Rio de Janeiro. Cost £322 M Maracanã (78,838 seats) The new residents of then the historic venue will be Rio giants, Fluminense and Flamengo Matches: Group F – F1 v F2 Group B – B1 v B3 Group H – H1 v H3 Group E – E2 v E3 Round of 16 – 1C v 2D Quarter-final – W53 v W54 Final – W61 v W62 São Paulo Cost £230M Arena de Corinthians/Sao Paulo (48,234 + 17000 temporary seats). After the party is over this will be home to Corinthians. The construction has been marred by several deaths. Indeed health and safety has often been overlooked in construction of most of the stadiums in terms of the people working on them. Matches: Group A – Brazil v A2 (opening match) Group D – D1 v D3 Group B – B2 v B3 Group H – H1 v H4 Round of 16 – 1F v 2E Semi-final – W59 v W60 Belo Horizonte Cost £180M Estadio Mineirão or Governador Magalhães Pinto (64,000 seats).Another giant of Brazilian football Cruzeiro will take possession of the stadium when the carnival is over. Matches: Group C – C1 v C2 Group H – H1 v H2 Group F – F1 v F3 Group D – D2 v D3 Round of 16 – 1A v 2B Semi-final – W57 v W58 Brasilia . Cost £280M Estádio Nacional de Brasilia/Mane Garrincha (71,412 seats). A white elephant ? The stadium will be used for the Rio Olympics to host some football matches and be used in the student games of the 2019 Summer Universiade. Matches: Group E – E1 v E2 Group C – C1 v C3 Group A – Brazil v A4 Group G – G2 v G3 Round of 16 – 1E v 2F Quarter-final – W55 v W56 Third place – L61 v L62 Fortaleza. Cost £150M Arena Castelão (63,903 seats) Two lesser known clubs but with passionate support that often results in violence will occupy this post World Cup. Ceará SC and Ferroviário AC. Matches: Group D – D1 v D2 Group A – Brazil v A3 Group G – G1 v G3 Group C – C2 v C3 Round of 16 – 1B v 2A Quarter-final – W49 v W50 Salvador. Cost £170M Arena Fonte Nova (53,700 seats) One time winners of serie A EC Bahia will take ownership post World Cup. Matches: Group B – B1 v B2 Group G – G1 v G2 Group E – E1 v E3 Group F – F2 v F3 Round of 16 – 1H v 2G Quarter-final – W51 v W52
Porto Alegre. Cost £80M Estádio José Pinheiro Borda (Beira-Rio – 52,000 seats) Internacional already play in the stadium which only required a modest renovation. The question has to be asked why the Arena do Gremio a 60,000 facility is not being used given it's modernity. Presumably one club cannot be seen to be favoured over the other though Gremio fans are not best pleased. Matches: Group E – E3 v E4 Group B – B2 v B4 Group H – H2 v H4 Group F – F1 v F4 Round of 16 – 1G v 2H Recife. Cost £145M Itaipava Arena Pernambuco (46,000 seats) . Given the amount of sunshine this dry part of the world receives a solar plant has been installed to power the stadium. When not powering the stadium it will supply power to local houses which is a great thing in itself. Nautico have taken possession of the whole shebang already. Matches: Group C – C3 v C4 Group D – D2 v D4 Group A – A2 v A3 Group G – G1 v G4 Round of 16 – 1F v 2E Manaus. Cost £160M Arena da Amazônia (44,000 seats). Another white elephant in the making ? This despite three of the local clubs being given residency rights. It will make scheduling games and the life of the groundsman interesting. The three clubs being Nacional Futebol Clube, their non affiliated Nacional Fast Clube and the imaginatively titled Atlético Rio Negro. Matches: Group D – D3 v D4 Group A – A2 v A4 Group G – G2 v G4 Group E – E1 v E4 Cuiabá. Cost £150M Arena Pantanal (43,000 seats).Well behind schedule this will be home to fierce rivals Cuiabá Esporte Clube and Mixto (because women were involved in their foundation) Esporte Clube. It is probably the most European looking of all the stadiums. However plans for a retractable roof have had to be shelved. Matches: Group B – B3 v B4 Group H – H3 v H4 Group F – F2 v F4 Group C – C1 v C4 Natal. Cost £220M Arena das Dunas (43,000 seats). The metal skin is designed to help heating and cooling and is reminiscent of the Nou Mestalla in design. It will house América de Natal after the World Cup. Matches: Group A – A3 v A4 Group G – G3 v G4 Group C – C2 v C4 Group D – D1 v D4 Curitiba. Cost £60M. Arena da Baixada (41,000 seats). Already a modern stadium but like us with only three sides being chosen as a World Cup venue was a boon for Atlético Paranaense allowing them to fully enclose the stadium and modernize other facilities. Matches: Group F – F3 v F4 Group E – E2 v E4 Group B – B1 v B4 Costs for all the stadiums have been over budget. Safety concerns still abound and some of the facilities have been found to be rather hastily built which may lead to problems in some given the wet climate some experience. The stadiums in Sao Paulo, Cuiaba and Curitaba are already behind schedule and will not make FIFA's deadline of December the 31st for completion. So the deadlines have been extended to February. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20131203/world-cup-stadiums-fifa-deadline.ap/
