The Brazilian Government has been announcing that there will be heavy investments in infrastructure to prepare the country for the World Cup, including US$ 12 bn in Information Technology investments.

However, it is very likely that users accustomed to high speed access in their home countries will feel the impact of the lower levels of services in Brazil. The Finnish (to whom a 1 MB connection is a basic right, rather than a commerciable service), or the Japanese (who since 2004 have been seeing 1 GB connection for US$ 38 per month), may feel they are back to the Paleolithic Era of internet.

Take, for example, this notice published yesterday, August 1st 2010, by newspaper Tribuna de Natal about broadband access in Natal.

There are only two providers of broaband access in Natal: Cabo Telecom (a cable TV operator) and Oi Velox (ran by Oi Brazil, which happens to be the worst telecom company in Brazil).

Below, prices charged by Cabo Telecom:

So, for a plan with up to 1 Mbps of download and up to 256 Kbps upload, subject to a monthly quota of 20 GB of transfer, the price is R$ 109.90 per month (a bit more than US$ 60 per month).

The broadest band Oi offers in Natal is 1 Mbps, costing 109.90 monthly, provided that the user buys a “promotion” package including voice services.

If the client is interested in data connection only (no voice), then the following table applies:

For most cities (including Natal), only 1 Mpbs is offered, at a cost of R$ 130 for configuration and R$ 123.30 monthly afterwards.

These are the the same options that businesses like hotels, LAN houses, shopping centers, etc have in Natal; that means that their services won’t be any better than their providers’ services.

For some cities, the improvement of internet access, along with a reduction in prices, could be one important legacy of the World Cup.

The Arena Capibaribe and the Complex City of the Cup (which will include, besides the stadium, hotels, business and residence towers and more) will be built in the city of Sao Lourenço da Mata, metropolitan area of Recife. Read more about World Cup in Recife and check out accommodation in Recife.

The video below shows where the complex will be built (the pipe in the background is an aqueduct), in an area  with vestigious of the Atlantic Forest.

The first idea was to built the  Arena in a space near the Convention Center, between Recife and Olinda; however, the cost of terrains was considered too high. The area in Sao Lourenço was chosen because the terrain is already property of the Government of Pernambuco.

The video below highlights the good location of Arena Capibaribe, near to Europe and North America and with good connections with the other host cities.

Environment agencies are being very careful to issue licenses. It is a well known fact today that the unplanned growth of Suape (an industrial and portuary Complex near Sao Lourenço) caused  ecological unbalances which in turned caused sharks to move to the beaches of Recife. In Recife, which once was one of the main surf spots in Brazil, today even sea bathing requires caution – surfers moved to Porto de Galinhas, South of Suape, unaffected by sharks.

The capacity of Arena Capibaribe will be 46,140 seats. There will be 6,000 parking slots.

The City of the Cup will comprehend the Arena, a shopping center, a technical school, a hospital, 9 thousand residences, and ample green area.

A new metro station is being built. There are plans to create rings all around the metropolitan Recife to improve road access to the Complex.

Estimated cost of the Arena alone is R$ 464 million (about US$ 260 million); the Arena should be ready in 2012, and could be one host of the Confederations Cup 2013. Total cost of the City of the Cup is estimated in R$ 1.6 billion (about US$ 900 million), and there is no set deadline.

The contractor is a consortium formed by Odebrecht, International Stadia Group and AEG Facilities. Besides collecting the proceedings of the businesses generated from the Arena, the consortium will receive R$ 4 million per year from the State Government.

However, it is still to be seen if the Arena will be profitful after 2013. The three important clubs of Recife (Nautico, Sport and Santa Cruz) have their own stadia, and may not be interest in playing at the Arena. There are rumors that Nautico is in talks to play matches in the Arena after 2013, but nothing is certain yet.

Updated: August 29th 2010. Below, the implosion of Fonte Nova. Notice that, by design, a part of the stadium (where the radio and TV boxes used to be) was left standing; the reason is that that area was too close to residential areas, and the implosion could be dangerous (it will be demolished mechanically).

