir Pereira''), which was named after retired footballer

Didi Didi Chuxing Technology Company is a Chinese vehicle for hire company headquartered in Beijing with over 550 million users and tens of millions of drivers. The company provides app-based transportation services, including taxi hailing, private ...

. Because Botafogo won the stadium's inaugural match, the club was awarded the João Havelange Trophy (''Taça João Havelange'').

Pan American Games, Botafogo, and the Olympics

During the course of the

held in Rio de Janeiro in July, the stadium hosted

athletics competitions Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

, in addition to twelve games of the first stage of the men's and women's football tournaments. After the conclusion of the games, on 3 August 2007,

signed a deal with the City of Rio de Janeiro to lease the stadium for 20 years. Botafogo was the only organization to present a bid; the club agreed to pay $18.200 (or R$36.000) a month to lease ''Engenhão'', plus maintenance costs which run at $2 million (or R$4 million) annually. On 11 August 2007, a 15-meter long and 6-meter high stadium wall collapsed, but nobody was hurt. On 10 September 2008, the Brazilian national team played for the first time at the Engenhão. The match, against

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, for

2010 World Cup Qualification 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, ended 0–0. The stadium remains owned by the City of Rio de Janeiro, but it has been leased to

until at least 2051 (20 years). The Engenhão was the main venue for top football competitions in Rio de Janeiro while the

Maracanã Stadium Maracanã Stadium (, ; named after the Maracanã River), officially known as Jornalista Mário Filho Stadium (, ; , named after Mário Filho), is an association football stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Located in the Maracanã neighbor ...

was being renovated in preparation for both the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

and

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

and Fluminense played their home matches at the Engenhão from the 2010–11 through 2012–13 seasons. The stadium was closed during two years in March 2013 after it was found the structural integrity of the roof was not up to standard. It was announced on 8 June 2013, that the stadium would need a minimum of 18 months of reconstruction work and remain closed until 2015 while the repairs were carried out to the roof. The Stadium was reopened since 2015 for the Olympic Games Rio 2016

Biggest audiences

These are the ten biggest crowds at the Nilton Santos Stadium, in Botafogo games

Transportation

From Zona Sul (South Zone), Downtown, Tijuca or Barra, passengers can go to

Central do Brasil Estação Central do Brasil () is a major train station in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The station is located in Centro, Rio de Janeiro, downtown Rio de Janeiro, along the Avenida Presidente Vargas and across from the Campo de Santana ...

subway and train station, and from there reach Nilton Santos stadium in 25 minutes taking the Japeri, Santa Cruz or Deodoro lines, leaving the train in Olímpica de Engenho de Dentro station. To go back Downtown, Zona Sul, Tijuca or Barra, the fans must leave the stadium and go to the west sector with the south sector (Rua José dos Reis with Rua Arquias Cordeiro), continue to the station (Olímpica de Engenho de Dentro) and take the train to Central do Brasil. Mapacompleto supervia

Tournament results

2016 Summer Olympics

2021 Copa América

Concerts

Gallery

File:Estádio Municipal João Havelange 14072007.jpg, Exterior shot of the stadium during the

, looking from the east, July 2007 File:Estádio Municipal João Havelange.jpg, Exterior shot of the stadium looking form the north west, November 2007 File:Loucos pelo Botafogo.jpg,

fans setting off

flares A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala, bengalo in several European countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illuminatio ...

during a Série A game at the stadium, May 2008. File:Botafogo x Santos (2008) estádio cheio.JPG, Interior view of the stadium, looking towards the eastern grandstand, October 2008 File:Engenhão panorâmica (12-OUT-2009).jpg, Panoramic shot of the stadium during a Série A football match, October 2009 File:Estátua Nílton Santos.JPG, The statue of footballer Nilton Santos, situated outside the stadium, November 2009

References

External links

Stadium 3D Original Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Estadio Olimpico Joao Havelange Olimpico Joao Havelange Sports venues in Rio de Janeiro (city) Venues of the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic athletics venues Olympic stadiums Venues of the 2007 Pan American Games Football venues in Rio de Janeiro (city) Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas Pan American Games athletics venues Sports venues completed in 2007 Athletics in Rio de Janeiro (city) 2007 establishments in Brazil