New services designed to cut journey times and run more frequently than present services will be built between Moscow, Kazan, Samara and Ulyanovsk, Putin said.
"It will be a powerful incentive for the development of high speed rail services in the European part of Russia," he said.
[B]ecause of the minimal requirements made of the cities hosting World Cup matches, how cities prepare for the event is hardly a concern to FIFA, soccer's international governing body. Whether hosting the World Cup makes a city exponentially better or terrifyingly less efficient is irrelevant to FIFA, based on how it guides the cities intending to host this event. The long-term impact of the event is hardly considered, and its potential to create the sort of vast civic improvement projects often resulting from such international event hosting is ignored. By not acknowledging the urban interventions made by host cities in preparation for World Cup hosting, FIFA is essentially turning a blind eye to the possible great things its event can bring to or inspire in cities.
Practically all the works which were to have been carried out starting in May in the 12 venues across Brazil for the football tournament have run into delays, and the December 2012 deadline for completion is looking iffy.
Yet that's the date needed because Brazil is also hosting FIFA's Confederation Cup in 2013.
In June this year, just half the 12 Brazilian cities hosting games have started work to get stadiums and infrastructure into shape, triggering a warning from FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke to get cracking.
Rio authorities say the violence is in reaction to a two-year-old policing project, known as the "pacification" program, to root out organized drug-fueled crime by occupying favelas (or shanty towns). The program involves setting up heavy policing units to reclaim slums from gangs, and authorities say it has "pacified" 13 favelas since its inception.
To supporters it has been a one-of-a-kind success. For skeptics it is smoke and mirrors. The answer generally depends on where you live.
♦ FIFA should pay for at least 75% of all stadium renovation and construction projects undertaken for the World Cup. Infrastructure projects related to the World Cup cannot take form unless they were already indicated as part of a city’s master plan. If improvements in access and transportation to stadiums need to be made, they need to go through the same democratic planning procedures as other urban infrastructure projects.
♦ All World Cup stadium projects must include spaces that are dedicated to the preservation and continuation of local football cultures. This could take the form of “living museums”, soccer fields, education facilities, or cultural centers.
The sports expert says that one can compare Russia’s situation with South Africa’s in the run-up to the world cup this year. Pretoria spent some three billion dollars to get ready, Ivanov says, but “Russia’s expenses, considering all [its] problems with corruption will be one and a half times greater.”
The idea of pursuing the world cup, the writer says, “according to rumors belongs to Vladimir Putin,” and that explains why “the tactics of the struggle of the Russian Football Union … repeat the pattern of the struggle for the Olympiad in Sochi: Everything is being build on the basis of the personal guarantees of the prime minister.”
But holding a World Cup spread out over 12 cities in a continent-sized country will be anything but easy with challenges that include renovating and building stadiums, adhering to World Cup standards and making sure airports around the country are ready to handle the volume of fans, athletes and officials expected for the Copa Mundial.
Some host cities, such as Manaus in the Amazon, have a serious shortage of hotel rooms.
It will be the first World Cup held in Brazil since 1950 and the first in South America since Argentina hosted the event in 1978. In the intervening years, the scope of the event has changed tremendously.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/26/1747820/for-next-world-cup-brazil-gets.html#ixzz0vLYiMiVn
During the ceremony to launch the decree, the president announced that 3.545 billion will be allocated to upgrade airports and ports in the twelve cities hosting the soccer tournament in 2014.
"Things are going very quickly," said Lula, countering criticism of his government for delays in works, which he attributed to the "folly" of people who have no patience with the ritual required to put projects into practice.
There’s virtually no way that South Africa’s football, rugby, and cricket teams will have use for ten stadia, all of which hold at least 45,000 people (Soccer City stadium, pictured at left, holds 95,000). In the 2009-2010 season, South Africa’s Premiere Football League played 212 games — only four drew more than 40,000 fans, according to Sports Industry magazine. Five of these stadia are brand new, built just for the World Cup. Many of them have been built on land that could have been used for much-needed housing. The costs of maintaining these structures — from regular building maintenance to power to security — are big enough to raise the question of whether, and how, they will be kept up
Twelve Brazilian cities have been selected to host World Cup matches. These cities now face a daunting but exciting challenge: to seize this opportunity to boost urban transit systems in a meaningful and lasting way. World Cup transit investments — meant to help Brazilian cities manage the estimated 2.98 billion additional visitors that the Cup will generate — have the potential to improve quality of life, safety and accessibility in Brazilian cities long after the Cup is over.
