Four years after the 2010 World Cup, Soccer City stadium "is pumping, either with the roars of soccer fans or chant of concert-goers, an example of enduring, direct returns accrued by host nation South Africa," according to Mfuneko Toyana of REUTERS. The stadium, which underwent a 1.5B rand facelift for the event, "comfortably pays its own way, according to its website," with fixtures ranging from Soweto football derbies to concerts by the likes of Lady Gaga and U2. However, Soccer City "stands out in another, crucial way." Of the nine other venues built or renovated for the World Cup to the tune of 10B rand -- a quarter of the overall budget -- "all are in the red, unable to attract regular top sporting clashes or international rock stars." The bill for their up-keep "falls on cash-strapped municipalities, a salutary lesson for Brazil, where hundreds of thousands have protested, sometimes violently, against state spending on this year's tournament, which starts on June 12." Brazil's anti-World Cup movement argues that the $11.7B earmarked for Cup-related spending -- three times South Africa's budget, even though only $7B has actually been disbursed -- "would have been better used on hospitals, schools and public transport." Many in South Africa, the continent's wealthiest country but still a middle income country, "feel the same way." A social scientist at Johannesburg's Wits University, Achille Mbembe, said, "If 50 percent of the collective resources deployed around the World Cup were deployed around these critical issues, I think the country would have made a big, big leap forward." The Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in the decaying industrial city of Port Elizabeth "supports the case." Since it opened its doors, "the stadium has attracted only 125,000 visitors every year, only slightly more than the record 94,700 who turned up on one day at Soccer City to watch South African rugby side Amabokoboko play New Zealand" in '10. Its owners declined to reveal annual up-keep costs, which may be as high as 65M rand ($6M), according to two university studies, but they concede that it runs at a loss of 13M ($1.2M) rand a year -- "a bill that the municipality has to pick up" (REUTERS, 6/3).
