Stade Engenheiro Luthero Lopes, Municipal stadium in Rondonópolis, Brazil
Engenheiro Luthero Lopes Stadium, known as Caldeirão, is a football ground in Rondonópolis with a capacity of 19,000. It has a natural grass pitch and serves as home to União Esporte Clube, Rondonópolis Esporte Clube, Vila Aurora and the Rondonópolis Hawks American football team.
Work on the stadium began in 1997 and finished in 2000; it was inaugurated on 22 March 2000, when União Rondonópolis lost 4-0 to Grêmio in the Copa do Brasil. Ronaldinho, then of Grêmio, scored the ground's first goal in that match. The attendance record of 18,850 paying spectators was set on 22 July 2004, in a 0-0 draw between União and Cuiabá in the second leg of the Campeonato Mato-grossense final.
The stadium is home ground to União Esporte Clube, Rondonópolis Esporte Clube and Sociedade Esportiva Vila Aurora, and since 2015 also to the Rondonópolis Hawks American football team. Its nickname, Caldeirão ("cauldron"), reflects the heated matchday crowds; the ground record of 18,850 paying spectators was set on 22 July 2004 in the Mato-grossense final second leg, a 0-0 draw between União and Cuiabá.
The stadium sits in Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso, and hosts matches of União Esporte Clube, Rondonópolis Esporte Clube, Vila Aurora and the Rondonópolis Hawks. Check which club is playing before travelling, since the ground is shared by several teams across football and American football.
On 16 May 2015 the stadium hosted its first American football game, in the third week of the Mato Grosso championship: the newly formed Rondonópolis Hawks lost 35-13 to Cuiabá Arsenal. The match was the ground's first non-football event since it opened in 2000.
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