The club's president Vicente Matheus asked for a concession from São Paulo's mayor Olavo Setúbal in the Itaquera region, east of the city centre.

The mayor accepted the request 10 November 1978[25] and a concession for 90 years was granted on 26 December 1978 for a 197,000 square metres (49 acres) property.

[26] The area was owned at the time by COHAB, an agency for public housing controlled by the São Paulo City government.

[39][40] A study from Fundação Getúlio Vargas estimated R$1 Billion in revenue during the World Cup, as 290 thousand tourists were expected for the event.

[43] Because of FIFA's agreements with Brazil, none of the construction work related to the World Cup was taxed by the Federal Government; the final price agreed upon was R$820 million.

[48] The estimated construction cost did not include the R$38.1 million required for adding temporary bleachers,[49][50] which were removed after the World Cup was over.

The two-year delay in receiving BNDES funds caused an increase of R$108 million to the cost because of the difference in interest between loans taken from regular banks and from the government agency.

[61] The reflecting pools also work as a performance fountain, providing splash and spectacle at programmed moments during stadium events.

[80] In November 2023, the National Football League announced it would play its first game in South America at Arena Corinthians during the 2024 season.

[81] The league announced in February 2024 that the Philadelphia Eagles would host the Green Bay Packers during the first week of the regular season on 6 September 2024.

For example, newspaper Folha[87] refers to Arena Corinthians as Itaquerão; O Estado de S. Paulo uses both the neighbourhood-based nickname and the official name.

[90] Companies that sought to buy the naming rights included Petrobras,[91] Ambev,[92] Grupo Petrópolis,[93] Etihad Airways,[94] Qatar Foundation,[94] Caixa Econômica Federal,[95] Emirates Airlines,[96] Bradesco,[97] Telefonica,[98] BMG,[99] Itaú Unibanco,[97] Santander Group,[100] Kalunga[101] and Zurich Insurance Group.

It was officially renamed Neo Química Arena, part of a 20-year partnership with Hypera Pharma, Brazil's largest pharmaceutical company.

[105] 59 concession stands are available,[1] as is an auditorium for 360 people[55] and a 25,000 square metres (270,000 sq ft) convention center under the west building.

Home team changing rooms occupy 1,300 square metres (14,000 sq ft), with Jacuzzis, cryotherapy and a private area for the coach.

[130] Aníbal Coutinho intended to bring a paulistano flair to the construction using structures that resemble the São Paulo Museum of Art, a symbol of the city.

[137] 4,500 square metres (48,000 sq ft) of glass will be installed on the end closest to the pitch of the west and east roofing.

[151] DLF states that this grass has strong cold and wear tolerance and is disease resistant, combined with fast growth rate.

[152] The choice of using ryegrass instead of the most common and usually recommended Bermuda brought advantages like having longitudinal roots, avoiding the cleats to tangle with them, and resistance to yellowing.

[153] A cooling system pushes cold water through 40,000 metres (130,000 ft) of drainage pipes, reducing the grass roots temperature to 6 °C (43 °F).

[165] Created for World Cup matches, an express train connects Luz and the Corinthians-Itaquera CPTM Station, making the trip in 17 minutes.

[179] The circumstances in which Arena Corinthians was chosen as the World Cup stadium for São Paulo, and the resources used for its construction, have been criticised.

Jose Serra, governor of São Paulo in 2007, planned to bring the opening game to his state—specifically to the Morumbi Stadium—as soon as Brazil was confirmed as the host nation of FIFA World Cup 2014.

[180] Mayor Gilberto Kassab supported the option of Morumbi and was assured that president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wanted the same.

[182] FIFA's president Sepp Blatter stated that Morumbi could not host the opening game or semifinals without an extensive renovations plan.

[42] Journalist Wagner Vilaron from O Estado de S. Paulo deemed the exclusion of the Morumbi Stadium from the World Cup and the subsequent choice of Arena Corinthians as a venue for the event to be politically charged.

[185] After receiving several negative responses from FIFA about the renovation project for Morumbi, then-CBF-president Ricardo Teixeira lost patience with São Paulo Futebol Clube officers; he considered that they were delaying the decision by purposely failing to meet the requirements to force the government to spend money on the construction.

At the same time, an affinity between Teixeira and then-president of Corinthians, Andrés Sanchez—who was chosen as the head of delegation for the national team during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and on the same side on Clube dos 13's election—was noticed.

[188] Carlos Miguel Aidar, then a candidate for the SPFC presidency, said Arena Corinthians exists because Brazil's president demanded the construction of a new stadium in São Paulo; he also said Corinthians will never repay the loans for the stadium, that Odebrecht was the real owner, that FIFA and the Brazilian government only wanted to make money for construction companies, and that Itaquera was "another world, another country, nobody can get there".

[191] The federal government dismissed the notion, saying that tax credits are intended to encourage economical growth and work opportunities for the areas surrounding the stadia.