Sports stadiums, arenas, and complexes are expensive to build. If a city makes the decision to build a stadium for, say, $500 million, then it’s likely with the hope that it gets used a lot, and doesn’t sit empty for 365 days of the year.

While these stadiums are often built using public money, that’s not always the case. That said, while researching this article, I came to one conclusion that I was already fairly conscious of – Olympic Games and World Cups should never be held in second or third world countries. The infrastructure just isn't there, and it’s clearly a waste of money that could be better spent on pretty much any other public service.

That said, Olympic and World Cup soccer stadiums aren’t the only expensive venues that sit unused for almost the entire year, every year. Here in North America, there are stadiums that have somewhat recently been vacated, and the cities are still trying to decide just what they should do with them.

I’ve compiled a list of 20 sports complexes around the globe that sit unused. While compiling the list I found a startling number of arenas and stadiums that have been demolished over the past few decades, but there are several that still await their fate. Here they are.

20 Maracanas Stadium (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)

It’s well documented that Brazil probably shouldn’t have hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup, let alone the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The nation had next to nothing when it came to reliable infrastructure, and today many of the venues sit unoccupied after the nation dropped a combined $3 billion on either new stadiums or upgrades to existing ones.

Maracanas Stadium in Rio De Janeiro was originally opened in 1950, but it underwent major renovations to prepare it for the 2014 World Cup and, subsequently, the 2016 Summer Games.

While it appeared a world-class venue during those events, it quickly fell into disrepair afterward, as no one was put in charge of maintaining the monstrosity.

There’s still hope for Maracanas Stadium, though; the venue is under new ownership as of 2017, and the group intends on investing in repairs and maintenance.

19 Aquatic Center (Athens, Greece)

The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, were not a good idea for the nation in the long and short term. Organizers struggled to prepare the venues for the opening as they fell way behind schedule and went way over budget. Ultimately, they did manage to complete the venues (as far as the eye could tell), and the Games went on.

The Aquatic Center was where the diving events were held. While the structure was originally supposed to have a roof so as to shield competitors and spectators from the hot Athens sun, this feature was scrapped due to time constraints. The venue fell into disrepair for over a decade after the games, and only recently started hosting swimming events again.

18 Northlands Coliseum (Edmonton, Canada)

Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz fooled the people of Edmonton into footing most of the $500 million bill for a fancy new downtown arena that opened in 2016. While the city itself certainly benefits from the revitalized downtown, the Coliseum at Northlands (the Oilers' former barn) sits vacant almost every day.

It doesn’t help that the venue is tucked away in the city’s largely forgotten and easy-to-ignore north side. While city council still hasn’t decided whether they will be demolishing the structure or re-purposing it, it’s a shame that this is what’s become of the barn that witnessed such greatness only 30-odd years ago.

17 Herschel Greer Stadium (Nashville, Tennessee)

Much like the rink at Northlands in Edmonton, Nashville’s Herschel Greer Stadium recently lost its key tenant and has since been closed down. The fate of the minor league baseball stadium is now up to Nashville city council, and we all know how long cities can take to make simple decisions.

The idea to demolish Herschel Greer Stadium has been floated, but no decisions have been made yet. The stadium was built in 1978 and has served as the primary home of the Nashville Sounds, who moved in upon the stadium's opening and hosted games there until they moved to a new venue in 2014.

16 The Dome (St. Louis, Missouri)

While The Dome at America’s Center (or, “The Dome” as it’s often called) served as home to the St. Louis Rams, but we all know that they’re now one of L.A.’s teams. Since St. Louis lost its NFL club the 70,000-seat stadium sits vacant nearly every day of the year, aside from the odd big concert that might roll through town (it’s hosted just one concert in 2018).

The city of St. Louis now must decide how best to utilize the largely serviceable stadium, as it occupies key real estate in the heart of the city.

Sadly, taxpayers are still paying off the debt incurred from the stadium, and they’ll be doing so through 2021.

15 Colisee Pepsi (Quebec City, Canada)

You may or may not remember that Quebec City once had an NHL hockey team, and that team played its home games in an arena known as Colisee Pepsi, or the Pepsi Coliseum. The venue continued to host the home games of the OMJHL’s Quebec Ramparts through 2015, but today the venue is officially closed.

