First it was bad water. Then it was a failure to pay the bills. What else could possibly go wrong for Rio de Janeiro as it prepares to host the 2016 Summer Olympics? It turns out this is more like what will go right.
The latest look at the state of this year’s host for the summer games comes from The Wall Street Journal, and is ifs far from promising.
Brazil’s economy is floundering in a deep recession marked by unemployment, rising inflation and a shrinking GDP. Domestic ticket sales are sluggish and a vital subway extension to the Olympic Park may not be completed without hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding from Brasília, which is distracted by a major corruption scandal and impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. To top it off, epidemics of serious mosquito-borne diseases have swept across the nation, further straining government resources as it gears up to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors.
If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that was the description for a challenging scenario in Sim City. Sadly, this is real life and there are no cheat codes available to help the city in Brazil as the days go by, inching closer and closer to the opening of the Olympics.
In most countries, the Olympics offer plenty of hot tickets for fans who travel and the locals. One of the biggest problems for Brazil is the lack of enthusiasm for most Olympic events in Brazil. So far, fewer than half of the 4.5 million tickets for the Olympics have been sold. Now, there is still a lot of time to see those remaining tickets be gobbled up by those flocking to Rio for the games, but that is a large number to try and sell out. With the budget relying significantly on ticket sales, the pockets could be burning.
Look, we’re still pulling for Rio to pull this off with flying colors, but somebody needs to tighten things up down south, it would seem.
[WSJ]
