Qatar Wins 2022 World Cup – Part two
Posted by Stuart Hackett on Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Qatar Wins 2022 World Cup – Part two
In part one of this series, we made some general observations about Qatar as a country and about what football fans can expect there. In this part, we examine the implications on construction and construction jobs in the Middle East.
Air Conditioned Stadiums
Qatar has pledged to build all of their 12 World Cup stadiums fully fitted with air conditioning. There aim is to get the stadium temperature to below 27 degrees centigrade. Stadium seats will be cooled using air pumped at the spectator’s ankle zone at a temperature of 18 degrees centigrade. The same air will also be projected from the back and neck areas of the seat to ensure maximum comfort for each fan. The same system is expected to be used to keep the temperature at pitch level below 27 degrees centigrade.
What’s more, all of these stadiums are to be solar powered. The aim is to build each stadium as a carbon neutral venue. The solar panels on each stadium will export energy on to the grid whilst games are not taking place. During matches the stadiums will draw this energy back from the grid. This is the basis for the stadiums’ “Carbon-neutrality”.
If the technology involved in building these stadiums was not fascinating enough, what Qatar plan to do with them after the tournament truly is. After the tournament, Qatar will dismantle all redundant stadia and donate them to poorer countries. It’s an ambitious plan, that has it’s doubters as to whether it can be done, however if Qatar can pull this off it will truly be an impressive technological feat worthy of praise.
Extra Hotels to be Built and Cruise Liners to be used to Accommodate Fans
The previous World Cup in South Africa saw over a Million extra visitors to the country during the tournament with up to 500,000 fans in the country at one time. If Qatar was to accommodate 500,000 fans at one time, currently that would be a staggering 31% of Qatar’s current population. Which begs the question, will Qatar have enough accommodation for these visitors?
Well the answer presently is NO. The answer to this question is not simply to build extra hotels though. This could happen to a certain extent; however the threat of these hotels facing under occupancy after the tournament means that the amount of hotels built will need to be carefully considered. At present Qatar has approximately 100 hotels; it is estimated that this amounts to 55,000 rooms. Not enough to accommodate half a million fans.
The current plan is to construct an additional 140 properties at a cost of $17 Billion to double the amount of rooms available to nearer 100,000. Still not enough though.
Therefore, the idea of cruise ships has been suggested as the possible solution. Cruise ships provide thousands of extra rooms and provide a short term solution to Qatar’s accommodation problems and fears of building hotels that will not be occupied after the tournament has ended.
In summary, there will be a lot of construction work to be done between now and 2022, with construction jobs aplenty in the coming years in Qatar.
It will also be quite a World Cup!