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The stadium in Natal is trying to make money by hosting weddings and kids' parties — with little luck. The company that owns it is putting it up for sale; it's had cash flow problems after being implicated in the state oil scandal in Brazil.

And the much touted Arena da Amazonia in Manaus, which costs a whopping $233,000 a month to run, also is being sold to the private sector — even though it was built primarily with public funds.

Lenderson Lima, a sports reporter in Manaus, says one problem with these four stadiums is that they were built in places with no strong local football teams to support them.

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"The local league games have very low attendance, and it costs a lot of money to put games on at the arena," Lima says. "So, in Manaus nowadays, local team matches actually take place in two training centers, and not in the World Cup stadium."

Jos Cruz, a sports reporter for Universo Online who lives in Brasilia, says the stadium there fits 70,000 people. The idea was that big concerts could generate income for the venue, but that hasn't been the case.

American rock band KISS skipped it on its tour in the region, for instance.

"They came to Braslia, but they didn't do the concert inside the stadium, they did outside, because of the high costs," he says. "That shows how ill-prepared the government is to manage a big sports venue and transform it in source of revenue."

In Brazil, it's so acknowledged how disastrous the World Cup legacy was for the country that the current sports minister actually promised in an interview with Reuters that "unlike than the World Cup, the Olympics will leave a legacy."

That remains to be seen: That event is also over budget and behind schedule.

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Instead of being a source of pride for the country, Cruz says, many of the stadiums have become a mark of shame, especially as the government is trying to implement austerity measures amid a sharp economic downturn.

"I don't see any World Cup legacy to Brazil except the debts we have inherited and the problems we now have," he says.

Brazil had excellent matches on the field and an international gathering that was lauded, Cruz says, "but the World Cup is over; we are suffering with everything that came after."

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