I went to those stadiums for the WC, the one in Manaus was such a white elephant it was ridiculous. They literally had to bring all the raw materials in by boat down the Amazon.
Stadium Discussion
- Thread starter Gene
- Start date
I know it would be bizarre and FIFA would lose a lot of money on tickets, but if they were true to their expressed desires, why not host tournaments in "fringe destinations" with existing facilities or with appropriate upgrades?
Imagine seeing Spain v Brazil in a 10k stadium in Morocco. It would be surreal and probably a more interesting cultural exchange than sitting in an oversized McStadium that's going to fall into disrepair the minute the lights go down on the closing ceremony.
Imagine seeing Spain v Brazil in a 10k stadium in Morocco. It would be surreal and probably a more interesting cultural exchange than sitting in an oversized McStadium that's going to fall into disrepair the minute the lights go down on the closing ceremony.
In a 10k seat stadium, hosting Spain vs Brazil, the plebeians of the world would never come close to getting a ticket. We would all be watching it on TV.
Lol I accounted for that. Figured it was less bad than not seeing tournaments in new countries or massive infrastructure overspending.
The demand v supply ratio is already ridiculous so I don't think it would be that much worse. The plebeians are already getting stiffed and they already have mediocre measures to mitigate that.
Unless the tournament is hosted by Nike in the bowels of a derelict ocean freighter, I prefer to watch games played in massive & pristine stadiums (structure & field conditions), filled to capacity, with boisterous & passionate fans - it’s about the best possible conditions and experience/energy. There are plenty of opportunities for teams to do outreach with “fringe” countries, not that they necessarily do, but the WC should be played with a level of hosting support that brings out the absolute best from every team.
It’s an interesting idea but not really much different that Brazil hosting. You’re still going to have to spend a fortune to support a tournament of that size because countries like Morocco don’t have the infrastructure of Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the US.
I haven't seen the financials for South Africa or Brazil, but my understanding was that most of it was for upgrading stadiums for usage patterns that are orders of magnitude more demanding than regular non-WC usage patterns.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/296493/total-costs-fifa-world-cup-2014-brazil/
Unclear if you drill into the transportation spending, but perhaps if you scale back expected visitor numbers, those improvements are also more reasonable beyond the duration of the World Cup.
Off topic (on topic?), one of the nice things about building a stadium out in Queens is that it should allow for a good amount of solar panels to power the stadium greenly. I think LAFC is doing the same thing eventually with their stadium, probably to a much greater effect.
So this is exploding today, I posted this in the World Cup 2026 thread, but figured I'd place it here as this is kind of on topic.
http://thebreaker.news/news/exclusive-fifa-demands/
FIFA demands:
http://thebreaker.news/news/exclusive-fifa-demands/
FIFA demands:
- Massive tax exemptions
- Requires hosts countries to be entirely responsible for all security
- Requires host countries to assume liability for all security and safety related incidents
- Requires special laws and enforcement against counterfeiting, trademark violation, ambush marketing and “the prohibition of the secondary ticket market in relation to the competition.”
- Wants a visa-free environment where work permits are issued “unconditionally and without any restriction or discrimination of any kind.”
As opposed to the black rivers we use called the national highway system? Lots of places need raw materials brought in from afar (thinking of fledgling days of Las Vegas as an example), so moving raw materials by the best means of transportation available is not crazy. In fact water transport can be cheaper (I'm thinking supersize cargo ships; not sure if river transport is competitive due to limited sizes and the need for dredging).
This doesn't mean the stadium isn't, indeed , a white elephant; I just don't see the second statement as an example of this.
P.S.
I work with a super-smart, super-snarky guy who calls me out on stuff like that all the time and I am slowly becoming like him.
P.P.S.
I wanted to say he was rubbing off on me.....but you can see why I had to change it.
Ok, and open your books for full audit and require all Fifa officers (federation and top hierarchy) to sign off on it (physically) *in* the host country at acceptance and during the competition- the officials don’t step foot in the country during the competition, the Fifa tax benefits are forfeited. We’ll see how many are clean at that point.
Populous involved in Phoenix stadium proposal.
https://www.phxrisingfc.com/news_article/show/897524?referrer_id=2717359
https://www.phxrisingfc.com/news_article/show/897524?referrer_id=2717359
That’s a really nice stadium concept!Populous involved in Phoenix stadium proposal.
https://www.phxrisingfc.com/news_article/show/897524?referrer_id=2717359
Seeing it in that advanced stage really pisses me off that were in year 4 with no concrete information. Every owner wants to make/save as much money as they can, but we’re at the point where CFG needs to just write the blank check - I’d be curious how much NYC Realestate has increased in the last 4 years, because it definitely has, and had they just pulled the trigger back then and paid whatever was needed for the land/rights, they’d probably be better off than having waited 4 years, as the market has grown, in order to land their perfect spot that hypothetically includes the city kick-ins. I realize there’s more to it than that, but over 4 years of waiting, the price of land, materials, and labor has risen significantly in NYC. Should have just paid off the damn bonds on the Yankee’s parking garages and called it a business expense (if that counts).
In fairness, that's actually better than some of the things that the IOC demands for the right to host an Olympics event. Norway, for instance, dropped out of the running to host the 2022 Winter Olympics after the IOC included the following on their Must Have list:
- A cocktail reception to be hosted and paid for by the King
- Roads to be re-marked to give IOC members their own lanes to travel down, traffic-free
- Airports to be rezoned to give IOC members their own entrance separate from regular travellers
- The IOC President to be given a red carpet reception at the airport
- The national Olympic Association head to personally meet all officials at their hotel and offer them a basket of seasonal national fruits (apparently some bafflement was expressed by the Norwegians at what fruit the IOC thinks grows in Norway in the middle of their winter)
- All hotel staff must always be seen smiling to IOC members
- Meals at venues to be changed on a regular basis so that no IOC member ever need eat the same meal twice
Aside from the financial difficulties and restrictions in seating for fans (and let's not forget that FIFA probably allocates more than 10k seats to sponsors every game...) don't forget that TV camera angles on small stadia are invariably awful due to the lack of elevation afforded.
They can be that way in large stadia too if the operators are too stupid to put cameras in the upper decks.
