2022 Fifa World Cup Al Bayt Stadium: Examining the Strategies for Post Event Urban Interventions

Qatar is the first Middle Eastern and Islamic country that was able to win this race and be granted the right to host the mega sport event of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. However, with such a large-scale achievement, comes a set of unique challenges to prepare the city, its people, and its systems for the event. The city’s urban readiness to host the event is challenging in terms of planning for the event, as well as after the event. And it is critical not to fall into similar past experience with previous hosting cities that show negative outcomes as their planned legacy lasts for a short time. As the year 2022 approaches, Doha is transforming its urban scene towards the success of this event. This thesis intends to identify how the FIFA World Cup serves as a one-time event that leaves a successful urban effect, worthy of calling a “Legacy”? Therefore, this research aims to evaluate and investigate the Supreme Committee’s legacy plan taking the FIFA 2022 World Cup Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor city as a case study. This is essentially to examine the post-event strategies for the venue, and how it connects to its urban context. The method of this paper takes both an explorative and qualitative approach. After a review of relevant background topics, data were collected from three main sources: first, general observations and looking into published legacy plans; second, an investigative interview with the Supreme Committee and the Ministry of Municipality representatives; third, a survey is collected from the city’s inhabitants. The critical assessment of the post-event strategies is conducted through analyzing the collected data and the findings against the examination criteria, the physical aspect of integration, accessibility, reusability and the non-physical aspect of livability and economic revenue. The thesis reveals negative issues related to the legacy plan, there is a lack of detailed timeline and transformation phases and it has been concluded that the precinct lacks physical and visual integration with urban fabric of the city and suffers from the lack of socio-cultural connectivity. Lastly, the research proposes a set of post-event recommendations to maximize the positive impact event precinct and promote livability.