Arena Fonte Nova

Fonte Nova does not sit where its predecessor did by coincidence — it stands on the exact footprint of the Octávio Mangabeira stadium, which collapsed at the upper tier on 25 November 2007 during a match, killing seven and injuring forty. That closure and demolition set the terms for everything that followed: when the new arena went up between 2010 and 2013, builders recycled roughly 90 per cent of the crushed concrete from the old stands into the new structure, a detail the German firm Schulitz Architekten, working with TETRA Arquitetos, built into the project from the start rather than treating it as an afterthought.

President Dilma Rousseff opened the ground on 5 April 2013, and two days later Vitória beat Bahia 5-1 in the first competitive match, a fixture between the city's two rivals fittingly given the first word on the rebuilt pitch. The stadium's single day of real international weight came on 1 July 2014, when Belgium beat the United States 2-1 after extra time in the World Cup last sixteen — FIFA's temporary stand pushed the crowd to 51,227, still the attendance record and one the arena's standing capacity of 52,000 cannot match on its own.

Naming rights have moved twice since opening, which says something about how the ground is financed rather than how it is used. Itaipava held the rights from 2013, in the first such deal signed by any 2014 World Cup venue, until Casa de Apostas took over in February 2024 on a four-year contract. A hybrid pitch is planned ahead of the 2027 Women's World Cup, replacing the Bermuda Celebration turf laid at construction.