The federal government has set aside R$7.68 billion (US$4.34 billion) for “urban mobility” infrastructure improvements in host cities; state and local governments have committed an additional R$3.8 billion (about US$2.15 billion), bringing the total to R$11.48 billion (US$6.48 billion). Private investments will increase this figure. Ideally, transit projects should be nearly complete by the Confederations Cup, which will Brazil will host in 2013 as a prelude to the World Cup.
[C]ity officials, such as City of Johannesburg spokesman Virgil James, say they want "to convey an honest image of SA".
"Begging is not something we think tourists would enjoy, obviously not, but it is a difficult problem to solve and a difficult one to police at any time, not just during a large sports event," James says.
There are no bylaws against begging or loitering.
"It's too difficult for the city to develop some kind of regulation against something that isn't illegal, even if the act of begging can lead to criminal activities," James says.
“We just got done with a successful 2010 NCAA South Regional,” David Tagliarino of Stadium Management Group-Reliant Park said. “We're hosting the NCAA Final Four in 2011 and we'll be hosting the Final Four again in 2016. We've done the All-Star Games. We've done the Super Bowl, and the World Cup would just be icing on the cake.”
Every host city has set up FIFA Fan Fests, where soccer lovers will be able to watch their favourite teams compete.
The Fan Fest venues will be open on all match-playing days and entrance will be free.
Soweto soccer fans will watch all World Cup matches at the Rockville Fan Fest at Elkah Stadium. The venue is conveniently located next to the Thokoza Park station of Johannesburg's new bus rapid transit system. Up to 40 000 people can be hosted at Elkah Stadium.
[Sunil Gulati, chairman of the U.S. Soccer Federation] cited several factors that would help make the U.S. case, including having 5 million tickets available, 18 cities with access to international airports and stadiums ready to host the event tomorrow, plus a wealthy populace.
Alas, numbers alone don't win the bidding, and the U.S. also has to convince the 25 members of FIFA's executive committee it has become a full-bore soccer nation. "They don't understand how big it is in this country," Mr. Gulati said.
Host cities are toying with ideas to make sure ratepayers do not end up forking out a fortune to cover these costs.
The new Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane would need between R10 million and R70 million for maintenance a year, said the city's 2010 director, Ndahve Ramakuela.
He said they would appoint a private company to manage the stadium.
The country's three major cities - Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban - have already started relocation programs, while six remaining host cities are set to follow suit.
Reports allege that more than 800 people have been taken from the derelict area surrounding Ellis Park in Johannesburg, the venue of seven matches including a quarter-final, and moved to shelters away from the inner city. There are also reported plans in place to see another 1,500 people, mostly street children, moved to alternate housing.
African Experience Tours and ESC Events have formed a consortium to manage long-distance bus services for general spectators between match cities.
Extra bus services are needed between host cities as existing services and schedules may not be adequate for the volume of visitors expected during the World Cup.
The tender was awarded just two weeks ago, although transport consultants had previously warned that the project was a complex one as the winning bidder would need to obtain vehicles, recruit and train drivers, and sell tickets.
Orlando Silva says many cities did not meet the March 31 deadline to begin renovating their stadiums or build new ones. Unless they meet the second deadline on May 3, they run the risk of being excluded from the World Cup.
Atlanta is one of 18 cities included in the U.S. World Cup bids for 2018 and 2022. Since hosting the Summer Olympics in 1996, the city has solidified its credentials for hosting big sporting events.
But it wasn't always so. Before the Games, many didn't think Atlanta could pull off the event. The city had to improve infrastructure and public safety. Every effort was made to help visitors see the city as a destination for global business.
Similarly, South Africa hopes to use the World Cup to showcase its business opportunities and overcome stereotypes, said Donald Gips, U.S. ambassador to South Africa. Crime and corruption are often cited as hurdles for doing business in the country.
Unfortunately, the Los Angeles experience was exceptional. Subsequent host cities found it impossible to procure the same proportion of private support. Several billion dollars in public monies was committed in Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Nagano (1998), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), and Beijing (2008).
The Barcelona Olympics left the central Spanish government $4 billion in debt, and the city and provincial governments an additional $2.1 billion in the red. The Nagano Organizing Committee showed a $28 million surplus, while the various units of Japanese government were left with an $11 billion debt (Burton and O’Reilly, 2009). In Athens, public investment exceeded $10 billion, and in Beijing, more than $40 billion.