Posted on 05/30/2014 7:21:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Football legend Ronaldo, a member of Brazil's World Cup organizing committee, said only 30 percent of the infrastructure projects undertaken for the tournament would be completed. Brazil promised a host of projects in conjunction with the World Cup to improve its roads, airports and urban transport networks.
But the country has struggled to finish even essential ones such as stadiums, and has shelved much of the rest.
"I think we're missing an opportunity. A series of investments were promised that won't be delivered. Only 30 percent will be delivered," two-time World Cup winner Ronaldo told a forum organized by newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
He also elaborated on remarks last week in which he said he was "ashamed" of the delays in preparing for the tournament, which kicks off June 12.
"My shame is for the people, who were hoping for major investments, that's the great legacy of the Cup for us. They were expecting a lot and they're the ones most hurt by the situation," he said.
The former Real Madrid and Barcelona star also joked about Brazil's tense relationship with FIFA. The world football governing body has sharply criticized the host country's delays.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
If it were up to me, I’d rotate the Summer and Winter Olympics among 4 countries every 4 years ( those countries that have managed their Olympics well and not lost money ).
The facilities are already there, JUST USE THEM.
For the Summer Olympics, I suggest these 4 rotations — Sydney, Seoul, London, Los Angeles.
For Winter — Salt Lake City, Calgary, Lillehammer, Sarajevo
...the real excitement of the event!
Most of the venues in London were designed to be temporary and have already been dismantled. Google the Sarajevo Winter venues and most of them got blown to pieces in their war. Under your plan no city is going to go to the expense of building and maintaining facilities that will be used once every 20 years.
I’ve had similar thoughts. Its stupid to keep building venues that only get used once.
Might take Sarajevo off the list thought. Their facilities are in sad shape, after years of civil war.
Agree.
I was in London last week and the Brits are hoping for a relocation back to London in 2016, since most of the infrastrcuture is already in place and serviceable.
Houston could handle it. It has a covered NFL stadium with a capacity of about 80,000; two major college football stadiums; 3-4 additional college stadiums within 2-3 hours; an NBA Arena; a new MLS stadium, plenty of hotels and lots of great restaurants.
“Sounds like the same people who handled Sochi.”
Yeah, I was wondering what the wild dog and poison water situation was in Brazil.
They could spread matches around like Sao Paolo and even Buenos Aries and Montevideo. Would get them by.
I think London is back up for the Olympics.
I think you are right. My wife is Cuban—don’t even get me started there.
Cuban time is nothing like normal time. To be honest, South Americans are horrible for punctuality. While I’m Spanish, I operate on “German-time” for whatever reason. So it drives me insane the lack of urgency that these cultures have.
Brazil hosting anything is laughable at best—heck, we joke on Mexicans, but they’ve hosted two of the best World Cups ever. IMO, the Mexicans followed by Chileans are the most capable nations for getting things done.
In hindsight, it will have been smart of them to not waste the money. It is waste to invest in capital projects that won’t be put to long-term steady use.
Brazil should just stick to beach volleyball.
Just saying...
The IOC needs to rethink it’s whole criteria about what they expect from Olympic host such building all brand new venues. Cities are starting to say no like Philly and New York did for a possible 2024 Summer Bid. Use what you already have for crying out loud and be done with it. Los Angeles did that in 1984 and SLC in 2002. LA used many of the university and existing stadiums and just painted them in the pretty pastels and it was a very successful event.
Dallas is supposedly going to bid for 2024. Like LA in 1984, they have the venues in place all across North Texas and probably just have to add a few for some of the less costly sports like Archery for example. They and other just need to tell the IOC to get their socialists little heads out of their asses and allow them to make it a less of burden on the taxpayer.
We need Romney for VA Secretary now.
The last thing the vets need is for Romney to give them cancer or something. ;)
It’s generally a Latino culture thing - somewhat the same in Nicaragua where we’ve worked with orphans and street kids. Less so in El Salvador. Chile is definitely the exception - radically so.
BUT, some parts of Brazil were settled by Germans - look like Germany, act like Germans - if you didn’t know better and the signs were not in Portuguese, you’d be convinced you are in Germany. Ultra-clean, fastidious, prompt. Detail oriented.
German culture is a whole different animal - and the very reason that Germany is prosperous more than almost any other Euro country. Quality? Tops. Frugal? The most. Productive? Tops. Disciplined? The most.
Latino culture is the opposite - Italy, Spain, etc. have similar problems, though perhaps not to the degree. Greece has a similar culture and similar problems.
Now, if we want to go deeper, we could look into church origins and its effect on cultures......but not going to go there....
When the guy and his family returned after a few years, he said while the experience overall was a good one, they quickly learned to tell their family members back in the U.S. to not send gift packages through the Brazilian postal system.
If they did get a package from the national po, much of the time the contents had been removed. Many times the packages never arrived. Obviously, people who worked for the Brazilian postal system were tampering with or stealing the contents.
Just wait until the host country doesn’t make it to the final or loses the final. Imagine for a second being white skinned and getting out of the stadium after, say, Germany defeats Brazil. You’re telling me there won’t be riots!? You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to travel to that shi$ hole to watch the cup.
Yes, and now you can use any rest room you feel like thanks to the wonderful mayor of Houston.
Maybe they can take lessons from Russia on how not to be prepared for international sporting events
Politicians love bread and circuses
and this time they can’t even make it a good circus
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