The lower ring and part of the higher ring were already demolished mechanically; the implosion will accelerate the removal of the remaining higher ring.

The implosion will be conducted by American company CDI – Controlled Demolition Inc; engineers of the company estimate that the buildings will come down in 17 seconds. All residents living within 250 meters from the stadium will be evacuated.

The old Fonte Nova has been closed since 2007, after the structure collapsed killing eight people.

The new Fonte Nova will have capacity for 50,000 attendants, plus 5,000 VIPs and journalists. There will be also a Museum, a panoramic restaurant, 62 toillets, 46 sanitaries, and a parking space with 2,000 covered slots.

Read more news about the Fonte Nova, the World Cup in Salvador, and check out hotels in Salvador.

For the renovation of Fonte Nova, the Government opened a bidding process won by the Consortium Arena Salvador 2014, formed by giants OAS and Odebrechet (the Consortium was the sole bidder – both OAS and Odebrechet have headquarters in Salvador, and both have strong political connections).

Estimated cost of the renovation of Fonte Nova is R$ 591 million (about US$ 330 million). As usual, BNDES will finance R$ 400 million, and the Consortium will finance the balance. The Consortium will explore the stadium for 35 years, and during the first 15 years, the Government will pay R$ 107 million per year; some Public Prosecutors say that the deal looks too good for the Consortium, and started investigation.

Brazil will invest US$ 18.7 billion in infrastructure to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup, according to Brazilian Minister of Sports Orlando Silva Jr. Speaking on a teleconference today, the Minister stated that these resources will fund 50 projects in 12 Brazilian host cities (the figure mentioned by the Minister today is the same announced a few months ago: R$ 33 bn in infrastructure alone).

Nearly 78 percent of funding will be allocated by the public sector, with the remainder coming from private sector sources (even though that figure is questionable, it is certain that most funding will come from public coffers).

While stating that “we have to work hard” over the coming four years, the Minister emphasized that “Brazil will be ready on time to host a great World Cup.”

“We will work in a timely and transparent manner to prepare Brazil for the World Cup and for the future,” said Minister Silva (according to FIFA, work is not in a timely manner). “We are focusing on sustainable development, which will not only result in Brazil successfully hosting the 2014 matches, but also improve the country for the Brazilian people.”

The projects discussed during the teleconference include investments of US$ 6.5 billion to improve urban mobility, including the development of monorail lines, subways, light rail transit systems, transit terminals and other modes of transportation. Some of these projects, the Minister noted, are already under construction.

Minister Silva also reaffirmed that all planned stadiums will be completed in time for the 2014 World Cup, noting that construction has already started for the stadiums in the cities of Manaus, Cuiaba, Natal, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia (only in Salvador is there some significant progress; Brasilia started today; in Natal, the process was suspended for suspicion of overpricing).

The other six stadiums are currently under the bidding process (everything is moving  very slow).

In the hotel sector, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development has assigned US$ 556.0 million to finance new ventures or remodel hotels with better terms than the market. The resources will be expanded according to demand from the private sector.

To address the aviation demands posed by the mega-event, US$ 3.1 billion has been assigned to enhance 13 national airports. The federal government forecasts a 10 percent increase in traffic through Brazilian airports during the World Cup (and they are already saturated). Investment in ports will be US$ 426 million.

Under the scope of the federal government, an executive group was created to supervise all of Brazil’s preparations as host of World Cup 2014. This group includes representatives of the Office of the Chief of Staff and the ministries of Sports, Planning, Finance and Tourism. In addition, the 12 host cities signed a Responsibility Matrix, which defines the responsibilities of each federative party for the organization of the 2014 games.

The federal government forecasts that the 2014 World Cup will generate an additional US$ 104 billion in economic activity for Brazil through investment, tourism, an increase in household consumption, and the recycling of resources.

In Brazil, there is a huge supply of uneducated workers, which makes it very difficult for ex-convicts (most of them with little or no formal education) to find a job; using the World Cup to give a chance to those people seems like a good initiative.

Fortunately, the idea seems to be coming true.

