Innovation and Sustainability – 2014 World Cup Stadiums

Innovation and Sustainability – 2014 World Cup Stadiums

The 2014 FIFA World Cup is an important reminder that the use of public money on the operations of a large-scale tournament is ill-advised and the consequences are nearly irreversible. Brazil dedicated multiple years’ worth of their public budget to completely innovate the infrastructure and connectivity of the country but corruption, improper use of resources, and poor implementation stunted the growth of these innovations. The tournament took place from June 12th to July 13th after Brazil was awarded the tournament by FIFA in 2007. In March 2003 FIFA stated that the World Cup was coming back to South America. At that moment, the only two countries that bid on the tournament were Brazil and Colombia. Shortly after the bid Colombia came to the realization that they did not have the economic capability to put on an event of this size, that left one bid from Brazil and therefore they were awarded the tournament. (FIFA)

Brazil wanted to be on the cutting edge of technology for this tournament and attempted to innovate their stadiums and infrastructure to unseen heights to accomplish this. Starting with the stadiums Brazil decided that they needed 12 venues in 12 different cities to host the tournament. Seven of the venues were planned to be built from the ground up and five others were going to be renovated. In the stadiums and the surrounding areas Sony helped install 224 high-definition cameras that captured more than 2,500 hours of sport during the tournament – which is more than ever before. To avoid ghost goals, goals that potentially didn’t cross the goal-line, Brazil introduced new goal-line technology that featured 14 high speed cameras, seven pointed to each of the goals (DW). Data from the cameras is sent to a central image-processing center where it is then displayed on the main screen to either confirm or deny the goal. This World Cup was the first ever to record in ultra-high-definition 4k formatting, to accomplish the goal of recording in 4k Brazil had to implement a satellite network which was capable of handling 100 megabits per second. With this new satellite network fans have the capability to view, chat, vote and bet simultaneously with ease. To support the expected increase in internet usage in Brazil, telecom company Oi added enormous WIFI capacity. Oi grew WIFI capacity from 78,000 hotspots to 700,000 making it the largest network of hotspots in Brazil. Along with the growth of WIFI in Brazil, Oi increased the connectivity of 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in major cities. With the growth of all internet networks in Brazil they also needed to reinforce their fiber optic networks in host cities by adding antennas at major hotels, training centers and public venues. One company, Telefonica Brazil, implemented 65 new cell towers. (GovTech)

A report released by Ernst & Young called “Sustainable Brazil: Social and Economic Impacts of the 2014 World Cup” perfectly summarizes the goal of these listed innovations in Brazil. The premise is that Brazil is organizing themselves in a way that the event not only lasts a few days, but leaves a positive legacy for society. The positive legacy being that of better infrastructure, internet connectivity, and ultimately improvements on the macro and microeconomy of the country. (EY Report)

The culmination of these innovations if implemented properly would have created arguably one of the most technologically advanced World Cups. The problem was that multiple factors played a role and many of these innovations didn’t come to fruition and these setbacks stunted the potential boom from the tournament in Brazil.  The first major setback for Brazil was the massive corruption that took place during the construction and maintenance of the stadiums. When Brazil placed a bid for the tournament they had a strict budget that if maintained would not have had a negative effect to the Brazilian economy. The problem was that during the construction of at least six of the stadiums bribes linked to the contracts of the construction companies show massive payouts for politicians and other high-ranking Brazilians. For example, during the construction of the Maracana a former executive stated that Rio Governor Sergio Cabral bribed the construction company for upwards of $100 million, as the stadium was supposed to cost $200 million but ended up costing $300 million. (ESPNFC) These instances of corruption reinforced the separation of the poor and rich in Brazil and played a large role in their stagnant economy. These outcomes are the exact opposite that they were trying to achieve with the World Cup.