Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho

About this audio guide

This guide to the Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho in Rio de Janeiro examines the 2010-2013 renovation for the World Cup, when a budget of roughly two hundred fifty million dollars ballooned toward five hundred million under three construction giants, with auditors finding cement billed at triple the market rate and cranes billed twice for the same rental. It follows the investigation into Rio's governor at the time, Sergio Cabral, and the kickbacks prosecutors traced to this stadium's own contracts. The story starts with a curving white roof that itself cost five times as much as a nearly identical one built for the World Cup in Johannesburg.