Dois lugares, dois caminhos: Maracanã e São Januário

Abstract

To host the Soccer World Cup in 2014, some Brazilian stadiums chosen to carry out the matches underwent transformations in their spaces, provoking numerous changes both in their surroundings and in their interiors with the placement of chairs in the bleachers, roofing and the construction of gourmet spaces, under the claim of greater comfort and safety for the fans. This work seeks to identify and compare the Arena Maracanã with the old concept of stadium, especially with the São Januário Stadium (RJ), observing the uses and identities that both concepts of soccer practices generate for the participants. With the introduction of this new soccer economy, these measures helped to affirm the process of elitization, which was already under way, of the Maracanã Stadium and made access to the stadium more selective and exclusive. However, a few kilometers from this stadium, is located the São Januário Stadium, which belongs to the Vasco da Gama Regattas Club and has not undergone the same transformations as modern football. Because it presents characteristics of a traditional football with concrete bleachers, without coverage and with free circulation throughout its bleachers, and also, because it is located in a territory occupied by a community that lives with the supporters and with the Club in its daily life, this one has presented more hostile characteristics to receive the games, not conforming to the standards demanded by the new managers of the soccer. In this direction, the main hypothesis of the work is that the support spaces of both the stadiums (internal or external) are occupied differently by their supporters. This analysis compares the different trajectories of both stages as supporting places, as well as identifying the distinct spatial appropriation processes in their surroundings. It was possible to observe that with the 2014 World Cup, the privatization of Maracanã was accelerated and there was still an increase in the process of "marginalization" of stadiums that did not meet the quality standards required by FIFA, and São Januário became a hostile territory. In this way, this one tries to maintain its traditions even with the increase of the process of "turning into arenas" and elitization of the Brazilian stadiums