Four Cool World Cup Stadia and Their Uncertain Futures

"[E]ven for the most soccer-agnostic architects, there are four good reasons to watch - or at least glancingly pay attention to - this year's World Cup in South Africa. Four of the 10 stadia designed or renovated for this year's quadrennial World Cup really are worth checking out beyond the context of international soccer matches. These stadia will be long-lasting legacies of the World Cup; that's good news for people who want to check these structures out, but potentially bad news for the cities that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in what may become massive white elephants."

The four stadia to see are Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, and Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. Though some have rough plans for future use, some in those cities worry that their multi-million investments won't pay off in the long-term.