World C up Stadia
Arena de São Paulo
“Close” to Completion
When it comes to Soccer World Cups, drama
is guaranteed, and cost overruns are a given.
The blame can normally be laid at the door of
FIFA, as South Africans well know, as we ponder
all the white elephants that FIFA consigned to us
after our very own FIFA circus show in 2010.
A
nd now it is Brazil’s turn to be turned into the
Blatter and Valcke show. During its visit to
the Automec in São Paulo in the first week of
April 2014 aBr took the opportunity to visit the site where
the official opening of the FIFA 2914 World Cup will take
place on 12 June 2014. The Arena de São Paulo, which was
apparently 95% finished at the time of our visit on 3 April,
is an imposing structure, with some interesting architectural
features, but far more interesting is how the Arena de São
Paula came into being.
➲ A view of the site from afar
But at least this stadium will be used for soccer after the
2014 World Cup, as it will be the home base of the Sport
Club Corinthians Paulista, who will retrofit the stadium
for regular use, with the moniker Arena Corinthians. It will
be the fifth-largest stadium on the top tier of the Brazilian
League and the eleventh-largest in Brazil, with a seating
capacity of 48,234.
For the World Cup opening match, 19 800
temporary seats will be added to the stadium
for the tournament, and these temporary seats
will be used for 18 months after the event.
➲ Road construction around the stadium also appears to be
way behind schedule
The original intention of Jose Serra (governor for São Paulo
in 2007) was to upgrade the Morumbi Stadium, but FIFA’s
secretary general Jérôme Valcke decided that this stadium was
not good enough, and he was supported by FIFA’s president
Sepp Blatter. And of course, what FIFA wants, FIFA gets.
Just ask the organisers of the South African event, who were
forced to build many stadia merely to satisfy the egos of the
FIFA executives. Green Point Stadium is the most disgraceful
example, as the Athlone Stadium was far more suitable, and far
more accessible to the city’s soccer lovers. And of course, far
cheaper to refurbish, but not good enough for Emperor Blatter.
The Green Point Stadium eventually cost R4,4 billion, but this
will be eclipsed by the costs for the Arena de São Paulo, wh ich
is going to be well north of R5 billion.
| logistics in action
➲ The construction teams are working around the clock to
finalise the stadium
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may 2014