Only 5 Percent of Brazil's World Cup Construction Is Completed

Earning the honor of hosting a World Cup is a big deal but also a lot of work. Roads and stadiums have to be built, as well as smaller venues. Even side issues relating to swamping a city with an excess of people need to be addressed. For instance, where will the extra people stay and how will the airspace handle the overflow? When Brazil took over the responsibility of hosting the 2014 World Cup, the government denoted 101 projects that needed to be completed before guests and teams could begin flocking into town.

Unfortunately, after having time to complete plenty of projects, Brazil is not particularly far into the endeavor. ESPN is reporting only 5% of 2014 World Cup projects have been completed. Even though that completed number strikes a worrying chord, building projects do take a long time, and there is still plenty of time to finish up any small details. The bigger problem seems to lie in the fact 41% of projects have not even begun construction, including fixing up all of the issues with Brazil’s airlines that are far behind the times.

It’s hard work to host a sports event as vast as the World Cup proceedings and Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo says things are running right along schedule. Construction is coming along somewhat, with more projects underway than there were back in September. However, if running right on schedule means eight of the 12 actual stadium venues are not even halfway to completion, than I applaud Brazil’s ability to begin getting its shit together in last minute, crazy town fashion. It just seems difficult to see how the final picture could possibly come together properly when only 55 of the 101 projects are even underway.

While I certainly don’t think there is any chance the World Cup will be postponed, much less cancelled, the more competently the government can handle all of the construction, the better the experience will be. There's a lot to task still and probably more than a few asses on the line. I wouldn’t want to be a Brazilian construction worker right now.