Get to know the Brazilian stadium that was built on the Equator Line

Like many stadiums around the world, Milton de Souza Corrêa, in Macapá (AP), has a nickname: Zerão. If you think this could be a goal-scoring prophecy, you are mistaken. It turns out that this refers to the latitude in which it was built, which is zero! This is because Zerão was built exactly on the Equator Line. In practice, it is possible to score in the Northern Hemisphere while defending in the Southern Hemisphere.

Well, in “real practice” this does not happen, since Zerão suffered a miscalculation due to the lagged Brazilian Geodetic System, which in the late 90's was misaligned with the international coordinates established in 1984. By national standard, the line of the stadium's midfield would coincide exactly with the imaginary Equator Line, which divides the earth into two hemispheres.

However, this line is a few meters behind the goal that should be in the Southern Hemisphere, but this does not take away the charm of the stadium, which receives official matches of Macapaense teams. Inaugurated in 1990, Zerão was named Ayrton Senna in 1994, but later moved to Milton de Souza Corrêa, in honor of the founder of Guarany Atlético Clube, Macapá, and the owner of Esporte Clube Macapá. Milton was also a journalist and founded a boy scout group in the city. He died in a car accident in 1994 at age 67.

When it was built, the Zerão midfield line was to coincide with the Equator Line:

In practice, however, the Equator Line is a little behind one of the goals:

Capacity of Zerão is 13, 680 people

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