Estádio Carlos Zamith

The stadium sits in the Coroado neighborhood. Its shape is simple enough to read from the air: a single tier of stands that wraps round a square of grass. The barrier at the edge of the pitch is painted in colours that recall Brazil, and the roof is a flat sheet of white. There is nothing to hide the sun when it is high, and no canopy to break the wind.

The ground opened in 2014, not as a venue for the tournament that brought visitors to the city, but as a preparation space for teams who wanted to train before the main fixtures. The first official match took place after the World Cup had closed, in July of that year. It has since become the only stadium in Manaus equipped for night play, fitted with a modern lighting system that can shift through a dozen colours. That change followed a renovation funded by federal resources, which also rebuilt sections of the grandstand and installed a new generator for power cuts.

The capacity sits somewhere between five thousand and six thousand five hundred spectators, depending on who is counting. The attendance record belongs to a match between local rivals Amazonas FC and Portuguesa-RJ in August 2022, when the ground held every seat. The club that calls this place home most often is Amazonas FC, which beat Brusque here in a Série B game in June 2024, and which won the Campeonato Amazonense final against Manauara in April 2023. The stadium is owned by the state government, not by a private owner or a club.

The pitch is natural grass, cut short and kept green through the wet season. The stands rise straight from the ground, with no separate concourse. You can see the road that runs alongside the building, and the trees that line it. The name of the stadium honours a local sports journalist who died before it was finished. It does not have a commercial sponsor attached to its title.

The ground is not a temple, nor is it a relic. It is a modern structure that happened to be built in time for a global event, and then kept going when the visitors left. It has hosted finals and mid-table clashes alike, and it does not distinguish between them.