The New Life of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup Stadiums: A Model of Sustainability

Three years after the opening matches, under the bright desert sky, the Qatar stadiums built for the FIFA World Cup 2022 tell stories of ambitious design, immediate use, and challenges to remain alive, useful, and meaningful.

In Qatar, the legacy of the stadiums is not simply the inheritance of a tournament: it is an exercise in integrated vision on architecture, community, sustainability, tourism and culture.

The Al Bayt Stadium, the stadium built by Webuild precisely for the 2022 World Cup, is perhaps the clearest symbol of this promised legacy: a work constructed for the great event but conceived from the outset for what would come after.

The Al Bayt stadium was inaugurated in November 2022, hosting not only matches of the Qatar World Cup but also events before the tournament, such as the FIFA Arab Cup 2021.

Located in Al Khor, about 35 kilometres from Doha, the structure can accommodate up to 60,000 spectators. Its shape recalls that of desert tents, with façades and roof made of fibreglass membranes interwoven with a synthetic fabric resistant to desert climates.

But engineering is not an end in itself: what distinguishes this Qatar stadium is precisely the concept of legacy. From the design stage it was planned that, after the World Cup 2022, capacity could be reduced, through the removal of the upper tier, lowering the threshold from 60,000 spectators to about 32,000.

Part of the freed-up space was not wasted: here they envisage conversions that include a five-star hotel, commercial spaces, a sports health centre, and community facilities. In this way the stadium is transformed from a temporary monument into a permanent structure with everyday uses.

This post-tournament adaptation plan answers a crucial question, valid not only for Al Bayt Stadium, but for every major facility built for global events: how to prevent pharaonic works from becoming “white elephants”, costly, unused, and cumbersome in the urban space?

To answer this question, Qatar invested tens of billions of dollars to prepare sports infrastructure, transport, housing, and related public works: according to estimates, around 6.5 billion dollars were invested solely in the construction or refurbishment of seven new stadiums and another already existing one.

The Al Bayt Stadium has continued to host major events, not only matches of the Qatari championship, but also matches of the Asian Cup 2023 and other international tournaments. It has become a point of reference for sport, but also for the local community, thanks to the public parks, hospitality facilities, restaurants and commercial activities that have developed around the stadium.

The village and the adjacent green area, also built as part of the original design, are open to the public, offering quality urban spaces in a context otherwise dominated by extreme climate and rapid development.

Like Al Bayt, some of the other World Cup stadiums were also conceived for future use. For example, some modular components were designed to be removed and donated to other nations, so as to have a global and not only national impact. Stadium 974, a modular stadium built with shipping containers, was intended to be dismantled once the tournament ended and relocated elsewhere, although for now that transfer has not yet taken place.

Another relevant factor is the transformation of the context around the Qatar stadiums. It is not enough to build a large and cutting-edge structure. It must be integrated into an urban and transport context that makes it accessible, alive, useful.

The Al Bayt Stadium is connected through new road arteries, generous parking, hubs for buses and shuttles. The planning included the use of water shuttles and other means. Urban greenery, the park around the stadium, hospitality and commercial services enrich daily life.

The continuous use of the stadiums in the Qatari sporting calendar shows that the strategy works: local league matches, regional and international tournaments, cultural and social events keep the structures alive. For example, five of the eight Qatar World Cup stadiums are regularly used for league matches or competitions such as the Asian Cup.

Looking to the future, Qatar aims to transform some World Cup stadiums into multifunctional centres. The Al Bayt Stadium is set to develop not only as a sporting hub, but also as a tourist attraction, community centre, and nucleus of economic activities linked to hospitality and commerce.

Challenges remain: finding a balance between capacity, operation and costs, maintaining environmental sustainability in a harsh climate, ensuring that planned projects are carried out on schedule, with the promised effectiveness.

In this sense, the Al Bayt Stadium, far more than a temporary structure for a tournament, represents today a promise kept: that a stadium can be the creator of a positive legacy, promoting sustainable practices and transforming human energy, investments and vision into a useful heritage.

It is the prototype of what the world of sporting events can become: not only a stage for great matches, but an integrated, living, useful infrastructure rich in meaning.