By Paul Nicholson in Paris
October 8 – The Aspire Zone Foundation has released outline detail of a development plan that will more than double the size of its current 250-acre Aspire Zone geographical footprint.
Speaking at the two-dayAspire Global Summit in Paris, Phillip Templar, director venues and events at Aspire Logistics, said: “There is a growing demand within Qatar for more facilities for the sports and event industry, and combined with the expansion of the Aspire Academy there are a number of exciting projects that are being planned, which may require the assistance of some of those companies we have met with over the last 2 days.”
Although still at masterplan stage, there is an understanding of the new and increased facilities required and a five-year timescale in which the development is expected to be completed. The new construction will include residential. No figure was available for the cost of the expansion.
The first phase of the development is the expansion of the Khalifa Stadium from its current 50,000 seat capacity to 70,000. The expansion includes the addition of a sports museum and about 9,000 sq m of exhibition space.
The Khalifa Stadium was used for the Asian Games and the Asian Cup and will be in action at the 2022 World Cup.
Aspire Zone’s current list of facilities is impressive by any country’s standards, including 12 public multisport courts, 16 football pitches, a full-size indoor pitch and athletics track, a 50,000 seat stadium (the Khalifa Stadium), three Olympic size swimming pools, Qatar’s largest shopping mall and Qatar’s biggest recreational area, Aspire Park. There are two hotels on-site as well.
The facilities provide the opportunity to host simultaneous events with usage currently running at the equivalent of about 1,000 event days a year – made up of public participation events, elite sports events, entertainment and business events.
Qatar has hosted major events such as the Asian Games, Asian Cup, IAAF World Indoor Athletic Championships as well annually hosting international events in football, swimming, gymnastics, fencing, volleyball, table tennis and a number of other sports. This year it will host FINA’s World short course swimming championships and it is aiming to host World championships in gymnastics, fencing and boxing. There is an appetite to do more.
In football Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Schalke, and Paris St Germain regularly use Aspire for winter training, while a number of national teams have held camps.
Templar says the second phase of the master plan is an extension of the west part of Aspire Zone that will provide more flexible sports and event facilities “and could potentially include any number of developments ranging from multipurpose venues, indoor and outdoor recreational areas, areas for children, aquatic facilities, restaurants and residential areas.”
Aspire Academy will be expanded to include the establishment of the Qatar Lab – a training facility that will integrate a combination of facilities, technology and methodologies to develop football talent.
There will also be expansion of retail and entertainment facilities with the creation of the 68,000 sq m Aspire Park Mall which will complement the existing Villagio Mall.
Important within the development philosophy is to be at the leading edge of technology, which inevitably means heat cooling technology. During the Brazil World Cup the Qataris ran a number of tests and successfully cooled a covered area for 7,000 fans to below 30 degrees when the outside temperature was over 40.
The next stage is to scale up and improve this technology further.
Being at the cutting edge of the digital sports experience is also seen as a priority. Not least in ensuring that bandwidth will cope with (or be scaled to handle) the multiple digital devices and communications required for a FIFA World Cup in eight years time.
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