Brazilian authorities have struggled to deal with hooliganism, merely imposing fines or making clubs play in empty or distant stadiums.
The future is uncertain, and true reconciliation remains distant with the stadium's operators, Arena Coventry Limited (ACL), which is owned by Coventry city council and the local Alan Higgs children's charity.
The music projects an intimacy that's distant from the stadium, and even from the exposure of radio: these artists are bringing R. & B. into the dark, where someone is more likely to hear a song on his or her own, rather than in a room with others.
They are Bilal, who "deftly combines streams of jazz, hip-hop, funk, and soul"; Azekel, an exciting British singer; Kelela, who makes carefully articulated music that, as Sasha Frere-Jones put it, "projects an intimacy that's distant from the stadium"; and James Fauntleroy, who has written hits for Rihanna and Justin Timberlake and more avant-garde songs for himself.
On a cool night, it is sweet to sit outside in the plaza and listen to the distant roar from the stadium.
Roughly one mile from our start, we joined other groups milling in front of the construction zone to survey the stadium, the distant stingray-shaped aquatics center designed by Zaha Hadid, and the Orbit Tower, a viewing platform designed by the sculptor Anish Kapoor.
"We were looking to enhance revenues, but not to make it look like a hockey arena," said Lonn Trost, the Yankees' chief operating officer, who added that there are architectural and structural obstacles to adding seats behind home plate at Yankee Stadium or in distant spots within the stadium's airspace, as the Red Sox have done.
For the second half, we went along to this distant part of the stadium; the pessimists' playground.
Smoke in the branches, rain in the football stadium, weird distant lights, sun from odd angles at dusk, debris lit by refinery glow..
