Partial Stadium Collapse in Brazil

By: Martha | November 26th, 2007

~~Eight~~ Seven people were killed yesterday in Brazil, when a hole opened up in the floor of the top level of the Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador, Bahia. The ground’s capacity is just over 66,000, and there were at least 60,000 there to watch Esporte Clube Bahia play a crucial match against Vila Nova. When the game ended in a scoreless draw, assuring the home side a place in Brazil’s second division, their supporters began celebrating, jumping up and down in the upper stand and storming the field from below; it’s thought that the celebrations in the upper tier is what made the concrete floor give way, causing nine people to fall through and leaving dozens injured.

Disturbingly, a recent study of football grounds in Brazil reportedly condemned the stands at the Fonte Nova as “in ruins”; obviously, nothing was done. Wikipedia indicates that Bahia actually have two home grounds, but that the other is much smaller, with a capacity of only 20,000. Even if that ground is safer, it’s obvious why the game went ahead at the larger stadium — there had never been problems before, and for such an important match, many more than 20,000 supporters would be expected. And now, eight of those supporters are dead.

This is both sad and terrifying — a stadium collapse, no matter how minor, is probably the single scariest thing about sports fandom, and something I can never keep myself from thinking about when I see 100,000+ people packed together, be it at a football match in South America, or an American football game in Ann Arbor. We can only be thankful that this one was limited to a few yards of concrete, rather than an entire section of the upper stand; it’s impossible to imagine how many lives would have been lost under the latter circumstances.

And, finally, in addition to everything else, it’s a rather troubling prelude to Brazil’s hosting of World Cup 2014: There are already doubts in Europe that the country has the infrastructure for such a massive task, and tragedies such as this one are certainly not going to instill confidence.