A Copa Gangrenosa - The gangrene Cup

The 2014 World Cup Schedule is out! I know you have all been waiting to hear what I think about it but I will let you make up your mind by showing you some data.

Group A cities	Games
São Paulo	BRA:A2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Natal	A3:A4	BRA	3127	2200	5327
Fortaleza	BRA:A3	A2	3971	5698	9669
Manaus	A2:A4	A3	537	800	1337
Brasilia	BRA:A4	A4	5985	3490	9475
Recife	A2:A3		13620	12188	25808

This is the table of games for Group A, which will be headed by Brazil. Each group in the 2014 Cup will play in six cities. The table above charts the cities, the teams that will be playing, and the travel distances for each team between those cities. If we follow Brazil (A1), they play in São Paulo, Fortaleza, and Brasília in the first round. The distance between São Paulo and Fortaleza, 3127 km. Between Fortaleza and Brasília is 2200km = 5327km. Team A4, will have to travel 9475km between the cities they play in (Natal-Manaus-Brasilia). the group as a whole, for six games will travel at least 25808km.

This does not, of course, take into account that Brazil will have their training center in Rio de Janeiro and will fly back and forth between games. Assuming that Brazil makes the semi-final, the team will travel 16,110 km. Brazil’s travel schedule is not as bad as it could be. For instance, whichever team has the misfortune to be G4 (in 2010 it was North Korea), the travel distance for two flights will be 11683km (Natal-Manaus-Recife).
Ok, so the teams have to travel a lot, an average of 3239km per game between the cities for the first round, or a total of 136,052 km. (Remember this does not take into account the distance for the 31 teams to get to Brazil, the return trips to training centers, or the movement of FeeFã people that accompany the games). If we even half-heartedly believe in the tourist numbers thrown about by the organizing committee and assume that the generalized financial crisis will have ebbed and that the Mayan calendar page turn isn’t a mega-event of its own, then we can add 300,000 tourists who will want to follow their teams around Brazil. Say, 5,000 people per game? That’s 20 flights x the average distance of 3,239 per game x 42 first round games = 2,720,760 km of air travel.

On the bright side, some of the stadium roofs will be designed so that they recycle rain water into the toilets. How quaint.

Other interesting tidbits of info that came out of the 2014 WC schedule: stadia that are being designed as white elephants will receive the fewest games. Cuiabá: 4; Manaus: 4; Natal: 4; Recife: 5. Combined, these cities are investing R$1,9 billion (so far) in stadium construction in order to host 17 games of football. That’s 2040 minutes of jogo bonito, or R$93,137 for every minute of World Cup action!!!! There are also huge discrepancies between the distances that teams will have to travel which will surely have an impact on fans and players. Here’s the full schedule, feel free to crunch the data and come up with your own conclusions:
   

Group A	Games
São Paulo	A1:A2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Natal	A3:A4	BRA	3127	2200	5327
Fortaleza	A1:A3	A2	3971	5698	9669
Manaus	A2:A4	A3	537	800	1337
Brasilia	A1:A4	A4	5985	3490	9475
Recife	A2:A3		13620	12188	25808

Group B
Cuiaba	B1:B2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Salvador	B3:B4	B1	2017	852	2869
Porto Alegre	B2:B4	B2	2206	1109	3315
Rio de Janeiro	B1:B3	B3	1678	429	2107
Curitiba	B1:B4	B4	3090	711	3801
São Paulo	B2:B3		8991	3101	12092

Group C
Belo Horizonte	C1:C2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Recife	C3:C4	C1	716	1133	1849
Brasilia	C1:C3	C2	2348	537	2885
Natal	C2:C4	C3	2135	2200	4335
Cuiabá	C1:C4	C4	298	3543	3841
Fortaleza	C2:C3		5497	7413	12910

Group D
Fortaleza	D1:D2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Manaus	D3:D4	D1	3127	2947	6074
São Paulo	D1:D3	D2	800	2061	2861
Recife	D2:D4	D3	3971	586	4557
Natal	D1:D4	D4	5698	298	5996
Belo Horizonte	D2:D3		13596	5892	19488

Group E
Brasilia	E1:E2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Porto Alegre	E3:E4	E1	1336	4036	5372
Curitiba	E1:E3	E2	1446	1678	3124
Salvador	E2:E4	E3	711	852	1563
Manaus	E1:E4	E4	3090	5009	8099
Rio de Janeiro	E2:E3		6583	11575	18158

Group F
Rio de Janeiro	F1:F2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Curitiba	F3:F4	F1	439	1712	2151
Belo Horizonte	F1:F3	F2	2017	2566	4583
Cuiaba	F2:F4	F3	1004	1372	2376
Porto Alegre	F1:F4	F4	1697	2206	3903
Salvador	F2:F3		5157	7856	13013

Group G
Salvador	G1:G2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Natal	G3:G4	G1	1389	800	2189
Fortaleza	G1:G3	G2	5009	3490	8499
Manaus	G2:G4	G3	537	2200	2737
Recife	G1:G4	G4	5985	5698	11683
Brasilia	G2:G3		12920	12188	25108

Group H
Belo Horizonte	H1:H2	Team	KM game 1-2	KM game 2-3	TOTAL KM
Cuiaba	H3:H4	H1	439	429	868
Porto Alegre	H2:H4	H2	1712	711	2423
Rio de Janeiro	H1:H3	H3	2017	852	2869
Curitiba	H2:H3	H4	2206	1109	3315
São Paulo	H1:H4		6374	3101	9475