Estádio do Morumbi
Estádio do Morumbi
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Estádio do Morumbi

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Estádio do Morumbi

The Estádio Cícero Pompeu de Toledo, popularly known as Morumbi, and currently known as MorumBIS for sponsorship reasons, is a multipurpose 72,039-seater football stadium located in the eponymous district in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the home of São Paulo FC and its formal name honors Cícero Pompeu de Toledo, who was São Paulo FC's chairman during most of the stadium construction and died before its inauguration. Morumbi is the largest privately owned stadium in Brazil. Designed by the architect João Batista Vilanova Artigas, the stadium is a monument of Brazilian modernism and in 2018 was formally marked as a cultural building by São Paulo city prefecture.

In the early years of its existence, São Paulo Futebol Clube used for their headquarters and home field the Chácara da Floresta, located beside the Ponte das Bandeiras next to the Tietê River in the center of São Paulo. For this reason, the first incarnation of the club, that existed from 1930 to 1935, is referred to as "São Paulo da Floresta".

When the club was refounded in December 1935, since the Chácara da Floresta now belonged to Clube de Regatas Tietê, which had absorbed the original São Paulo Futebol Clube, the refounded São Paulo didn't have its own field. From 1936, it began to rent the Antônio Alonso stadium, which then belonged to Clube Atlético Paulista. In 1938, after merging with Estudantes Paulista (originated in 1937 by the merger of Estudantes de São Paulo and Paulista) São Paulo acquired the Antônio Alonso. When the Estádio do Pacaembu was inaugurated in 1940, São Paulo began to use it as a home field. the Antônio Alonso stadium was sold to Juventus in 1942.

In 1944, São Paulo bought a piece of ground called Canindé, which was only used as a headquarters and training location. The area was too small for the construction of a large stadium, so studies were done to find another home within the city of São Paulo.

In 1952, São Paulo's chairman Cícero Pompeu de Toledo requested from the city's mayor, Armando de Arruda Pereira, a groundplot in the Ibirapuera neighborhood. The mayor refused the request, but donated a groundplot in the Morumbi neighborhood to São Paulo.

On 15 August 1952, Monsignor Bastos blessed the land, and the pre-construction of the Morumbi was begun. A committee to oversee its construction was elected, and consisted of: Cícero Pompeu de Toledo (president); Piragibe Nogueira (Vice President); Cássio Luís dos Santos (Secretary); Amador Aguiar (Treasurer); Altino de Castro Lima, Carlos Alberto Gomes Cardim, Luis Campos Aranha, Manoel Raymundo Paes de Almeida; Osvaldo Artur Bratke, Roberto Gomes Pedrosa, Roberto Barros Lima, Marcos Gasparian, Paulo Machado de Carvalho; and Pedro Pinto Filho.

Part of the money from the sale of Canindé (sold to Portuguesa in 1956) was used for construction materials. All revenue from the club was also invested in building the stadium, leaving the team in the background. The actual construction of the new stadium began in 1953. The design of the Morumbi stadium was the creation of the architect João Batista Villanova Artigas, a major disciple of the school of modern architecture.

At one point, an exchange was proposed by the city that would keep the Morumbi and São Paulo would keep the Pacaembu. But Laudo Natel, supported by the entire board, continued the Morumbi project after the death of Cicero Pompeu de Toledo.

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