BRAZIL: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Brazil hopes world's biggest football tournaments will be a boon to Recife economy

Record ID: 450585

  • Title: BRAZIL: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Brazil hopes world's biggest football tournaments will be a boon to Recife economy
  • Date: 11th December 2012
  • Summary: RECIFE, BRAZIL (RECENT) (REUTERS) PARADE OF GIANT CARICATURES OF VARIOUS HIGH-PROFILE BRAZILIAN FOOTBALL PERSONALITIES BAND WALKING AROUND RECIFE'S CITY CENTRE WHILE INSTRUMENTS
  • Embargoed: 26th December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Politics,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAJ0MIWMSI3L4GG8IKRZDDVYTU
  • Story Text: Recife, like all Brazilian cities hosting the 2013 Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup, is hoping the exposure from those events will spur its local economy.
    The business community in Recife, already one of Brazil's main tourist destinations, expects to see a major increase in revenue when the world's two biggest football tournaments come to town.
    Leandro Castro, who owns a small factory which makes giant caricature figures of high profile personalities, is increasing soccer-related figures.
    "With the World Cup coming to Brazil, we could not pass on the opportunity, so we already have giant figures of people such as Pele, Maradona, Joseph Blatter, JoseMaria Marim, and we also plan to caricature other great icons not only from Brazil, but from other countries (too)," he said.
    Despite the importance of the two sporting events, Recife's preparations for the 2013 Confederations Cup have been far from organized, with major delays on the construction of the city's Pernambuco Arena stadium.
    Officials never provided concrete reasons for the delays but the problem provoked the annoyance of FIFA, that at one point said Recife's participation in the Confederations Cup might be at risk.
    However, fears by the city's residents and officials were allayed during FIFA's last inspection tour in November, which cemented Recife's position as one of the host cities of the 2013 Confederations Cup.
    State Secretary of World Cup Affairs, Ricardo Leitao, assures construction at Pernambuco Arena will be completed by April 2013, two months prior the Confederations Cup kick-off.
    "Actions were taken in November 2011 to speed up the construction process. Those were an increase in our work force to 4.500 workers, a faster delivery service on the construction materials, the use of new technology to lay down the roof and consequently the increasing the covered areas and parking spaces. Due to those measures the project is advancing at an average of 6.5 percent each month, and hopefully we will meet the deadline, which is April 2013," he said.
    When completed, the Pernambuco Arena Stadium will have capacity for approximately 50.000 spectators. It will be part of a complex featuring restaurants, a shopping centre, and cinemas, located in an economically deprived area of Recife. The project will also include 5.000 new affordable housing units.
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