Lifetime ticket holders to the Maracana stadium, where Brazil will host the 2014 World Cup, believe they are entitled to seats at next year's tournament.
Their sense of entitlement dates back to 1950, when the Maracana hosted the 1950 World Cup championship match. Brazil asked local residents to donate money to the stadium so that it could host the massive tournament. In exchange for financial donations, Brazil promised residents "perpetual seats."
According to Bloomberg.com, the 63-year-old agreement guarantees ticket holders, who pay an annual subscription of R$740 ($365), access to the arena for any event staged there.
The Maracana "perpetual seats" have been in families for generations now. Ticket holders have enjoyed access to concerts from The Police, Madonna and the Back Street Boys, as well as access when the late Pope John Paul II visited in 1997.
Their anger comes from Brazil's inability to guarantee them seating at the World Cup. In order to host the tournament, Brazil agreed to "deliver the stadium free of any obligations" to FIFA. Brazil essentially loaned out the stadium to FIFA and relinquished all rights to it during the tournament.
Brazil's government argued in a Rio court on Monday that allowing the perpetual seat holders access to the stadium during the World Cup would "cause overcrowding of the stadium, confusion and turmoil at the entrance gates, and security risks and disturbances in press operations."
The Rio court agreed and lifted the injunction that guaranteed the ticket holders access to the Maracana for any event.
A Sao Paulo-based legal expert believes the ticket holders might be entitled to compensation at best, given that Brazil signed over the stadium to FIFA for the World Cup. Still, it doesn't appease the lifetime ticket holders.
"The government has decided that FIFA is more important than people who've been paying for more than 50 years," seat holder Jamile Thome said. "It feels so strange not having the possibility to watch the World Cup in the Maracana from our seats."
