I am under the impression that host countries build these things specifically for the event at hand, then afterwards many of them go un-used and just deteriorate. Am I wrong?

Like … how many brand new 60,000 seat stadiums did Qatar build for use this month? Will there be any other reason to have several 60,000 seat stadiums in Qatar after this month?

It amazes me because of all the hoops (get it?) other individual sports teams go through to get new afenas/stadiums built (which will be regularly used for decades). Like how the Royals or A’s want new stadiums in their current markets. Or how the NBA told Seattle that Key Arena was no longer sufficient, finally it was rebuilt like 10 years later.

I think things like your Qatar example do go unused, yes. I also think they’re generally seen as a marketing expense/write off vehicle (no clue about int’l tax code) for entities with larger business concerns. I.e., let’s build a stadium in Qatar at a 10-year loss of -$500M, but we’ll see long term revenues from increased traffic to our diverse real estate portfolio.

Then they sell the distressed asset when the market is right.

And again, I’m not sure about finance regs in other countries, but if you can fund the buildout with bonds, and time the bond market right, that makes things easier too.

At any rate, the losers are the surrounding neighborhoods and natural environment who get a large extractive footprint placed in their back yard. The financiers are almost certainly not the losers.

And the 6500 migrant works paid slave wages (if they get paid at all) who die building the stadiums.

I hate bronze age ballbags just as much as the next guy, but aren't those numbers made up? I've heard conflicting reports.

It all seems a little much

I haven't seen anything indicating they are made up. But it does seem astounding.

I think the numbers represent all excess deaths amongst migrant workers, not just necessarily those building the stadiums.

That makes sense.

Can someone explain the Bronze Age ball bag remark? Googled it, see they’re an archaeological find, but there are conflicting theories around their significance . What do they have to do with migrant worker deaths exactly?