São Paulo's unfinished Corinthians stadium "hosted a final test match at partial capacity on Sunday," leaving parts of the venue "unproven before the FIFA World Cup starts" on June 12, according to Vincent Bevins of the L.A. TIMES. The fire department "failed to approve use of one large seating area," meaning that the first time the entire 65,000-plus seat stadium will be used is the opening game between Brazil and Croatia. On Sunday, only 40,000 tickets were put on sale. Along with Corinthians, two other stadiums, in Natal and Porto Alegre, "are not yet fully completed." The São Paulo stadium is "likely to operate without the full use of a planned roof, and three workers died in accidents while the stadium was being built." Tens of thousands of Corinthians fans "made their way easily on new public transportation to their new home field." The game "went off without incident," but minor interior parts of the impressive stadium "were visibly unfinished, with concrete walls exposed or construction materials lying on unused parts of the stands." Exec Event Coordinator Raquel Verdenacci said, “Our experience today was very positive, especially in terms of rail transport” (L.A. TIMES, 6/1).
