Vasco hit hurdles over sale of São Januário development rights | OneFootball

The dream of modernizing São Januário suffered a setback in the official timeline this Friday (15). The Vasco board is already internally working with the real possibility that construction may not begin in 2026. The main reason is the slowness of the bureaucratic procedures and the difficulty in finalizing the sale of the building rights, which is the key piece to finance the project budgeted at more than R$ 500 million.

At the moment, the club is trying to sell around 280,000 square meters of building rights, valued at approximately R$ 2,000 each. Vasco’s main strategy involves the Marapendi plot, in Barra da Tijuca, which has the capacity to absorb nearly the entire available allotment. The club maintains a verbal commitment with SOD Capital, the company leading the negotiations to buy the area, avoiding opening parallel talks with other developers for now.

+ Vasco puts São Januário renovation on hold for 2026; understand

Vasco considers splitting building rights to speed up construction

Given the complexity of a single R$ 500 million transaction, Vasco has begun to consider splitting the building rights into smaller portions. This alternative would allow sales to different companies instead of depending exclusively on the completion of the Marapendi deal. The portal Lance! found that there are advanced talks with Tegra for the acquisition of 30,000 square meters, while another similar negotiation has cooled in recent weeks.

Another possibility that has appeared on the board’s radar is the partial use of the land from the former Terra Encantada, which belongs to Cyrela. The idea would be to separate a specific fraction of the area to absorb part of the club’s building rights. Even with these movements, the lack of signed exclusivity contracts makes the process slower, since other giants such as Multiplan and Cyrela are also competing for the direct purchase of strategic plots in Rio de Janeiro.

Facade concept for a new São Januário – Project: Sergio Moreira Dias, Felipe Nicolau, Willian Freixo, Clarissa Pereira and Ana Carolina Dias

Financial bureaucracy delays the dream of renovating São Januário

The word given to SOD Capital has been respected by president Pedrinho, who seeks to maintain ethics in the club’s business relations. However, the board admits that if another company completes the purchase of Marapendi and approaches Vasco, talks will be opened immediately. The top priority is to secure the financial backing needed to transform the stadium into a modern arena, but the reality of the real estate market calls for caution.

While the financial definition is still pending, the fans will have to live with uncertainty over the date the stadium will be closed for the work. Vasco still depends on the approval of complementary projects and on the immediate liquidity from the sale of the square meters to take the first step in the construction. Expectations now rest on the outcome of meetings in the coming weeks, which will define whether splitting the rights will be the definitive path to unlock the project.

São Januário renovation project, Vasco’s stadium — Photo: Project: Sergio Moreira Dias, Felipe Nicolau, Willian Freixo, Clarissa Pereira and Ana Carolina Dias

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.