Protests in Brazil are a Lesson to All in Sports Bidding – Keir Radnedge
June 25, 2013
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Brazil over the past fortnight in anger at monies being expended on hosting the World Cup.
No matter that Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo has insisted that World Cup costs are a drop in the ocean compared with the state’s vast expenditure on health, education and social welfare in general.
So, here is a lesson for all those politicians and businessmen who inhabit the industry of sports bidding and hosting and those who would capitalise on it.
Also here is a lesson in public perception which the International Olympic Committee should appreciate little more than three months from the vote on whether Istanbul or Madrid or Tokyo should host the summer Games in 2020.
Consider the budgetary issues surrounding different venues for a variety of events.
The 2014 World Cup is costing $9bn on new stadia and supporting infrastructure (airports, etc) in 12 cities across what FIFA president Sepp Blatter is pleased to describe as “not so much a country, more a continent.”
That is less than half the revised new budget declared by the Russian hosts of the 2018 World Cup. This has just doubled to $20bn and it will be unlikely that even that limit can be maintained, given a warning of extra expenditure needed on the new stadia.
Looking further ahead costs for both 2018 and 2022 are dwarfed by the sort of figures Qatar has been talking about for the grand national plan whose projects incorporate whatever may be necessary to stage the 2020 World Cup finals. No-one doubts Qatar can afford it, of course.
As for Russia 2018, President Vladimir Putin has no compunction about high spending on what critics have been described as ‘vanity projects.’ After all, this is the country which is spending an astronomical, even obscene, $50bn on next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The legacy for gouging out a chunk of the Caucasus for the sake of two weeks of winter sport is a venue projected to generate unknown ongoing income from winter sports tourists (If they do not mind holidaying so close to Russia’s troublesome southern regions and neighbours).
Different countries, different ambitions, different responses.
How FIFA president Sepp Blatter and secretary-general Jerome Valcke must be wishing away the time to the end of the Brazilian World Cup adventure next year.
Then (assuming they are intent on carrying on) they can steer the world football ship into the comparatively peaceful prospect of World Cups in Russia and Qatar (After all, if Russians will not whinge about $50bn on the Winter Olympics they will not come out on the streets over less than half that for the World Cup).
Does this speak into the 2020 Olympics debate?
Of course. Events in Brazil have forced a revision of the correlation between event costs and public perception.
Only weeks ago Turkey was convulsed by the fall-out of public fury generated by a plan to build over one small park. Have the Istanbul protesters vanished or would Olympic construction projects bring them back out on to the streets?
When Istanbul 2020 projected its hosting budget as irrevocably enmeshed within a development budget of $20bn it was a brazen statement of ambition and well over three times the Madrid and Tokyo budgets combined.
Now, in the wake of street unrest from Ankara to Araxa it does not look as impressive depending on whether the message of Brazil proves a two-week wonder or a serious warning shot across the bows of the sports hosting industry.
The irony is that the World Cup would appear to deliver far greater value for money.
Keir Radnedge has been covering football worldwide for more than 40 years, writing 33 books, from tournament guides to comprehensive encyclopedias, aimed at all ages.
His journalism career included The Daily Mail for 20 years as well as The Guardian and other national newspapers and magazines in the UK and around the world. He is a former editor, and remains a lead columnist, with World Soccer, generally recognised as the premier English language magazine on global football.
In addition to his writing, Keir has been a regular analyst for BBC radio and television, Sky Sports, Sky News, Aljazeera and CNN.
Keir Radnedge’s Twitter: @KeirRadnedge
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