MercadoLibre buys Sao Paulo stadium naming rights for $202 mln

Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre has reached a deal to purchase the naming rights of Sao Paulo's picturesque Pacaembu stadium for 30 years, it said on Wednesday, following a major renovation of the site.

Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre has reached a deal to purchase the naming rights of Sao Paulo's picturesque Pacaembu stadium for 30 years, it said on Wednesday, following a major renovation of the site. MercadoLibre said it was investing more than 1 billion reais ($202.18 million) in the deal, after which the soccer stadium will be named "Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu."

Pacaembu, which hosted six matches of the 1950 World Cup, was inaugurated in the early 1940s and has its Art Deco facade listed as a Sao Paulo heritage for preservation. It was managed by the city of Sao Paulo until 2019 when the local town hall signed off on a concession for a private sector company to renovate it and operate the stadium for 35 years.

($1 = 4.9460 reais)