While rumors swirl of Quebec City getting another hockey team, there’s no way they’d be back at the Colisee Pepsi; no, they’d be filling the newer venue in the city, the Videotron Center, which is where the Quebec Ramparts play today. There are no plans to demolish the Colisee Pepsi just yet, but one imagines that’s going to happen sooner or later.

14 Joe Louis Arena (Detroit, Michigan)

Joe Louis Arena served as home to the Detroit Red Wings from its opening in 1979, all the way through to the end of the 2016-17 season. The Wings now play in the new and improved Little Caesars Arena, and Joe Louis has been closed down and is slotted for demolition in 2019.

It’s almost a shame to see the Joe go; The Red Wings were a borderline dynasty for much of their time there, winning four Cups while calling Joe Louis Arena home. While Olympia Entertainment still used the Joe for office space for several months after it hosted its last NHL game, they’ve moved out and now the storied structure patiently awaits the wrecking ball.

13 Igman Olympic Jumps (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

If you ever want to know what happens to a nation’s Olympic venues if the host country breaks into a civil war just eight years after hosting the games, check out some of the venues that still stand today in Sarajevo, Bosnian and Herzegovina. The Igman Olympic Jumps are one of several venues that fell into disrepair, as you can see.

The 1984 Olympic ski jumping events were held here on Igman Mountain, but eight years later they served as a battleground during the Siege of Sarajevo.

While the venue has been unused since then, there are plans to revitalize the venue and turn it into a new visitor’s facility.

12 Estadio Nacional Mane Garrincha (Brasilia, Brazil)

Hosting the 2014 World Cup and then the 2016 Summer Games was a tall order for Brazil, but credit where it’s due, they pulled it off. Criticism where it’s due, however; at what cost? Today, many of the state-of-the-art venues built with taxpayer dollars sit empty and unused.

While Brasilia’s Estadio Nacional Mane Garrincha was originally opened in 1974, it underwent a major renovation in preparation for the 2014 World Cup, nearly doubling in seating capacity. Factoring in the nearly $900 million renovation cost, the stadium ranks as the second most expensive in the world, and yet it barely gets used.

11 Dionysus Theatre (Athens, Greece)

This one is more of a piece of history than a tragic story of an expensive, unused venue, but next on our list is the Dionysus Theatre in Athens, Greece. Hey, I never promised that all entries were stories of abandonment and tragedy! There can be cool places in this world too.

The Theatre of Dionysus is known as the world’s first theatre, dating back to the Fourth Century BC.

The Theatre of Dionysus is abandoned only from a practical function standpoint, of course. A site with this much historical significance is visited frequently, even though it’s no longer hosting the hottest performers of Ancient History.

10 Barra Olympic Park (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)

While some of the venues that were refurbished for the 2014 World Cup or 2016 Summer Games in Brazil still get used maybe once or twice a year, the venues that comprise Barra Olympic Park have been wholly abandoned and are now even closed to tourists. Pictured above is the Swimming Hall.

The venues have been the victim of vandals and looters since the conclusion of the Olympic Games in 2016, and while the city of Rio still has to decide what to do with the venues, it’s safe to say they have more pressing matters on their plate. As of today, it serves as a symbol of wasted taxpayer dollars in Brazil.

9 Faliro Olympic Beach Volleyball Centre (Athens, Greece)

Unlike most of the abandoned Olympic Venues in Athens, there are at least plans to re-purpose the Faliro Olympic Beach Volleyball Center sometime in the near future. Sure, the nation has more [ressing matters on their plate, what with the ongoing economic crisis and all, but at least the plans are there.

The volleyball venue was abandoned shortly after the conclusion of the 2004 Olympic Games and eventually became overgrown with plant life. This is yet another prime example of how Olympic venues are almost always a waste of money for any city or country. The Hellenic Parliament recently passed a law handing the ownership rights to the Ministry of Justice, which plans on re-purposing it as a courtroom.

8 Stadion Za Luzankami (Brno, Czech Republic)

The Stadion Za Luzankami in Brno, Czech Republic, served as the home pitch for local football club FC Zbrojovka Brno (part of the Czech First League) from its opening in 1953 until it was deemed unacceptable for league play by FIFA standards in the early 2000s.

FC Zbrojovka Brno subsequently moved into new digs, and now Stadion Za Luzankami sits vacant.

