Portugal considers demolishing six-year old soccer stadiums to reduce maintenance costs.
In a timely reminder for the authorities in the midst of preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Games, Portuguese cities are under pressure to demolish stadiums built for the 2004 European soccer championships as the government prepares to rein in a widening deficit.
Portugal plans to announce a budget this week requiring extra cost-saving by towns, former economy minister Augusto Mateus said. The cities of Aveiro and Leiria want to cut monthly maintenance payments for public sports arenas of as much as 1.2 million euros ($1.7 million), officials said. Mateus, a former Socialist party minister, and Aveiro’s Social Democrat deputy Ulisses Pereira say they must consider demolition.
Portugal, which spent 600 million euros to build or fix several arenas, now finds them as much as three- quarters empty for league games. They are a symbol of wasteful spending, said Joao Cesar das Neves, an economics professor at Lisbon’s Catholic University.
Read the full story here.
