After three months of lack of a decision, the Arena da Baixada now just depends on an official reply from the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) to be confirmed as Curitiba’s venue for the matches of the 2014 World Cup. A meeting held in Brasília last Monday made sure of the loan granted by the bank for the refurbishment of the stadium, which until then had faced the axe due to lack of financial guarantees.
The impasse which could leave Curitiba out of the World Cup has been going on since the middle of 2009. The owner of the Arena, local club Atlético Paranaense said that it could not cough up the R$ 138 million (€ 61.07 million) needed for the refurbishment work. On the other hand, the city hall and also the state government refused to help the club financially, but also denied the presence of an alternative plan.
The equation started to be solved in May. A change in the municipal legislation shall allow Atlético Paranaense to pass on the building potential papers for their site, totaling some R$ 90 million (€ 39.83 million) to the building company that shall be carrying out this work. The subcontractor shall take out a loan of R$ 80 million (€ 35.84 million) from the BNDES, which is not able to provide funding to football clubs. In turn, Atlético Paranaense says that they have a total of R$ 38 million (€ 16.82 million) in hand to complete the cost of the venture.
Negotiations are already well advanced. At the beginning of the week, a committee from the State of Paraná talked to the Minister for Planning, Paulo Bernardo, who assured that these papers shall be accepted as an instrument for liquidity.
“Today, we can say that the situation has been solved”, said the World Cup manager in Curitiba, Luiz de Carvalho. “All we need to solve now are bureaucratic issues, such as sending a series of licensing documents to the bank, which we are already finalizing.” According to Mr. Carvalho, the guarantees shall be presented to the Local Organizing Committee of the 2014 World Cup (COL/2014) within 30 days.
The most recent impasse concerns financing. The BNDES demands that there be an intermediary bank to authorize loans to private institutions. This means that the interest rate rises from 8% to 11% per annum, a figure considered high by both club and committee. The City Hall and the State Government are still trying to make financing through the BRDE (Regional Bank for the Development of the Far South) feasible.
According to Mr. Carvalho, the value of the work may go down to R$ 120 million (€ 53.10 million) if tax breaks are granted.
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12/01 | News