In the past decade, plans were released that would have seen the stadium renovated, opening the door for the possible return of the football club, but those plans were scrapped in 2012 for reasons that are unclear. There are still plans to renovate the structure, but it’s not imminent.

7 Olympic Fountain And Village (Athens, Greece)

Back to Athens we go, where another 2004 abomination sits in destitution now 14 years after the games were held in the historic metropolitan. The Olympic Fountain and Village was where American Michael Phelps burst onto the scene, winning eight gold medals in swimming.

Unfortunately, much like many of the other Olympic venues built for those fateful games, the pool has sat empty and rotting for the better part of the past decade. The idea to hold the Olympics in the city responsible for inventing the Games themselves was a fun idea, but suffice to say it was also impractical.

6 Bobsleigh and Luge Track (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

We head back to Eastern Europe for the number 6 entry on the list, as we visit the Bobsleigh and Luge Track in Sarajevo. As stated before, there was civil unrest in Bosnia and Herzegovina shortly after the 1984 Winter Olympics, and many of the venues served as battlegrounds rather than hosts to sporting events.

If you like creepy old photos, you’ll find plenty of them if you Google the "Sarajevo Bobsleigh and Luge Track."

While it’s actually finally being renovated and fixed up for use, it spent the better part of the past 30 years riddled with bullet holes and graffiti.

5 Arena Da Amazonia (Manaus, Brazil)

Of all the stadium projects that were built in Brazil in preparation for the FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the Arena Da Amazonia in Manaus is probably the biggest catastrophe. This stadium, located in a relatively inaccessible area of the Amazon, cost nearly $300M USD to build and sits empty for pretty well every day of the year.

There were three casualties among laborers during construction, and for what? For the four FIFA World Cup games that it hosted? None of which included the home nation for the city of Manaus, whose citizens are nearly all too poor to travel to Rio for a sports match. Meanwhile, the city is in desperate need of better schools and bigger hospitals. It's quite unfortunate, really.

4 Astrodome (Houston, Texas)

The Astrodome in Houston was originally built in 1965, and over the years it’s served as home to all of Houston’s major sports franchises: The MLB’s Astros, of course, as well as the NBA’s Houston Rockets and the now-defunct Houston Oilers of the NFL.

More recently (well, over 10 years ago now), the Astrodome was famously used as a shelter for residents of New Orleans who fled Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (pictured). In 2008, the Houston Fire Department deemed the structure non-compliant with regulations, and it was closed for good. While parts of it have been demolished, the remaining structure has been placed in the National Register of Historic Places.

3 Hellinikon Olympic Softball Stadium (Athens, Greece)

The Hellinikon Olympic Softball Stadium was just another stadium that was built specifically for the 2004 Games in Athens that turned out to be a huge waste of cash.

The stadium hosted softball games for the ’04 Games and has not done so since.

The stadium isn’t huge, as it seats less than 5,000 spectators. That probably helped keep the construction costs down, although it’s difficult to find out just how much the country dropped on this stadium. However much it is, the economic turmoil Greece currently finds itself in probably means that it was too much, regardless of how much it cost, really.

2 Amphitheatre of Pompeii (Pompeii, Italy)

Although the Amphitheatre of Pompeii has been used as recently as 2016 for a David Gilmour concert, and sporadically for concerts over the years prior, I couldn’t resist putting the historic Amphitheatre on this list. Primarily a tourist attraction in 2018, the Amphitheatre of Pompeii was buried by lava and ash after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

The Amphitheatre of Pompeii is today the oldest surviving Roman Amphitheatre, and modern architects still marvel at its design, especially from a crowd control perspective. Prior to the volcanic eruption in 79 AD, the Amphitheatre of Pompeii was the site of a deadly brawl in 59 AD, resulting in a 10-year ban on games at the venue.

1 Avanhard Stadium (Pripyat, Ukraine)

I wanted to get a little creative with the last few items on this list, so I couldn’t resist putting the spooky, abandoned Avanhard Stadium in Pripyat at number 1. You might have never heard of Pripyat, but it’s a town near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and it was fully evacuated following the catastrophic accident in 1986.

Pripyat is (was?) home to Avanhard Stadium, and since the mandatory evacuation, it’s been overtaken by nature. Primarily used for football (soccer, that is), the complex sits just a few kilometers from the site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. Until civilization re-settles in the area of Chernobyl, you can expect nature to continue to have its way with Avanhard Stadium.