A new high tech stadium lies at the heart of a redevelopment plan for the 2014 World Cup host city

The city of Recife in the state of Pernambuco is seen as the capital of the north east of Brazil. With its stunning beaches, this rapidly developing region is of huge importance to the national economy. The city is looking forward to a bright future, entertaining thousands of sports fans and tourists for many years to come.

Recife has been selected as one of 12 host cities for the 2014 World Cup. Although the football-mad city already has three club stadia, the state government has launched a public-private partnership to build a new 65,000-seat stadium, the Arena Pernambuco, which will be the centrepiece of a 240ha new urban centre called Cidada da Copa (Cup City).

The country’s number one engineering and construction firm, Odebrecht, has signed a contract to build the stadium and manage it for 35 years. The company has a similar build-and manage arrangement for the Fonte Nova stadium in Salvador, the construction phase of which was completed in 2009. Odebrecht is also refurbishing Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium and has forged an alliance with Corinthians Football Club to build a stadium in São Paulo that will host the opening match in 2014.

Marcos Lessa Mendes of Odebrecht is the chief executive of the consortium responsible for Cidada da Copa and Arena Pernambuco. Speaking at a workshop in the Soccerex Global Convention in Rio de Janeiro, he said: “I believe that this project will be one of the greatest legacies of the 2014 World Cup.

“Governor Eduardo Campos from the state government of Pernambuco made this decision, starting from the construction of the Pernambuco Arena, to build a new urban centre for the city. Pernambuco has a great coastline, is going through an extraordinary moment of investment and I am very proud to part of the construction of a new city.”

The big guns of entertainment

The arena will be the star attraction of the new metropolitan region. “We would like to develop this new destination as the first entertainment city in Brazil. We believe that, after the World Cup in Brazil, the entertainment segment will grow significantly and leave a legacy for many years to come,” said Mendes.

To achieve this ambitious goal, the consortium involves a partnership with AEG – one of the biggest event and sports team owners in the world and a major music promoter. With the Black Eyed Peas, AEG has recently completed one of the highest grossing concert tours in the history of Brazil.

Just over a decade ago, AEG built a vibrant campus of sports, business and lifestyle attractions around the Staples Center, on a neglected site in downtown Los Angeles. And in London, AEG was responsible for turning the archetypal white elephant, the Millennium Dome, into one of the city’s most successful venues.

Chuck Steedman, senior vice president, AEG Facilities said: “We trying to take the experiences that we had in London, Los Angeles and other places and transferring the legacy project for the citizens of Pernambuco.”

AEG is focussing 100 per cent on legacy usage. “It’s a tremendous opportunity that Brazil has for the 2014 World Cup. For the next four years, the entire world is going to focus its attention here; that’s outstanding, but we are worried about the next 30 years beyond that. We’re worried about what happens the day after the World Cup leaves Brazil.”

Fan feedback

In order to ensure a profitable future, International Stadia Group (ISG) has been contracted to optimise the Pernambuco Arena’s revenue potential. ISG originally came into being through the Wembley Stadium project and was also responsible for premium tickets in the O2 Arena.

ISG uses a proprietary research methodology called Comperio that gauges potential revenue streams and evaluates what consumers are looking for in the market.

Tobias Hanbury, president of ISG Brazil, said: “Every city is different, every fan base is different and every consumer is different, even from cities within Brazil. Focusing on the consumer tells you their potential to buy and it tells you what they want. That’s important in financing the project, because you have to create bankable future revenue streams from the stadium, and it also informs the design.”

The Comperio research process began in Recife in 2008 and ISG is convinced that the project is a secure investment. “We found in the Recife market that, if you have a good content schedule, there is a very significant revenue opportunity that allows a stadium to be built not only for the World Cup, but is also sustainable for decades afterwards.”

The research informs decisions about what products to sell. “In Recife, our focus is on premium products and on professionalizing the way season tickets are sold in this market. We have, through our research, defined exactly what configuration of boxes, of premium seats is optimal for Recife and we now know the right pricing segmentation for all of those products, including season tickets. We are delivering the fans exactly what they asked us to deliver.”

A crucial part of future planning for any stadium project is finding a tenant. “We haven’t yet concluded negotiations with the clubs in Recife, ”Hanbury admits. “We are hoping to attract clubs. How many games they play, whether they keep their existing stadium; all those things need to be resolved and agreed.

“But one thing is for certain: the more games they play in this new stadium, the better off they will be over the long term. We are not asking them to take any financial risk; we are inviting them in as contracted content providers to participate over the long term.”

Smart stadium

Alongside entertainment, a defining feature of the urban centre will be its connectivity. Steedman said: “We want to create a true legacy for the state of Pernambuco and the city of Recife by creating an integrated smart city with the arena as the centrepiece – something completely new for the market in Brazil.”

The stadium itself will be one of the most technologically advanced in the world. Mark Williams, associate principal of HKS – the architecture firm charged with designing the Arena Pernambuco and Cidada da Copa – said: “The integration of technology is a huge connectivity asset. Recife will be like nowhere else in the world. The fact that you can go anywhere in the zone and you are connected, not just to the smart city but also to the world, is just phenomenal.”

The World Cup is the catalyst for bringing this world class technology to Recife. “When the World Cup arrives in Recife, you have to address the needs of the people in the stadium. They have a device in their pocket, they are watching the game and there is a videoboard – everyone that goes to these events is used to having four or five different things going on at once. They are going to want to see replays; they are going to want to see another match that is happening in São Paulo at the same time.”

Extending the appeal of the stadium beyond sports will be crucial to its ultimate success. “This project is so much more than a football stadium. We want people all over the world to see this development and say ‘Recife’. It will put this region on the world map.”

For the Recife development, HKS is working on a way of bringing fans closer to their idols. “What we are going to do on this project is get the fans integrated with the stars, whether it is World Cup players or Paul McCartney.” Williams enthuses about the transformational power of the World Cup. “One of the great things about this project is that it’s not only going to change peoples’ lives: it’s going to celebrate a region, it’s going to celebrate Brazil and it’s going to be celebrated all over the world. “We feel like we’re doing the right thing in Recife. We know the World Cup is the first step in creating a true legacy destination.”
 

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Article published by kind permission of www.hostcity.net, February, 2011