Sporting Heritage and Touristic Transformation: Pacaembu Stadium and the Football Museum in São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Football is an essential component of Brazilian culture and identity. Stadiums in Brazil are iconic structures and comparable to religious institutions because football is often regarded as a religion in Brazil. It is also fitting that one of the most significant museums in São Paulo is the Estádio Municipal Paulo Machado de Carvalho, also known as Estádio do Pacaembu (Pacaembu Stadium) which opened in 1940 and is located in the city’s Pacaembu neighbourhood. While still in use for sporting competition, it used to be the home grounds for the football club Corinthians before they moved to the new Arena Corinthians across the city after the 2014 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup. Perhaps the most significant transformation of this stadium came in 2008 when the Museu do Futebol was created to commemorate the history of the stadium in the city and to tell the story of Brazilian football, after an extensive renovation in 2007. This transformation meant that the use of the stadium and its impact extends beyond match days and is the formation of an extended sports tourism site in the city. Such regeneration is unique to this venue as a way of framing the stadium as a national historical marker. This chapter will address and assess both tangible and intangible changes that aim to preserve and sanctify this venue as a space and place of Brazilian sporting heritage, culture and identity.