It seems to happen after every Olympic Games, but it's a sight that is no less remarkable.
The Guardian reports on the various venues to have hosted the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.
Just six months removed from an ebullient celebration of athleticism, venues resemble ghost towns and look as if they have been abandoned for years.
The most jarring sights seem to come from the famed Maracana, which The Guardian states has hosted events as recently as this past December.
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When it comes to the Maracana, the cost of renovation was about £400 million ($500 million) for a renewed stadium that hosted the 2014 World Cup, Olympic Games and events in between. After just a couple years of vitality, however, there is an eerie quality of neglect that emanates all over the pitch.
The reason for such poor conditions is as simple as not paying the bill. The Guardian reports: "The iconic stadium has fallen into a state of abandonment and has been closed to tourists due to a dispute between the stadium operators, the Rio state government, and Olympic organizers over $1m in unpaid electricity bills and management of the venue."
Here are some other depressing sights from the massive summer event:
Go back to most past games and peruse its venues and you will more than likely see similar sights.
Business Insider once took readers on a tour of past Olympic locations and illustrated how quickly things fall into absolute disrepair.
Just as our interest turns to sports we don't normally embrace throughout the year, so too do these venues lose a great deal of the fervor that keeps them alive for a couple of magical weeks.
It shows just how fleeting the Olympics are as an enterprise for the city. It welcomes tourists from all over the world but, sadly, shows how quickly infrastructure crumbles when they leave.
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