The first ever NFL game in South America is fast approaching, and for the fans of the teams playing, Packers and Eagles, there’s a lot of planning that needs to happen, before they can relax and enjoy their time in São Paulo and hope that their team wins, especially if the plan to make it to Brazil is not to get one of the packages offered by either team.
If you’re here, I’m assuming you’re looking for the advice of a true local: Hi, I’m from São Paulo, and lived there for a long time before moving to LA, but all the info I’m putting here has been approved by people who currently live in São Paulo, so the logistics have been confirmed.
While I don’t call São Paulo my home anymore, my Brazilian heritage lives on. I can recommend A LOT of Brazilian foods, drinks and places to visit. I haven’t forgotten those of course, but for this post I’d like to focus on the points I think are the most important for anyone visiting the country for the first time: Transport, safety and accommodations, basically what you’ll need for a great trip.
The Green Bay Packers are gonna face off against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sep 6th, in São Paulo, and if you don’t know much about Brazil, just know that my hometown is the largest urban economy is Latin America and the state the city is in, also named São Paulo is the most populous in the country, in other words, the city and the state are big AF and I like to compare São Paulo to New York: it is incredibly fast paced and people always have places to be (I love it!).
The game is gonna be held at Neo Química Arena, the arena of one of the most beloved soccer teams in Brazil: Corinthians. When the NFL announced where the game was going to happen, my dear friend Juliana sprung into action and went for a tour of the place so I could report back to you guys.
I’ll tell you this: the arena is gorgeous, the facilities look amazing for both fans and teams, the field is made of ryegrass, which is the standard required for fields during any World Cup (soccer nerds, rejoice). In other words, the INSIDE part of the visit to the arena is gonna be great, what worries me is the AREA where the arena is in, Zona Leste, which has its good and bad parts, similar to the dynamic of where the Rams Stadium is in Los Angeles.
For such a big event and given the fact that it is the first time the NFL is holding a game in South America, I believe the level of security will be extremely heightened, as it should. I’m assuming the league has done their research very well and are aware that when Taylor Swift was in São Paulo last year, but not in the same area, there were security issues during the exiting of fans.
To give you even more perspective, the packages offered by the company On Location Experiences, NFL’s official hospitality provider, all come with a security detail, so make of that what you will. I’d suggest: Be smart, be aware of your surroundings and don’t wear anything expensive or flashy.
Onto the next topic – Accommodations. The hotel provided in the official travel packages offered by On Location is named Meliá Jardim, a 5-star hotel, in a great part of town, the experience comes with transport to the arena as well. The only downside I see is the time it is gonna take from hotel to the arena: at the time I’m writing this, it’s not peak time in São Paulo and the trip is still taking 1 hour and 23 minutes, so factor in how crazy busy is gonna be come gametime and I’m sure that’s gonna go up, a lot.
So if you’re not using the official packages that come with transport, and don’t mind knocking one star, a hotel closer to the area will make a big difference. During my research I found a 4-star hotel, in the part of town locals suggest you stay if you’re visiting to go to one of the games there. Hotel Intercity Tatuapé, at the time I’m writing this, it’s not peak traffic and it’ll take 24 minutes to get to the arena. For me to suggest this, I did check yesterday during peak time, and the whole trip would only be 38 minutes. That is a big, BIG difference.
Last but not least: transportation. Everyone I talked to about what to suggest for people to get to Neo Química Arena, told me the best way is to take the subway. I looked online for suggestions as well and I confirm that is what people suggest. One pointer I can give about public transportation is while there is signage and announcements in English, the language is not known to the vast majority of brazilians, actually only 1% speak it. So keep your phones charged, in case you get lost.
To those going, I hope you enjoy the experience and my hometown. All the info I added here isn’t meant to scare you, but to empower you, so your trip is as smooth as possible. Go have fun, eat coxinha and pão de queijo, drink caipirinhas and enjoy football in one of the biggest and most important cities in South America, make brazilian friends, we are super fun and big sports fans too. But they call NFL’s football soccer, so be ready LOL!