Will Olympics Ever Pay Off for Brazil?

Brazil may have never wanted for places to play soccer, but that didn’t stop the country from spending billions of dollars on stadiums for last month’s World Cup. The Arena Amazonia, a $300 million edifice designed to look like a woven basket, was built in a rain-forest city where the professional team regularly draws fewer than 2,000 fans per game. And Brazil is only getting started. The country, which is also hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, has embarked on an infrastructure splurge that may top $25 billion. The spending is meant to underscore Brazil’s emergence as an economic power. The country’s leaders insist that it’s also intended to increase the nation’s prosperity.