Taking advantage of last week´s report on Sao Paulo´s ongoing World Cup stadium woes, we have a further instalment of this site´s series on the 12 host cities for the 2014 World Cup.
Today's Sao Paulo is a global metropolis featuring Brazil´s best options for eating, sleeping, shopping, touring and doing business. With a metropolitan population of over 20 million (11 million in municipality), Sao Paulo is the biggest city in the southern hemisphere and has the money, action and congestion to prove it.
Brazil´s business capital receives around 90 thousand events per year the city, while of the 160 fairs that occur in the country, 120 are hosted in Sao Paulo. The city's cultural areas are also extensive, with its diverse cinemas, museums, cultural centres, theatres and show houses ensuring its position as the country´s entertainment hub.
Despite all this activity, wealth and sophistication, when it comes to the 2014 World Cup the city is way behind in its preparations and close to losing its logical position as host of the opening ceremony, with not one of its range of stadia even close to being ready to host the showpiece event. Having initially chosen the privately owned Morumbi Stadium (Sao Paulo Football Club) for the role, the idea has long since been discarded as financing for the proposed refurbishment was considered too problematic.
As reported last week, the new option is the Corinthians Football Club´s Itaquerão Stadium, which is to be built from scratch in the eastern quadrant of Sao Paulo. Although Corinthians has only backed the development of a 40,000 seat facility, the São Paulo government is facilitating an expansion to 65,000 for the Cup Opening. See previous report here for more details
Thankfully, few other infrastructure issues hinder the city´s ability to host the opener, with one glaring exception: Guarulhos International Airport. While hotels and urban transport systems should easily handle the event´s requirements, São Paulo´s main airport is woefully in need of a major overhaul to the point that wildly negative press from both Brazilian and international travelers alike seems to be a daily occurrence.
For the Cup, Guarulhos is slated to receive a third terminal, possibly as a PPP (an option currently being debated at the federal government level), and major upgrades to existing facilities at an estimated cost of over R$700 million.