777 Partners Joins Legends in Bid to Manage Brazil’s Maracana Stadium
Miami-based 777 Partners is submitting a bid on Thursday to take over management operations for Maracanã, the largest stadium in Brazil.
Owned by the Rio de Janeiro state government, Maracanã has around 60,000 seats and was renovated for the 2014 World Cup. It’s the site of several iconic moments in soccer history, including Uruguay’s upset of Brazil in the 1950 World Cup final in front of 200,000 spectators.
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777 Partners, a private investment firm, joined WTorre, a Brazilian commercial real estate company that manages Allianz Parque in Sao Paulo, and Legends, a U.S.-based hospitality company specializing in sports and entertainment arenas.
The company confirmed its plans to submit a bid and that Juan Arciniegas (managing director of 777 and head of its sports, media and entertainment portfolio) and Nicolas Maya (777’s director of operations) were in Rio to submit the bid, but declined further comment.
The investment firm has been investing in international soccer teams since 2020. Most recently, 777 acquired 70% of Rio’s Vasco de Gama, a top-tier soccer club.
Maracanã is currently managed by Flamengo and Fluminense, Rio’s most famous soccer clubs. Those two clubs control who can play at Maracanã and are supposed to make all reasonable efforts to accommodate other Rio-based clubs. But in the past, clubs including Vasco de Gama have needed to go to court to play matches there.
777 Partners has a significant stake in LaLiga’s Sevilla FC, Serie A’s Genoa C.F.C., and own Standard Liège of Belgium, the British Basketball League and London Lions basketball team. The firm also owns Fanatiz, a streaming service with audiences in more than 90 countries worldwide.
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