Os torcedores e o Novo Maracanã: emoção e espaço nas arenas esportivas contemporâneas

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the relationship of the C.R. do Flamengo’s supporters to the New Maracanã, which consists in the football arena built after the adaptation of the Jornalista Mario Filho Stadium to the comfort and safety standards required by FIFA and the IOC for the realization of the 2014 Men’s Soccer World Cup in Brazil and the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. Inaugurated in 1950, Maracanã was first conceived as a popular and democratic space, destined to the congregation of the different strata of the Brazilian society. However, after the reform for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, the former mass stadium was converted into a modern multi-purpose all-seater arena, designed as an elitist space for social control and consumption. In my research, I seeked to understand how the supporters themselves have been experiencing and reacting to this civilization or domestication process, by the analysis of their representations and discourses regarding the New Maracanã. To that end, I conducted 12 qualitative interviews with Flamengo’s supporters who regularly attend Maracanã, since before the reform, and 20 field observations in the club's games in the new arena.