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Nilton Santos Stadium is primarily a soccer stadium used by Brazilian team Botafogo; it has been their home venue since 2007. It is often referred to as Engenhão (due to its location in the Engenho de Dentro neighborhood) or Niltão (a contraction of Nilton); the -ão ending is an augmentive suffix in Portuguese used to indicate affection.

  * Non-conference games

Botafogo did not particularly need a new venue: they had been sharing the impressive Maracanã Stadium with in-town rivals Flamengo and Fluminense since it opened in 1950. But in the early 2000s, Rio began vying for the opportunity to host the 2007 edition of the Pan American Games, with a successful series serving as a springboard for the 2016 Olympics. Work on what was initially called either Estádio Olímpico do Engenho de Dentro or Estádio Olímpico da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro (Olympic Stadium of North Engenho, or of Rio de Janeiro, respectively) began in September 2003; the cornerstone was laid that December with an initial eye for completion in 2005. As early as 2004, the stadium had assumed its first name: Estádio João Havelange (or João Havelange Stadium), in honor of the Brazilian lawyer and businessman who served as FIFA's president for over two decades. Early plans called for 98 VIP boxes to supplement approximately 45,000 seats.

Construction on the venue lagged considerably. First was a legal challenge related to the transfer of the land to the Brazilian Olympic Committee. Then, in May 2004, the city stopped paying contractors after preliminary work came in significantly over budget. The next blow came in in August, when it was discovered the venue had been designed with an 8 lane track in mind, rather than 9 lanes. Though 8 lanes is widely considered the industry standard for tracks, Olympic officials preferred the extra lane to help cut down on qualifying heats. The ensuing revisions resulted in a 43% increase in the amount of concrete needed, as well as a considerable step backwards in construction [1].

While the Olympics had always been the far-off goal of the venue, the 2007 Pan Am Games were widely seen as the first and more sure milestone; they were, after all, the first major sporting event to be held in Brazil since the 1950 World Cup. Despite the aforementioned setbacks (as well as a brief construction strike in March 2007), the stadium managed to functionally open just in the nick of time, hosting a soccer game between Botafogo and Fluminense on June 30th, 2007; the future home team won 2-1, with the chief complaint of the grounds being the incompletion of the press box. At a cost of R$ 380 million (about $278 million in 2026 USD), the 45,000-seat stadium was finally complete -- two years late, and more than 5 times over budget. Sports minister Orlando Silva Jr. rightly called the miscues "a grave lapse in planning" [2].

Despite the bumps in the road, Havelange Stadium (along with other host sites) impressed the right people, and in October 2009 it was announced that Rio would be hosting the 2016 Olympics. In mid-2012, however, the stadium's namesake was embroiled in a bribery controversy: it was discovered that Havelange had taken several bribes during his time as the president of FIFA. Olympic officials, citing a zero-tolerance policy for any ethics-related issues, urged for Rio planners to change the stadium's name. Chief executive offer of Rio's bid, Leonardo Gryner, demurred, saying "As far as I know, he did wrong and was punished, so he paid for that," adding that "We just use the stadia that are named by the owners... it is not up to us to change the name."

With city officials holding firm, Havelange's name stuck for the time being. To circumvent the issue, representatives of the games called the venue Estádio Olímpico (or Olympic Stadium) in official literature. While some spectators took this tack, others began calling the stadium Estádio Nílton Santos (Nilton Santos Stadium) in honor of the Rio-born Botafogo legend who played nearly 800 games for the local club and on Brazil's national team from 1948-1964. Mayor Eduardo Paes approved the name change in 2015, though it was not officially codified into law until 2017 [3].

The problem of the stadium's name was exceedingly minor when compared to another issue which arrose in March 2013: the stadium's roof. It was not necessarily a new problem -- authorities had known the roof could pose an issue since it was constructed -- but it had reached the point of endangering public safety. After delays in the construction schedule, protests by the workers, and a considerable economic slowdown, the stadium partially reopened in January 2015 with only 20,000 seats as repairs progressed; 5,000 more seats were made available in April before the stadium fully opened in July. After just 5 months of use, modifications for the 2016 Olympics began; among other changes, the track's surface was replaced, its lighting improved, and its capacity upped to 60,000 through the use of temporary seating [4].

The stadium's original blue chair-back seats were replaced with black and white seats in Botafogo's colors in 2017, and in April 2023, Niltão's grass playing surface was replaced with an artificial Vertex CORE system by FieldTurf. Though Botafogo signed a contract to extend their lease in 2021, reports in mid-2025 have indicated the club is seeking to build a new stadium of its own in the near future, citing dissatisfaction with the venue's infamously-distant sight lines; the lowest row of seating was built dozens of feet from the pitch in order to accomodate the track.

Most modern sources report the capacity of the venue as 46,831 persons -- 21,549 in the upper decks (on the east and west sides of the field) and 23,668 in the lower bowl, plus 1,364 box seats and 250 handicap seats -- though advertisements by College Football Brasil have reported the number as 44,661; this number corresponds to Botafogo's reported "current capacity," though the distinction is not immediately clear to me. Organizers of the venue's first NCAA football game, held between Virginia and NC State, report that renovations to the stadium in preparation for the game are expected to include "suites, on-field access, and an overall increase in stadium capacity to approximately 50,000 seats," though how that will be accomplished has not been announced as of January 2025 [5] [6]

Pictures of Nilton Santos Stadium