The South African government will spend 15.1 billion rands on the World Cup. About 40% of it is on upgrading public transportation and security. This figure is 7 times that of what was projected when SA was awarded the World Cup in 2004.
What is especially worrying is the development of super large stadiums seating 70,000 people or more for the World Cup but will have problems filling up for the struggling South African league. They could turn out to be expensive white elephants.
This is the struggle most developing countries where sports is an afterthought, face when they take on the responsibilities of building large stadiums for a sport event that is dictated mostly as a need to showcase their capability to do so. In India, large stadiums lie empty, used mostly for political or social functions, mostly of the Bollywood night variety. Very few serious sporting events are held. India is now contemplating a bid for the 2016 Olympics, when there are indications that apart from cricket, there are very few people that will take up athletics or any other sport, leading to the same problem of under utilized stadiums.
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