Belo Horizonte
Football

As in the rest of Brazil, football is the most popular sport. The city's major teams are Atlético Mineiro, Cruzeiro and América Mineiro.

The city also has one of the biggest football stadiums in the world, the Mineirão, which opened in 1965. The older Independência Stadium was the site of the FIFA World Cup 1950 game, when the United States beat England in a 1–0 win.

In 2017, Atlético Mineiro kicked off construction of its own stadium, located in the Califórnia neighbourhood, in the northeast region of Belo Horizonte. Construction broke ground on April 20, 2020 after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and finished in 2023. The stadium was inaugurated on April 15, 2023 and hosted its first official match on August 27, 2023, with Atlético Mineiro hosting Santos for the 2023 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. The naming rights for the stadium were sold to Belo Horizonte-based home building and real estate company MRV, and the location became known as Arena MRV.

Mineirão, officially called Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto, was built to provide the city of Belo Horizonte with a larger alternative for Independência Stadium, then the prime venue of the city. The stadium was meant to become the most modern stadium of Brazil and the new home of Atlético Mineiro and Cruzeiro. Construction took almost five years, and on September 5, 1965, Mineirão officially opened. Mineirão hardly changed in the following decades, and in the 1990s still had its original capacity. When Brazil won their bid to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it was clear that Mineirão needed to undergo a large redevelopment.

The project included the complete reconstruction of the bottom tier, an extension of the roof, and further refurbishments to upgrade the stadium to FIFA standards. Building works took a total of three years, and were completed in December 2012. The first match at the reopened Mineirão was played on February 3, 2013, with a state championship match between Cruzeiro and Atlético. While Cruzeiro agreed on a lease to play the next 25 years at Mineirão, Atlético is currently building his own arena, Arena MRV, which is planned to be opened at the end of 2022. Atlético's new arena will be the most modern football stadium in Latin America and the second largest sports arena in the state of Minas Gerais, with a capacity of over 46,000 people. Mineirão hosted a total of six matches during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The stadium also was one of the playing venues of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and the Olympic football tournament in 2016.

In addition to football, Belo Horizonte has one of the largest attendances at volleyball matches in the entire country. They are played either at Mineirinho, home of Brazil's national volleyball team, or at Minas Tênis Clube.
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