“ Most of what the world will see on television during the 2016 Olympics in Rio has already been built. The main Olympic Park is 95% complete, organizers say, and test events have been held in more than a dozen sports from tennis to mountain biking. In terms of the competition venues, “almost everything is ready,” said Carlos Nuzman, the president of Rio’s organizing committee. But seven months ahead of the opening ceremony on Aug. 5, some serious questions about the viability of the Games have muscled into the frame. And many of them are so unique to Brazil that it’s impossible to predict how they will turn out. Brazil’s economy is floundering in a deep recession marked by unemployment, rising inflation and a shrinking GDP. Domestic ticket sales are sluggish and a vital subway extension to the Olympic Park may not be completed without hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding from Brasília, which is distracted by a major corruption scandal and impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. To top it off, epidemics of serious mosquito-borne diseases have swept across the nation, further straining government resources as it gears up to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors. “We were surprised by a perfect storm of a political crisis married with an intense economic crisis,” said Mario Andrada, a spokesman for the Rio 2016 Olympic committee. “Usually it’s one or the other, but we have both, and they’re both very intense.” Advertisement One of the first concerns for organizers is whether Brazilians, who don’t care much about some Olympic sports, will buy enough tickets to meet financial targets. As of Dec. 31, less than half of the 4.5 million domestic-market tickets had been sold. The organizing committee is depending on ticket sales to meet 17% of its budget needs. Committee spokesman Philip Wilkinson said the group is “comfortable” with the sales, “given that Brazilian buying habits tend to see tickets being bought closer to the date of events.” A worker climbs scaffolding during construction at the Nossa Senhora da Paz metro station on the 4 Line of the subway system in Rio de Janeiro. ENLARGE A worker climbs scaffolding during construction at the Nossa Senhora da Paz metro station on the 4 Line of the subway system in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Bloomberg News . Olympic budgets are often built to be exploded, of course, but these Games have been beset by major overruns at a time when the country can ill afford them. Last year the total infrastructure cost for the Games, which is funded mostly by federal and local governments, rose to more than 24 billion reais ($5.9 billion), 25% higher than originally planned. The local organizing committee’s budget, which is funded privately through ticket sales and sponsorships, has also ballooned to 7.4 billion reais ($1.8 billion), up from 4.2 billion reais when Rio won the bid in 2009. The nation’s economic crisis has left organizers scrambling to cut costs. The committee said in October it would slash expenses by 30% through steps including cutbacks in high-end cuisine for VIPs and a reduction in the number of volunteers trained to assist visitors. Temporary tents will be used at certain sites in lieu of more durable structures. The opening and closing ceremonies won’t be as elaborate as the lavish ceremonies put on in London and Beijing. And although organizers scrapped a plan to make athletes pay for their own air conditioning, the athletes will not have access to televisions in their rooms. One thing that is sure to come down to the wire is Rio’s mobility plan. To fight the city’s notorious congestion, organizers are extending a subway line 16 kilometers to carry some 300,000 riders a day to the Olympic Park. State transport secretary Carlos Osorio said last month that the state will need an additional one billion reais ($247 million) in federal government funds to complete the work. The State Governor, Luiz Fernando Pezão, criticized Osorio’s remarks. He said he was sure the federal government would come up with the money. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement it is still considering the request for additional funds. In any case, there is little margin for error: Plans call for the subway extension to open on July 1, just a month before the Games open on Aug. 5. Asked if additional buses would be hired if the subway isn’t ready, Andrada, the spokesman, said there is “no plan B.” In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, organizers are under increasing pressure to complete security preparations. Officials say the 85,000 soldiers and cops assigned to the event will be the largest such deployment in Brazilian history and roughly double the number used in London. But several security-related contracts, such as X-ray machines and metal detectors at the entrances to venues, remain unfilled. Deals with vendors are also lagging. Local authorities haven’t yet finalized a contract to provide backup electricity for the Olympic event sites in a city that regularly experiences outages. Andrada said the deal “is ready to be signed,” and will be completed by the end of May. “That was our most critical project, but now that the board has approved it it’s not that critical anymore,” Andrada said. “It’s just a race against time, which we will obviously win.” Brazil is also grappling with serious mosquito-borne diseases that so far are outracing officials’ efforts to deal with them. As of early December, a record 1.58 million cases of dengue fever were reported in Brazil in 2015. Chikungunya is mushrooming too. Most worrisome is a relatively new, fast-spreading virus called Zika. Authorities estimate it may have infected as many as 1.5 million people in recent months and has been linked by some health officials to nearly 3,200 cases of infant brain damage. While Zika has hit hardest in the Brazil’s poor northeastern region, it’s spreading quickly in Rio de Janeiro state. A researcher looks at mosquitoes kept in a container at a lab of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Sao Paulo University on Jan. 8 in Sao Paulo. Researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, are in Brazil to train local researchers to combat the Zika virus epidemic. ENLARGE A researcher looks at mosquitoes kept in a container at a lab of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Sao Paulo University on Jan. 8 in Sao Paulo. Researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, are in Brazil to train local researchers to combat the Zika virus epidemic. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images . During a 2009 speech to the IOC to make the case for Brazil, then-central bank President Henrique Meirelles boasted of his nation’s robust growth, low unemployment and massive new oil discoveries off Rio’s coast that would be a bulwark against any unforeseen problems. Brazil had already won the rights to host the 2014 World Cup; the Olympics were meant to be the jewel in the crown of an emergent Brazil. “As a nation, we know that we can deliver,” Meirelles said. When Rio was awarded the Games, thousands of Brazilians gathered on Copacabana beach to dance in celebration. Public sentiment has since soured as costs have ballooned, construction companies awarded Olympics contracts have become ensnared in scandal and promises have gone unmet. Several activist groups have staged small protests against the Olympics, and analysts predict bigger demonstrations closer to the Games. One of the biggest pledges made in support of the Games was to clean up Guanabara Bay, where the sailing competition will be held. Like most of the waters around Rio, it’s polluted with garbage and human waste. Plans for sewage treatment never materialized. Instead the government is using stopgap measures like small “eco-boats” that move around the bay and collect larger pieces of debris. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes promised last year to buy more than a million of the 7.5 million tickets available for the Games and give them away to schoolchildren for free. He hasn’t yet done so. Write to Will Connors at william.connors@wsj.com Most Popular Videos 1. [http://m.wsj.net/video/20160112/011216sotu2min1/011216sotu2min1_167x94.jpg] Obama's Final State of the Union in Two Minutes 2. [http://m.wsj.net/video/20160113/011316razzies/011316razzies_167x94.jpg] Razzies: Worst Films of the Year Nominated 3. 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Livefyre Newest Oldest Reader Recommended william deane william deane 1 day ago How much did the Olympic Committee get paid off for choosing Brazil? Such intelligence!!!!. Bill Deane Alonzo Quijana”
