Doha Port Stadium to be located at existing airport

Existing Doha Airport to be 2022 Cup stadium

Qatar to have high performance sports centres

Doha: Doha Port Stadium- one of the nine new football stadiums that Qatar seeks to construct for the FIFA World Cup 2022 - will be built at the existing Doha International Airport, according to the Qatar Sports Venue Master Plan.

The Qatar Sports Venue Master Plan was presented to the public for the first time on the third day of the four-day Aspire4Sport Congress which concluded on Thursday.

The plan was introduced by Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Secretary General of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), and presented by Abdul Rahman Al Malki, Director of Engineering at QOC.

According to Qatar Sports Venue Master Plan, the FIFA World Cup 2022 hosts are planning to convert the existing airport into a multi-functional sports complex once the new airport becomes operational and the existing one is shut for air traffic.

Work on the sports project is expected to begin at the start of next year when the new airport is likely to become operational.

“The new airport will be completed at the beginning of the next year. The old airport will be closed down and one of the World Cup 2022 stadium will be built there. We will have a plan to build a big park and a rowing course where the present airport is located. The rowing course will be situated in the middle of the complex and will be connected to the Gulf by a canal,” informed Sheikh Saoud Abdulrahman Al Thani, General Secretary of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC).

As per the bid proposal to FIFA for hosting of 2022 World Cup, Qatar will build nine new stadiums and renovate three for the FIFA showpiece event.

The QOC General Secretary also informed that the existing airfield which connects Qatar to some 112 destinations of the world, will also house one of the two high performance sports centre’s which Qatar is planning in the near future.

“Besides the 2022 stadium and rowing course, the existing airport will also house the high performance sports centre. We plan to have two high performance sports centre – one for girls and the second one for boys, one centre will be at the new facility at the existing airport.”

Sheikh Saoud said the plan is to have a two-year audit of the country's 62 existing sports venues for usability and proposed 11 new ones, in addition to eight venues originally planned by the QOC.

"Our focus since the beginning has been legacy and ensuring that we avoid white elephants. We have watched countries build large venues and struggle later with what to do with them; and our team has worked backwards, thinking first about how these venues can be of use in the future before planning their use during major sporting events."

The QOC official, said the Losail Stadium which will host the opening and closing ceremony will be ready by 2015.

“According to the Qatar Sports Venue Master Plan, we will have an Olympic size swimming pool at Losail Stadium which will be ready by 2015,” said Sheikh Saoud.

The new venues planned are distributed over five zones around Lusail City, Qatar Foundation, Aspire Zone, Old Airport Area, and Qatar University.

Besides the Lusail Stadium, Doha Port Stadium, Education City Stadium, Sports City Stadium, Qatar University Stadium, Umm Salal, Al Gharafa Stadium, Al Rayyan Stadium, Khalifa Stadium, Al Khor Stadium, Al Wakra and Al Shamal are the 12 venues were the 2022 World Cup action will take place.

He said the Losail Stadium which is at the design stage will have a shopping mall and officials are keeping their options open on having a PPP (Public-private participation) model.

“We intend to start some commercialized activity at the Losail Stadium, like a shopping complex. It is new area. The other sports facility located in the vicinity is the Losail Shooting Complex (The circuit is located 30 Kilometers from Doha International Airport). We are looking at some kind of investment, possibly from the private sector. We already have private sector participation at Qatar Sports Complex in Doha.”

 Sheikh Saoud said Qatar aims to be major sports hub of the region and QOC is in constant quest to increase awareness on the importance of sport and building a healthy community.

“The mission of Qatar Olympic Committee is to put sport and physical recreation activity everywhere in Qatar so as to have harmonious development of men and women in true Olympic spirit and in accordance with the Olympic charter.”

“We have been investing in sports and sport infrastructure for the last ten years. We have been planning these facilities as an investment for the present generation and the future generation.”

“We spent a lot of time meeting with these entities and their engineers to find out what their plans are and ensure that we were aligned,” said Al Malki, referring to major stadia and other sports facilities already in the plans of Qatar Foundation and Lusail City.

“We’ve also mapped out a way – in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs – to integrate all our sports venues with the transportation network that Qatar is preparing,” he added.

Al Malki explained the process of putting together the Master Plan and identified the factors taken into consideration, such as the cost of building a permanent new venue, which amounts to 12 bn Qatari Riyals. He also said that the plan was put into place with the ‘Olympics 2024 in mind.

Qatar, the 2022 World Cup hosts, will be bidding for the 2024 summer Olympics, despite having failed to make the cut in the race to host the 2016 and 2020 Games, the QOC officials have said. The 2006 Asian Games and 2011 AFC Asian Cup hosts, failed to make the short-list for the 2020 Games, leaving Madrid, Tokyo and Istanbul in the running as the leading candidates.