The Governor of Brasilia announced that he just authorized the works in the National Stadium (the contract had been signed last week), and that 5% of the 1,500 workers will be ex-convicts (see also this CBF note).

These workers are in open or semi-open regimes, which means that they still have to report periodically to the prisons. Salary was not informed; minimum wage in Brazil is R$ 510, a bit less than US$ 300 – and workers have transportation and food assistance, plus social security.

Veja, the most influential Brazilian magazine, published some time ago a guide of best hotels in Brazil; the guide sorts hotels by city and event (such as “the best hotel for the Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo“), and is still a good indicator of the finest hotels in Brazil.

In Sao Paulo: Hotel Unique (photo below),  Sofitel, Transamerica, Grande Hotel Senac. See other hotels in Sao Paulo.

In Rio de Janeiro: Le Meridien, Sheraton, Pousada Pardieiro. See other hotels in Rio de Janeiro.

In Santa Catarina: Plaza Blumenau. See other hotels in Florianopolis.

In Salvador: Bahia Othon. See other hotels in Salvador.

In Curitiba: Mabu Royal and Premium Hotel. See other hotels in Curitiba.

In Brasilia: Melia. See other hotels in Brasilia.

In Recife: Atlante Plaza. See other hotels in Recife.

In Natal: Serhs (photo below). See other hotels in Natal.

In Fortaleza: Bluetree. See other hotels in Fortaleza.

In and near Manaus: Tropical, Amazon River, Crowne Plaza. See other hotels in Manaus.

From the start, that number looked excessive for, among other reasons, the long distances between cities in Brazil (much longer than in South Africa) and the fact that eight host cities would be enough to accommodate eight Groups of Teams (as it happens in the first stage of the World Cup).

More recently, both the Financial Times and The Guardian observed that, by building twelve stadiums, Brazil would be left after the WC with several White Elephants, i.e., venues which would not be used to stage local matches (given the lack of attendants), and would be left to an expensive abandonment.

This blog agrees with such thesis. This post shows that there are only eight cities in Brazil which justify a large football stadium (namely: Rio, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Recife, Salvador and Fortaleza); and if FIFA and CBF wanted, these host cities could easily offer ten or eleven stadiums.

So, which host cities are doomed to have a White Elephant?

First: Brasilia. The most important team in the capital is Brasiliense, which is currently in Second Division of the Brazilian League. Mane Garrincha, the stadium of Brasilia, only sees some crowd when Flamengo comes to play (most people in Brasilia support teams from other States).

Even so, Brasilia is bound to build National Stadium, probably the most expensive stadium for 2014. It must be said that Brasilia, the Federal District, by force of the Constitution, receives heavy subventions from the Federal Government – and hence is the least concerned with public debts.

Recife is an interesting case. The city has three traditional teams (Nautico, Sport and Santa Cruz) and a large, passionate, football crowd. However, the venue of the Cup will be a new stadium, built 20 km away from the town. This stadium, City of Cup, will probably remain not very busy after the Cup.

Manaus has no football tradition at all. The most traditional team in the State of Amazonas is Sao Raimundo, which was champion of Serie D in 2009, and this year will struggle in Serie C.

If the idea was to put the Amazon under the spotlight, then Belem would be a wiser choice. Belem teams, Remo and Paysandu, are not strong, but their fans are very passionate; even with both teams playing Serie B or C, the Belem stadium, Mangueirao, often ranks amongst those with the highest attendances in the whole country. Besides, Belem, also an Amazonic city, is much closer to the other hosts than Manaus.

Cuiaba was chosen because the Government wanted to include a city of Pantanal in the mix. Pantanal, the Brazilian wetlands, is one of the richest ecosystems in the World. The Mato Grosso League is never mentioned in national media.

Last is Natal. Natal is one of the top tourism destinations in Brazil, and will probably be visited by hordes of tourists during the Cup: it is about halfway between Recife and Fortaleza.

But finished the Cup, the new stadium will be used by ABC (currently in Serie C, and who owns a particular stadium, the Frasqueirao) and mostly America (struggling in Serie B, strong candidate to be demoted to Serie C). Too few people, to justify even the most costly design of all stadiums of the Cup (let alone the expensive actual building).

