Ligga Arena

Curitiba's arena carries a name that keeps changing while the ground itself stays put. Fans and record books still know it as Arena da Baixada, or by its older title, Estádio Joaquim Américo Guimarães, and Athletico Paranaense's own directors resurrected another old name, Estádio Mário Celso Petraglia, alongside the current sponsor tag Ligga Arena. Few grounds in Brazil carry that many labels at once, and the club has never shown much interest in settling on one.

What sets it apart from the rest of Brazilian football has nothing to do with branding. In 2016 it became the first stadium in the country to lay a synthetic pitch, and that surface later earned FIFA's Quality Pro certification — a rarity in a league still built almost entirely on grass. It meant Athletico could keep training and playing through weather and wear that would tear up a natural field elsewhere in Paraná.

The ground opened in June 1999, replacing a stadium that had stood on the same site since the 1970s, and it now holds just over forty-two thousand for football. It sits on Avenida Presidente Getúlio Vargas in the Água Verde district, close enough to the centre of Curitiba that matchdays spill straight into the surrounding streets.