Wc 2014

[arwebb]

They've got a big selling job to do.

[Olympian2004]

And according to Brazilian media reports, these are the 18 stadia currently in the race for the 2014 World Cup:

Existing:

* Belém - Estádio Olímpico Edgard Proença - currently 45,600 seats

* Belo Horizonte - Estádio Magalhães Pinto - currently 76,500 seats

* Brasília - Estádio Mané Garrincha - currently 45,200 seats

* Campo Grande - Estádio Universitário P. Pedrossian - currently 45,000 seats

* Cuiabá - Estádio Governador José Fragelli - currently 47,000 seats

* Curitiba - Kyocera Arena - currently 31,102 seats

* Florianópolis - Arena Orlando Scarpelli - currently 21,069 seats

* Fortaleza - Estádio Plácido Castelo - currently 58,300 seats

* Goiânia - Estádio Serra Dourada - currently 54,048 seats

* Manaus - Estádio Vivaldo Lima - currently 43,000 seats

* Porto Alegre - Estádio José Pinheiro Borda - currently 58,306 seats

* Rio Branco - Arena da Floresta - currently 17,000 seats

* Rio de Janeiro - Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho - currently 92,000 seats

* São Paulo - Estádio Cícero Pompeu de Toledo - currently 73,501 seats

To be built:

* Maceió - Arena Zagallo

* Natal - Estrela dos Reis Magos

* Recife/Olinda - Recife-Olinda Arena - 45,500 seats planned

* Salvador - Arena da Bahia

[baron-pierreIV]

Taking a look at the candidate stadia,

1. Most of them are oval-shaped (not really the best sight-lines) and

2. Two-tiered already, so there's really not much room to expand these stadia. The more recent ones look like they have partial roofs, which then hinder the addition of jumbotron screens.

Looks the 4 new ones planned will be the pride and joy of Brazil 2014. But otherwise, most of the existing 18 will need massive reconfiguration to make them state-of-the-art.

[Rominger]

Taking a look at the candidate stadia,

1. Most of them are oval-shaped (not really the best sight-lines) and

2. Two-tiered already, so there's really not much room to expand these stadia. The more recent ones look like they have partial roofs, which then hinder the addition of jumbotron screens.

Looks the 4 new ones planned will be the pride and joy of Brazil 2014. But otherwise, most of the existing 18 will need massive reconfiguration to make them state-of-the-art.

Baron,

Look for those ones only:

Belem

Belo Horizonte

Curitiba

Florianopolis (will explain that later)

Goiania

Porto Alegre

Rio

Sao Paulo

Plus, of the new stadia:

Salvador

Recife

Reason why:

Biggest cities, biggest stadia, better infrastructure, most updated. With that, those are the 10 cities chosen, with 90% of certainty. Of those 10, I believe that only Belem, for economic reasons, might be out, with one of the other 2 new ones or Manaus or Brasilia (because it is the capital) taking its place.

Remember that some will be mostly updated, like Maracana (which needs a more updated picture) here in Rio. By the way, Maracana is going to be handed to a private company, in a concession basis, in a tender to be done in a short time.

In Porto Alegre, those 2 soccer teams are planning to fight for the right to stage the WC games, and believe me that they are the ones who are most dedicated on upgrading on their own (they are more similar to european teams on that).

Florianopolis there is already a HUGE plan to upgrade this stadium or build a new one

Curitiba is a great stadium, which needs just the final sector to be build (by the way, it was projected to be a closed stadium, not with one open side)

Belem is already a great stadium, which don´t need much improvement, only to be adequate for the FIFA standards.

But all of them have a big problem, which is lack of illumination. The Engenhao is the closest one and still it is way below the minimum standards (something like 60%)

[baron-pierreIV]

Of course the other considerations are:

- hotel space;

- Brazil's domestic air (train?) network to get fans to their respective teams' cities. How will Brazil fare in this Dept come the summer of 2014? and

- the killer bee situation. Is that under control as well?

[Rominger]

Of course the other considerations are:

- hotel space;

- Brazil's domestic air (train?) network to get fans to their respective teams' cities. How will Brazil fare in this Dept come the summer of 2014? and

- the killer bee situation. Is that under control as well?

In parts:

- Hotel: Sao Paulo I believe is under control. Rio is improving each year: it is expected to arrive in 2014 with 34.000 rooms IF there is no major event here (currently there are 27.000), probably that number will increase if 2014 is confirmed. As for the rest of the cities, most of them are touristic places, so it will be a major boost if the WC is confirmed here.

- Transportation: At least the air problem happened now, so there is plenty of time for resolving that. The biggest mistake of the past 4 years was improving the airports, making them something like malls, but not looking at the basics, like flight distribution, landning places, and so on. (Un)fortunatelly, it took 2 major air accidents for them to start taking care. Hopefully, in 2010, this goverment will end and someone with more brains will come out.

As for train, it is impossible here for someone travelling just by train during the WC. Cities too far from each other. Just remember the WC in the US. I believe if 2014 is confirmed the high speed train (TGV like) will be operating for the WC, but only between Sao Paulo and Rio. I have been following that for quite some time since I work in one of the banks which might finance the operation.

- Killer Bee: Huuum, haven´t heard of that. As a matter of fact, over here the only time I´ve got stung by a bee was like 2 years ago by a solitary bee while I was returning from work. It was the last time I saw a bee here in a major city here (and I´ve travelled a little bit during that time).

I´ve just mentioned those topics because that 18-list is mostly for political reasons. If Campo Grande is awarded, for example, it will be just because of that. The focus will be on that 10 shorlist cities

[Rominger]

Just an update. Today in the newspaper, there is a rumor that 4 venues are already confirmed for 2014: Rio, Sao Paulo, one "Amazon" site and one "Pantanal" site.

The Amazon site could be either Belem or Rio Branco (man, if Rio Branco is selected....)

The Pantanal site could be either Cuiabá or Campo Grande (If there are 12 cities, one of them would be added to my 10 shortlist, if there are 10 cities only it would replace Goiania, which is a bad trade in my opinion).

I actually forgot about this ecological aspect of the WC here.

[Olympian2004]

But why doesn't the bid committee want to publish the dossier or at least give some information about its content? Are there any reports on that issue in Brazil?

[Faster]

From the looks of the stadiums each will need between 50 and 75 million dollars in upgrades, some look like they will need as much as 150 million. All the stadiums will need roofs and upgrades to the actual seating. That being said on average I would say that the stadium budget there would be about 1.1 to 1.4 billion dollars in stadium upgrades. This is not that bad, compared to the the more than 2 billion for South Africa its would be good.

[Rominger]

But why doesn't the bid committee want to publish the dossier or at least give some information about its content? Are there any reports on that issue in Brazil?

I guess 900 pages (in 4 volumes) are not easy to put it on the web at once, or simply the lack of opponents made them decide not to put on-line.

Anyway, the website from CBF (Brazilian Football Federation) and its 2014 plans is:

CBF 2014 - Hot Site (On the Media Release in Portuguese there is a picture of the bid books, looks nice, but I can´t paste the link here)

There is a message that the website will be under mantainace this weekend, never know what will show on Monday.

[Rominger]

Never mind, found it here:

Flick 1

Flick 2

By the way, the wood is NOT taken from the Amazon.

[Rominger]

For those interested, pics of the project for finalizing the Kyocera Arena, in Curitiba.

Kyocera Arena Project pictures