Qatar Sports Venue Master Plan revealed at Aspire4Sport Congress

Following a succession of reveals made during the early part of this week's Aspire4Sport Congress, the Qatar Sports Venue Master Plan (QSVMP) was presented to the public for the first time during AspireBuild, the last of three forums held during the congress.

Two years in the making, the plan audited 62 of Qatar's existing sports venues for usability and proposed 11 new ones, in addition to eight venues originally planned by the Qatar Olympic Committee.

The plan was introduced by QOC Secretary General His Excellency Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and presented by QOC Director of Engineering Abdul Rahman Al Malki.

Sheikh Saoud explained "our focus since the beginning of this project 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 new venues planned are distributed over five zones around Lusail City, Qatar Foundation, Aspire Zone, Old Airport Area, and Qatar University.

Referring to major stadia and other sports facilities already in the plans of Qatar Foundation and Lusail City, Al Malki added "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.

"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."

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 billionn Qatari Riyals.

Concluding that the plan was put into place with the "Olympics 2024 in mind" Al Malki explained that the plan proposes 19 new venues in five zones in 'roadmap' to 2030, with the master plan envisaging that the venues have uses sporting and commercial after major sporting events.

Aspire4Sport visitors, delegates, and exhibitors were also given access to the Qatar v Lebanon FIFA World Cup qualifier which took place at Doha's Al Sadd stadium.

Image: Indoor sport at the Aspire Zone's Aspire Dome.

21st September 2012 - QATAR SECURES 2016 WORLD ROAD CYCLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

13th January 2012 - QATAR’S ASPIRE ZONE NAMED WORLD’S LEADING SPORTS TOURISM DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

13th October 2011 - SPEAKERS CONFIRMED FOR ASPIRE4SPORT 2011 CONFERENCE

9th June 2011 - ASPIRE ZONE SUCCESS FOR ASI SPORT