‘White Elephant’ World Cup Stadiums Find New Purpose in Pandemic

The costly stadiums Brazil built and refurbished in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup are finding new life as health centers for patients with coronavirus.

Local governments have started signing agreements to use up to five stadiums -- once destined for star-studded matches -- as makeshift hospitals and vaccine centers to help deal with an expected surge of Covid-19 cases. For Brazilians, it’s a useful transformation of structures dubbed “white elephants” that later became symbols of corruption in Latin America’s largest economy. Work is already underway at another stadium, Pacaembu in Sao Paulo, which wasn’t used during the games.

A hospital for coronavirus patients stands under construction inside the Pacaembu Stadium, which didn’t host any World Cup games, on March 24. Pacaembu is the first stadium to undertake the project.

Photographer: Rodrigo Capote/Bloomberg

Back in 2014, the ...