Looks a bit of an eye sore with the multi colored shipping containers dotted all over the place. A green stadium as they have at least used second hand containers so in theory recycling them into another purpose.
This is the nickname that has been given to the Ras Abu Aboud Stadium built in Qatar for the FIFA 2022 World Cup. 974 stands for the number of containers used in the construction which kind of makes this unique.
The one take home from any major sporting event is the white elephants these stadiums create leaving the tax payers to cover the bill long after the final whistle or medal ceremonies have been completed.
What normally happens is Government officials force them on a local team justifying the cost as an upgrade even though in reality it is not needed. We have seen that in South Africa after that World Cup was finished in 2010 where the local authorities have been applying pressure to move teams into their unwanted new homes. The Stormers rugby team are now moving from Newlands to the Cape Town Stadium even though Newlands has been their base for over 130 years. The Sharks in Durban are also under constant pressure to move to the world cup stadium across the road which I find totally unfair.
Hopefully these are the builders toilets and not part of the finished facilities.
Stadium 974 makes much more sense as it is the first all purpose stadium that can be taken down and sold on as it is one big kit. The stadium seats 40 000 spectators and could in theory make two 20000 seaters if required. I am not sure if the stadium gets packed away into the containers afterwards for logistics purposes, but that would make logical sense. If all stadiums incorporated this type of design then the host country could then just pass them on to the next host.
Stadium 974 may be using shipping containers but the cost to build is still not exactly cheap coming in at around $1 billion which is nearly $1 million per container. I have no idea who is going to repurchase this stadium in the future and what price it will go for but in all honestly this sounds expensive. Hosting World Cups is all about corrupt officials making a big pay day so if you were out to make a quick buck having a kit stadium is not going to be that popular. The construction deals and supplies is far more lucrative for skimming excess profits.
The containers form the structure for the stands allowing the seating to have less concrete supports and thus making it temporary.
Qatar is expected to have spent over $200 Billion for hosting the games adding new infrastructure. The take home from this figure is that number is over 60 x more than what was spent in South Africa back in 2010. The government has justified the spend saying these upgrades would have happened anyway. New hotels, roads, transport and public spaces that have all been new additions along with the 7 new stadiums and one old one upgraded.
The figure doesn't quite make sense as they expect 1.5 million visitors to attend the world cup but the big thing is how many tourists will visit Qatar afterwards. This is not exactly a must have on your bucket list and the majority of people who have been to Qatar have only been at the airport being the hub for Qatar Airlines.