So, if things go on as planned, Brazil will be left after the Cup with a couple of White Elephants.

The winner of the bidding process was the consortium formed by Andrade Gutierrez and Via Engenharia; the contract value is R$ 696 million (a little less than US$ 400 million). The Governor affirmed that Brasilia already has the cash needed to build the stadium, but is still considering to take a loan from the National Development Bank.

The National Stadium will be the new name of the current Mané Garrincha Stadium, with 40,000 seats, opened in 1974, which belongs to the Government of the Federal District of Brazil.

Mané Garrincha will go through a complete overhaul, but will not be completely demolished. The photos show images of the old Mané Garrincha and the New National Stadium.

The National Stadium will have 70,000 seats and will be one of the largest stadiums of the World Cup 2014; as such, the venue is claiming to be the stage of the opening and one of the semi-final matches of the event (Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo are also interested in hosting those matches).

The cost, which is already of the highest among all stadiums in Brazil (second only to Maracana, which will cost R$ 720 million), will likely go even higher. First, because the cost doesn’t include the Telecom system – which will be planned only after FIFA defines which technology shall be used). And, if the Stadium is chosen to host the opening match, then it will need to have all seats covered – a demand by FIFA -, which will also have to be included in the price.

The works should be finished by December 2012, so that the stadium will be ready to be one of the venues of the Confederations Cup 2013.

When asked whether, given the lack of football tradition in Brasilia, the National Stadium won’t become a white elephant after the Cup, the Governor responded that “several companies have contacted us for partnerships, and the stadium will become an entertainment center after 2014″.

The Guardian said nothing new: the Financial Times had already said that the stadiums would become white elephants; it is well known that FIFA and CBF make decisions based largely on financial and political criteria; the twelve host cities were  too many and not the best ones.

So, which Brazilian cities should be chosen to host games in 2014, if the main criterium was number of popular teams (i.e., number of fans which actually would attend games, even after the Cup 2014 is finished)?

The city of Sao Paulo has three very popular teams: Corinthians, Sao Paulo and Palmeiras (which just announced that the new Arena Palestra Italia will be ready in 2012). There are several other large cities in the State of Sao Paulo where there are competitive teams: Santos, Santo Andre, Sao Caetano, Campinas (with two important teams: Ponte Preta and Guarani), Presidente Prudente and a few others.

All above mentioned teams have participated of the Top Division of Brazil National Championship (several teams have won it), and any of those cities could build and use a 40,000 seat stadium. So, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to designate two or even three cities in Sao Paulo as host cities of 2014.

Next, there is Rio de Janeiro. All the major teams are concentrated in the capital city: Flamengo (by far, the team with most fans in Brazil), Fluminense, Vasco da Gama and Botafogo; none of these teams, however, has a big stadium, and until a few years ago all major matches were staged at Maracanã.

For the Pan American Games 2007, the Government of Rio built a brand new stadium, the Joao Havelange; after the Games, the stadium was rented by Botafogo, and today it stages several important matches.

So, it would be very reasonable to nominate both Maracanã and João Havelange as venues of the World Cup 2014.

In Belo Horizonte there are two very powerful teams, Atletico MG and Cruzeiro, and a third popular team, America MG. All of them play at Mineirao, so it makes all sense to refurbish that stadium for the Cup.

In Porto Alegre, a unique situation. There are two equally very strong and very popular teams, Gremio and Internacional (both won the World Tournament of Clubs). Both have their own big private stadiums, namely Olimpico (the new Arena Gremio is in progress) and Beira-Rio.

CBF chose Beira-Rio as the only venue in Porto Alegre (much to the chagrin of Gremio fans), but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to appoint two venues in that city. This idea makes even more sense if one remembers that the State of Rio Grande do Sul (of which Porto Alegre is the capital) makes borders with Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, which are already used to visiting the city in the holidays.

In Curitiba, there are three dominant teams: Atletico PR, Coritiba and Paraná. Atlético PR owns their own stadium, Arena da Baixada, which was the venue chosen in the State.

