Why is the track and field world champion stand out? October 4, 16:49
The track and field world championship in Doha, Qatar has almost half of the stadium seats every day. What is happening now in the world's most popular international tournament, which has mobilized a record 700,000 people in the last 2017 London tournament? The factor has emerged.
Khalifa Stadium, the main venue in Doha where track and field events are held, is a stadium that represents Qatar, which can accommodate 40,000 people. Has been reduced to 21,000 seats.
Still, almost half of the audience was vacant every day, and in the men's 100-meter final, which attracted worldwide attention as a prelude to the Tokyo Olympics, the audience was only half.
The reason why the real numbers cannot be expressed is that after the International Athletic Federation has announced that the number of spectators will be more than 13,000 on the first day, it will not be released.
In this situation, the Greek player of the bronze medal with a female pole vault did not hide the dissatisfaction, saying, “There were few spectators in the game played this season including the domestic competition. This is the world championship.” There was a disappointing voice, "I wanted the audience" and "Is this the world championship?"
In addition, overseas media are also criticizing severely, such as “ghost town stadium” or “disastrous scandal”.
Why did this happen?
One of the main reasons is Qatar ’s culture of watching sports.
Qatar's capital, Doha, has a maximum temperature of over 40 degrees in the daytime in October, and the temperature is over 30 degrees even from midnight to early morning when marathons and races are held.
Although there are many sports fans, there are overwhelmingly many people who watch sports on television to avoid the heat, and even in popular sports soccer, most domestic league stands are vacant.
In particular, this tournament will consolidate the competition after the evening in consideration of the heat, and the main event will be held after 10 pm.
When interviewing on-site, even if you come to the venue, many spectators have already left the venue by the time the final event takes place on the track.
It was impressive that the staff of the Organizing Committee said unfortunately that there was no culture to watch sports in the venue in the hot weather.
The International Land Federation recognized political problems between Qatar and neighboring countries after recognizing that the audience was lower than originally expected.
Qatar worked to invite sporting events across the country, and this event was decided in 2014. However, relations with neighboring countries deteriorated after that, and diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, UAE = United Arab Emirates, etc. were cut off and direct flights were abolished.
The population of Qatar is about 2.7 million, and the fact that it cannot be expected from the spectators from neighboring countries has resonated greatly.
The International Land Federation was a great opportunity to expand the new fan base at this tournament, which was held for the first time in the Middle East, but even though the tournament was approaching the end, the atmosphere could not be seen yet, which is a big miscalculation. The