Mineirão (Portuguese pronunciation: [minejˈɾɐ̃w]), officially Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto (Governor Magalhães Pinto Stadium) is the largest football stadium in the state of Minas Gerais. It was established in 1965, and it is located in Belo Horizonte.
It served as a venue in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It also hosted some matches of the football tournament of the 2016 Summer Olympics.[2] The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,846 spectators. The property of the state of Minas Gerais, it is used by Cruzeiro.
The project to construct the Mineirão predated the stadium's opening by more than 25 years. In the 1940s, a modest movement began, involving managers, entrepreneurs, athletes and journalists. The idea was to build a field in Belo Horizonte to that matched the evolution of Minas Gerais' football up to that point.
The top three teams in the state capital had their stadiums, but they were cramped and uncomfortable, and no longer supported the demand of fans. Stadium Otacílio Negrão de Lima (Alameda Stadium, at Francisco Sales Avenue), of América; Antônio Carlos Stadium (located on Olegário Maciel Avenue), of Atlético Mineiro; and Juscelino Kubitschek Stadium (located on Augusto de Lima Avenue), of Cruzeiro did not support more than 10,000 spectators. Atlético, the team with the wealthiest members in Belo Horizonte, planned to build a stadium for 30,000 people, after the winning the 1937 State Champions Cup. It nearly became a reality, but then they found a huge club debt, forcing the directors to allot and sell the properties that the club had in the neighborhood where the stadium would be built, Antônio Carlos Avenue, near the airport.
At the end of the 1940s, journalist Canor Simões Coelho achieved with CBD the inclusion of Belo Horizonte as one of the venues of 1950 FIFA World Cup. For this, the council would have to build a stadium at the height of the event. Official agreement was signed by mayor Otacílio Negrão de Lima and the president of the CBD, Rivadávia Correa Meyer. The modest club Sete de Setembro was in charge of commanding the works of the new field.
The construction of Independência Stadium was slow and it seemed that would not be completed in time for the World Cup. But with the intervention of the CBD and FIFA, the city of Belo Horizonte took charge of construction, and the stage was handed over in time for the match between Yugoslavia and Switzerland on June 25, 1950, even with improvisations. But soon the initial excitement for the new stadium was falling apart, since the 30,000 seats available did not meet the growing number of fans. Independência was uncomfortable for the audience, and did not offer good conditions for the press.