In Salvador, an easy decision for CBF: there are only two very popular teams, Vitoria and Bahia, and none has a big stadium. So, the venue chosen was Fonte Nova, which belongs to the city of Salvador.

In Recife, probably the toughest decision of all. The city has three popular teams, Sport, Santa Cruz and Nautico (the supremacy among them changes over the decades, there has never been a permanent dominance), and all of them have their own private stadiums (Ilha do Retiro, Arruda and Aflitos). As the fans are fanatic supporters not only of the teams, but of the stadiums as well, it was certain that the city would be a host, but nobody knew which stadium would the venue.

The Government of Pernambuco decided to build a new stadium. As real estate in Recife and neighbour Olinda is very expensive, this new stadium called City of the Cup (actually, a Business Complex including the stadium, shopping centers, hotels, etc) in the small city of Sao Lourenço da Mata. Money will be needed not only to build the stadium, but to create all the infrastructure around it (there are plans to expand the metro line and create new highways).

Now, if there is a candidate to White Elephant of 2014, City of the Cup is it. Not only because it is far away from the city, or because tickets will probably be more expensive there. The reason is that none of the three clubs will stop playing at their own stadiums to go playing at the Government stadium – the President of Nautico would be fired if he agreed to play in Sao Lourenço when Sport kept playing at his home Ilha do Retiro.

The best solution in Recife would be to reach an agreement among the teams (with a draw, if necessary) to choose one stadium to be the venue.

In Fortaleza there are two teams, Ceara and Fortaleza. Both have only occasional appearance in the Top National Division (Ceara is there in 2010, Fortaleza was in 2009), but even the local championships are very disputed, and the fans are very enthusiastic. So, it made sense to choose Fortaleza as host (the city is by the beach, and is close to Europe and USA) and the public stadium Castelão as venue.

So, if CBF had chosen these ten venues in these eight cities, there would be good chances that the stadiums would be well attended after the World Cup 2014 is over.

Continue here: the White Elephants of the FIFA WC 2014.

Below, a brief report of the current situation.

Full schedule of the World Cup 2014 wasn’t released yet. It is known, however, that the matches will happen between mid-June and mid-July of 2014.

The official logo was already presented, but neither the mascot nor other symbols were. Several promotional movies inviting visitors are ready to go – the first one being displayed right after the final match in 2010.

It will be winter in Brazil, but temperatures will be much more pleasant than in South Africa. It is likely that matches will be played, in local time, at mid-morning (around 10 am), short afternoon (around 1 pm) and late afternoon (around 5 pm); that will allow audiences in North America and Europe to watch the games at comfortable times (not sooner than 6 am in Western North America, not later than 10 pm in Eastern Europe).

Tickets are not for sale yet. FIFA already said that there will be big changes from the system adopted in South Africa, so as to make tickets cheaper and easier to be bought.

It is likely that there will be jobs and volunteering opportunities for the World Cup, but there is no further information yet.

Since May 2009, the host cities have been known. To meet interests of FIFA, the Brazilian Confederation and the Brazilian politicians, it was defined that there will be matches in twelve cites (there are doubts if those many are indeed the most recommended).

There will be also twelve stadiums; nine of them are publicly owned, and three are private property. None of the stadiums is ready; a few will be built from stratch, most will be fully overhauled.

Work in all stadiums is delayed. FIFA already manifested preoccupation with the delays. Public stadiums have to deal with a lot of bureaucracy; private stadiums have troubles finding money. This blog keeps track of the works in the stadiums.

Despite claims in contrary by the authorities, the infrastructure works are already delayed. According to several reports, Brazilian airports are not ready to cope with the expected flux of passengers in 2014 (600,000 foreign visitors and 3,000,000 of Brazilians). Recently, the Federal Government passed a law to speed up the works in airports.

The bullet train between Rio and Sao Paulo will not be ready for 2014. Oi Telecom was contracted to provide telecom infrastructure. Very little else has been done regarding infrastructure.

The vuvuzelas were prohibited in Brazil (ops, that was just a wishing).

The graph below shows the recent increase in accesses to this site.