Estádio Luiz José de Lacerda

The main stand at the Estádio Luiz José de Lacerda is a single, long block of concrete, its roof supported by a line of slender pillars. It is a functional shape, the kind built in the late 1970s when the priority was to fit as many seats as possible on a flat site. The plastic seats are arranged in bands of white and black, a pattern that has been faded by the sun but still sets the tone for the rest of the enclosure. On the opposite side, the terraces are open to the sky and the weather that comes off the plain, a reminder that this is a ground in the north-east of Brazil where the heat takes the sting out of the game by half-time.

The stadium is named for Luiz José de Lacerda, a former club president who oversaw the expansion project that led to its current form. The new structure was inaugurated on October 19, 1980, with a friendly match in which Central Sport Club defeated the Nigeria national football team 3–1. The pitch is natural grass, a surface that has seen every season since the original Estádio Pedro Victor de Albuquerque was replaced. The official capacity is 19,478, a figure that has been cited in match reports for decades, though it was once thought to hold much more. The all-time attendance record was set on October 22, 1986, during a Campeonato Brasileiro Série A match where Central beat Flamengo 2–1, with 24,450 spectators in attendance. The ground also hosted group stage matches of the 2012 Copa Libertadores Femenina, a tournament that brought a different kind of pressure to the stands.