Post-prandial teeth picking

The hunt for Brazilian White Elephants continues, albeit at a slower pace than before the World Cup. The hunters have gorged on their catch for a month and have started to take on the physical characteristics of their prey. Though the appetite has dulled through repetitive ingestion of the same delicious meat, the knives are still sharp.

FIFA released its technical report last week, finally revealing their official count of stadium capacities and attendances. While FIFA will not reveal the number of tickets available for each category, nor the number of VIP, VVIP and hospitality tickets, or make their general figures for attendance and costs at their tournaments public information. Yet from the information they do provide we can glean some insight into the generalized trouble with measuring the costs of the tournament.

As I was picking my teeth with a piece of tusk, I found the following information regarding stadium capacities for the World Cup:

	FIFA	Copa2014	Portal	DW	FA	EC	WS
BH	58170	62160	64500	62547	64000	62000	62170
BRA	69439	72800	71000	68009	71412	68000	70064
CUI	41112	41390	43600	42968	43000	43000	44336
CUR	39631	43000	42000	41456	41456	44000	43981
FOR	60342	63900	67037	64846	63903	65000	67037
MAN	40549	44500	44310	42374	44000	41000	42374
NAT	39971	42000	45000	42086	43000	42000	42086
POA	43394	50000	60800	48849	47100	43000	51300
REC	42610	46000	46000	42849	46000	46000	46154
RIO	74738	78838	76000	73531	78838	71000	78838
SAL	51900	55000	50223	48747	53700	50000	56500
SAO	62601	68000	65000	65807	68000	60000	65807

(DW=Deutsche Welle, FA=English FA, EC=Engenharia Civil, WS=World Stadiums)

Incredibly, all of these sources have different seating capacity numbers for the stadiums. As I have pointed out before, none of the four Brazilian government transparency sites for the World Cup agree on how much the stadiums cost. Given that there isn't agreement about how many people can fit in the stadiums themselves, this shouldn't be surprising.

Non-Olympic Post

The tables below are related peices of information. The first indicates that Brazilian teams do not make much money from putting butts in seats. If, for example, a team's attendance figures dropped in half for a season, this would only mean a 5.5% loss in revenue for the year. This could be easily compensated for by selling a couple of players or penning a new sponsorship contract. This is bad news for fans, as the second table shows. 

 Brazilian club revenue streams - 2010

Source of income	(%)
Ticket sales	11
Sponsors and advertising	12
Other receipts (i.e. replica sales)	12
Member dues and amateur sports	13
Television	24
Sale / transfer of players	28

Source: Cadernos FGV Projetos, Junho 2010, Ano 5, numero 13, issn 1984-4883

This table shows the rapid decrease in attendances and the staggering rise in average ticket prices over the last five years, the only for which data are available. The perverse influence of television on Brazilian football means that most teams play games on Wednesday nights at 9:50, after the tele-novelas. There is no special transportation scheme, public transportation stops at midnight and all fans are treated like criminals, as if they are waiting for the right moment to offer their fellow fans a Molotov cocktail. This seemlingly deliberate elimiation of fans has been more than compensated for by an increase in profits. The math is simple, charge way more for fewer people, price out your "undesireables" and allow the clubs to pay off the torcidas organizadas to provide the "show" which the television networks will strategically shoot to make it appear as if the stadium is full. This is a years' long process of seperating the people from the people's game. Does anyone think this will improve with the World Cup?

 Average attendance at football matches – Campeonato Brasileiro, Serie A, 2007-2011

year	total paying public	average paying public	gate receipts(R$)	average ticket (R$)
2007	6.582.976	17461	80040848	12.2
2008	6.439.854	16992	101241490	15.7
2009	6.766.471	17807	125764391	18.6
2010	5.638.806	14839	112873893	20.0
2011	5.660.987	14976	117665714	20.8
% Change	-14	-14	+46	+71

Fonte: http://www.cbf.com.br/competicoes/campeonato-brasileiro/