What Was The Point?

Ever since the World Athletic Championship has started in Doha, Qatar, the news are full of articles about what a disaster the event is. First I've read about the terrible heat that marathon runners had to endure in order to compete. One third of the competitors could not finish the race, others had to be carried over the finish line in order to be able to finish the race and quite a few ended up in the hospital.

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Yesterday and today I read about the empty stadium that has ruined the mood of everyone. Imagine winning a medal (doesn't matter what color in this case) and you have no one to celebrate the victory with, no cheering crowd.

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If you look at the second photo, you can see some viewers here and there, you can't say the stadium was empty but it's not exactly what was expected at an event like this. The World Championship is the highest in rank if we are to rank events. It means athletes from all over the world get to participate and also viewers from all over the world should enjoy watching their performance.

I'm well aware that usually the majority of the spectators are from the hosting country as not everyone can afford to travel across the world for an event like this. In this instance however it's not the case. Some say the locals don't have the habit of going to live sport events and that's the reason for the empty seats. I wanted to learn about the stadium to see for myself what is going on here.

Usually for big events like this the hosting country needs to build a stadium or more if it doesn't have one to fit the needs. Some countries are spending twice as much as the initial budget, especially with the Olympics and in many cases stadiums and venues are abandoned after the big event.

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This is the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, where the World Athletic Championship is held. I did a search and landed on IAAF's ( International Association of Athletics Federations) official website, where this can be read about the stadium.

The host venue for the Middle East’s first-ever IAAF World Championships will be the iconic and technologically advanced Khalifa International Stadium.
Khalifa International Stadium is a historic Qatari sporting venue that holds a special place in the hearts of people in Qatar, the GCC and the Arab World.
Built in 1976, the 40,000-seater has long been the cornerstone of Qatar’s sporting tradition. It has played host to some of the most illustrious sporting events, including the Asian Games, the Gulf Cup and the AFC Asian Cup.
Thanks to a three-year renovation and expansion project, the national icon was transformed into an ultramodern venue equipped with cutting-edge features such as air-conditioning technology, LED lighting and digital floodlights, providing optimal performance conditions for athletes and an unparalleled viewing experience for spectators.
The groundbreaking cooling technology is 40% more sustainable than existing techniques and has been in use at Khalifa International Stadium since its reopening in May 2017.
Foundation in partnership with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC). It included increasing the stands of the east wing of the stadium, increasing the seating capacity to 48,000, adding hospitality and VIP suites, constructing a sports museum (3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum), installing a state of the art roof to cover all stands in the stadium, in addition to installation of cooling technology that will keep the pitch to an optimum 26 degrees year round, using 40% less energy than conventional stadium cooling tech.
VIP Suites: Khalifa International Stadium will have 64 suites of varying sizes for different VIPs and companies.
Parking: 6,000 car spaces and 2,300 bus spaces.
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This is all very nice, no one can ask for more. A modern, newly renovated stadium with all the extras to welcome the viewers.

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Look at those comfortable seats, most likely set up for VIP's like the gentleman on one of the seats who unfortunately is not interested on what's going on in the stadium, he's more interested in checking his phone and listening to something. Too bad he's the only one.

It is clear that this event is a disaster. We don't have ti sugar coat it, this is reality. It's also true that you don't need masters degree in economics to figure out how much does this disaster costs.

The stadium wasn't built specially for this event, it's an old one that was renovated and refurbished between 2014 and 2017, however, the return of investment has to happen, otherwise it's wasted money as the building is going to deteriorate in time and become a white elephant.

Reading the available articles I've learned that at one of the events there were approximately 1000 viewers, mostly journalists.

The organisers have since blamed the start of the working week and an event schedule designed for European TV audiences. But that cannot hide a simple fact. These world athletics championships have been a PR disaster for athletics, for the sport’s president, Sebastian Coe, and for Qatar, a country which has spent the past decade buying up rights to host major events, including the 2022 football World Cup. source

Now can you tell me why would a country spend the past decade buying up rights to host major events? Did they think a nice stadium and a well known and famous event is enough to fill the stadiums? Why was the event given to this country? Don't tell me IAAF officials had no clue this is going to happen. What was the reason?

Some say any publicity is good publicity but in this case it's definitely not true. If Qatar has thought this event will bring the necessary fame to place the country on the sports event map, well, they were very wrong.