The stadium looks ready to go on the surface. The temporary bleachers
jutting out from either end of the venue have finally been approved by the fire
department, and scaffolding along the stands has been covered by a tarp. Both
Brazil and Croatia trained at the venue without incident on Wednesday.
For weeks organizers have expressed confidence that everything will go
smoothly.
But work around the stadium is still ongoing, and some major parts of
the arena won't be finished until after the tournament.
Associated Press reporter John Leiceister explored the bowels of the venue this
week (without getting confronted by security, by the way), and found
that just below the surface the stadium is far from finished:
"Exposed wires and unfitted lights hung from ceilings. Corridors
and other areas smelling strongly of plaster, paint and glue were clogged with
uninstalled furniture and fittings, piled up crates of catering equipment and
construction materials waiting to be carted away.
"Inside the arena, one corridor behind an open door marked 'Medical
Room' in fact led to a completely empty room. Electrical wires poked out from
walls and ceilings. Safety barriers to prevent people from tumbling onto seated
spectators waited under plastic to be fitted."
Construction, which supposed to be completed in December of 2013, was
delayed multiple times after three workers died on the project.
At the stadium's final test event on June 1, one of the sections of
temporary bleachers had yet to be approved for use, and only 37,000 tickets could be sold for the 61,000-seat arena.
It will go into the World Cup without holding a single full-capacity event:
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