Seven months ahead of the Opening Ceremony for the 2016 Olympics in Rio on Aug. 5, "some serious questions about the viability of the Games have muscled into the frame," according to Will Connors of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. And "many of them are so unique to Brazil that it’s impossible to predict how they will turn out."
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." Rio 2016 Olympic committee spokesperson Mario Andrada said, "We were surprised by a perfect storm of a political crisis married with an intense economic crisis. Usually it’s one or the other, but we have both, and they’re both very intense."
One of the first concerns for organizers "is whether Brazilians, who don’t care much about some Olympic sports, will buy enough tickets to meet financial targets." As of Dec. 31, "less than half of the 4.5 million domestic-market tickets had been sold."
'COMFORTABLE' FEELING: Committee spokesperson Philip Wilkinson said the group is "comfortable" with the sales, "given that Brazilian buying habits tend to see tickets being bought closer to the date of events." Games "have been beset by major overruns at a time when the country can ill afford them." Last year the total infrastructure cost for the Games, "which is funded mostly by federal and local governments," rose to more than 24B reais ($5.9B), 25% higher than originally planned. The nation’s economic crisis "left organizers scrambling to cut costs." The committee said "it would slash expenses by 30%." The opening and closing ceremonies will not "be as elaborate as the lavish ceremonies put on in London and Beijing." One thing that "is sure to come down to the wire is Rio’s mobility plan." To fight the city’s notorious congestion, organizers "are extending a subway line 16 kilometers to carry some 300,000 riders a day to the Olympic Park." State transport secretary Carlos Osorio said last month that the state will need an additional 1B reais ($247M) in federal government funds "to complete the work." Brazil "is also grappling with serious mosquito-borne diseases that so far are outracing officials’ efforts to deal with them." As of early December, "a record 1.58 million cases of dengue fever were reported in Brazil in 2015" (WSJ, 1/11).
