The group behind a World Cup stadium that has "fallen months behind schedule" and is 44% over budget blamed "Brazilian bureaucracy" for its woes, according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. Official data indicates that progress at the "Arena da Baixada in the southern state of Parana has been the slowest among the six arenas still under construction" for next year's football showpiece. When asked why the Arena da Baixada "remained a building site and why the price to remodel it grew" to 265M reais ($114.3M) from 184M reais in '10, Brazilian side Atlético Paranaense Exec Marketing Dir Mauro Holzmann said, "Brazilian bureaucracy. We expected a loan from the state development bank in June 2012 and it ended up being seven months late." The funding delay "meant the project, backed by Atlético Paranaense and municipal and state governments, was a casualty of inflation." Adding to the delay, "the original design failed to include the minimum amount of media and VIP seating" required by FIFA (BLOOMBERG, 12/16).
MANAUS WORKERS STRIKE: The BBC reported construction workers at the World Cup football stadium in Manaus have "gone on strike demanding better safety conditions." The builders' union "took the action after a worker fell" to his death on Saturday. The workers at Arena Amazonia said that "pressure to finish the construction is affecting their safety." Union leaders suggested that the "industrial action could be ended on Tuesday but work at high sectors of the stadium remains banned by a court order" (BBC, 12/16).
