World Cup Preparations Going Well. Badly. Whatever.

The total costs for the South African World Cup, here at this present moment with 500 days to go until the tourney? Already four times the initial estimates and hovering somewhere around $1.2 billion before a single foot has struck ball.

Ten stadiums under construction are all behind schedule to some degree, and the original estimate of 900,000 visitors appears to be overly generous by half.

Add in the existence of a contingency plan "just in case" SA can't pull off the setup, the killing of a whistle-blower who pointed out massive corruption involving stadium construction, and the mounting global financial crisis curtailing fans' travel budgets, and it may not be enough to merely hint about this thing "looking grim." It's time to consider the first African World Cup a stillborn affair already, especially if corporate sponsors begin to shudder at the thought of their logos hanging on obviously unfinished and half-empty stadia.

(Don't blame the fans. They have face paint, horns, and homemade guitars at the ready. Blame the men in suits who can't bend over without bribe money falling from their pockets.)

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.