‘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 idea of Brazil spending $11 billion to host the World Cup was a contentious one, with locals and foreigners alike arguing that a nation struggling to provide basic health care, education and even sewage has no right diverting resources to a soccer championship. As construction began, the staggering price tag for the stadiums fueled a frenzy of protests. One common chant: “We want hospitals with Fifa standards!”

Brazil spent 1.7 billion reais ($787 million at the 2013 average exchange rate) to refurbish the Mane Garrincha Stadium in Brasilia, even though the capital city didn’t have a professional soccer team of its own. It was the most expensive stadium project in Brazil’s history and landed the then-governor in jail for financial crimes. Mostly unused in the years since, except for the occasional country-western concert, Mane Garrincha’s administrator recently signed an agreement to set up a temporary health center for COVID-19 patients.

The shell of a make-shift hospital stands inside Pacaembu Stadium on March 24. Other stadiums around the country that hosted World Cup games will house similar structures.

Photographer: Rodrigo Capote/Bloomberg

Elsewhere in Brazil, soccer fans and stadium management are encouraging their local governments to reach similar accords during the outbreak. Ten stadiums, both privately- and publicly-owned, have offered their space thus far, including the Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo and Botafogo’s stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Bed frames are aligned at the make-shift hospital inside Pacaembu Stadium on March 27. About 200 beds are expected to outfit the stadium, which will be an example for the “white elephant” locations.

Photographer: Rodrigo Capote/Bloomberg

At Pacaembu, where soccer legend Pele played hundreds of matches for Santos FC, 200 hospital beds are being installed. On March 23, at Allianz Parque, home of the Palmeiras football club in Sao Paulo, a line of people snaked around the outside of the stadium as if a match were about to start. But these weren’t soccer fans -- they were high-risk Brazilians spaced three meters apart and there to get flu shots.

In neighboring Argentina, six major clubs including Buenos Aires’s Boca Juniors and River Plate have also opened their gates should officials need the space.

To contact the authors of this story:
Simone Preissler Iglesias in Brasilia at spiglesias@bloomberg.net

Shannon Sims in Houston at ssims21@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jessica Brice at jbrice1@bloomberg.net

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