Most teams have wisely having researched the local climate and solved the travelling salesman problem ended up in the south of Brazil which for anyone who has studied climate at University is classified by the Koppen system. The south is relatively temperate, the north east arid and rather hot while the vast majority of the centre and north of the country as with Manaus is tropical. Teams playing in Manaus and the north east will be unfortunate with the high temperatures and humidity. This will affect teams if they progress through the group stages. The dew point is an absolute measure of water vapour in the atmosphere. The higher it's value the more moisture there is. As sweating relies on the latent heat of vaporization the more water vapour present externally will slow down cooling of the body. In Manaus the dew point is at a value such that the vapour mass can actually be felt whereas at the venues of Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Brasilia, Curitaba and Belo Horizonte it is perfectly adequate for athletes. In Sao Paulo players may actually feel rather chilly at times given the city's altitude which also aids cooling as opposed to Rio at sea level. Another factor that may be important is the immense distances some countries will have to travel. The Americans for example will have to travel over 5000km just to complete their group matches whereas Belgium get it easy only having to move a paltry 698km in comparison. They and Argentina have the plum matches and climate to go with it in the group stages whereas some fancied entrants like Uruguay and Portugual will have their medical staff at full stretch. The distances teams will travel in the group stages and bases for each of the 32 entrants competing at the World Cup:
São Paulo was cold today! 20 degrees so I had to wear a fetching jacket and jumper combination. I don't think people realize how cold it will be.
Can you provide an update on how many of these are actually ready now? Most of the pictures are artists impressions!
I think we have made a big mistake by flying from Florida to Rio ( 4100 miles ) then Rio to Manaus ( 1700 miles ) then back to Rio ( 1700 miles ) From Florida to Manaus is 2400 miles. Get there a week before the italy game, rest get over the flight and then travel to Rio and the base camp after the first game. Most of the fitness and tactical work will have been done in Miami before hand. To me that's 3400 miles or 7 hours in the air that we didn't need to do in the build up and first week of a major tournament. Bad planning
Arena das Dunas/Estadio Beira-RIO/Itaquerao in March 2014: There you go Stu. There are still some concerns over the stadiums. The Itaquerao is holding a match today (the second test event there) between Botofago & Corinthians but only with forty thousand seats available out of seventy thousand. It will only be fully tested when the opening match of the tournament kicks off on the twelfth. The other two still have issues in the surrounds as with the stadiums at Natal and . The media centre at Curitaba remains incomplete and journalists will have to slum it out in tents. Like many unfortunate citizens in Brazil. Some stadia still lack wifi as well. And wth regards to the infrastructure as the real Ronaldo said it is a shambles. The new terminal at Guarulhos, Sao Paulo is still incomplete and will only be used by 8 airlines rather than the 25 originally planned. The terminal at Fortaleza remains a temporary one and several urban rail systems have also not been completed. It's not good for Brazil, the citizens and South America and may affect an Argentina/Uruguay 2030 bid to celebrate the centenary of the World Cup. At least the fan fests in Recife and Salvador will go ahead if travelling fans can stand the conditions as private funding has been secured. All in all it's been a bit of a shambles. Why they never opted to go for the already built Gremio Arena I have no idea. Politics.
