Mineirão

The Mineirão opened on 5 September 1965 with a friendly against River Plate, settled 1-0 by the state side, and it has spent the six decades since as shared ground for the city's two biggest clubs, Cruzeiro and Atlético Mineiro, sitting together on the same pitch from that opening season until Atlético left for the Arena MRV in 2023.

The record book at the Mineirão belongs to neither of them. On 22 June 1997, 132,834 people packed in for the Minas Gerais state final between Cruzeiro and Villa Nova, won 1-0 by Cruzeiro — since renovation for the 2014 World Cup cut capacity roughly in half, to around 62,000, and it sits at 66,658 under the numbers filed for Brazil's 2027 Women's World Cup bid.

What the ground has hosted says as much as what it holds: Libertadores finals in 1976, 1997 and 2013, Copa do Brasil finals in 2014 and 2021, group and knockout matches at the 2013 Confederations Cup, football at the 2016 Olympics, and the 2024 Brazilian Super Cup. The pitch itself is Bermuda Celebration turf, FIFA-certified, oversown with ryegrass in the cooler months to keep it playable, and a hybrid surface is planned ahead of 2027 to meet FIFA's requirements. The Mineirão has never taken a sponsor's name; locally it still goes by "Gigante da Pampulha."