Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Facilities

Qatar Testing Turf To Survive Desert Sun For 2022 FIFA World Cup

Critics said that Qatar "will be too hot to host the 2022 World Cup but it is determined to prove the grass is no greener elsewhere," according to Tom Finn of REUTERS. Beyond the air-conditioned stadiums now slowly rising from the greyer dust, how to keep the football pitches "from withering away in the desert sun is a challenge that a motley group of botanists is trying to solve." Among date palms and empty warehouses in the scrubland outside the capital Doha, World Cup Turf Manager Yasser Abdulla Mulla "manages a research center where a botanist from New Zealand and several south Asian workers are nurturing 12 breeds of grass with water and fertilizer." Mulla: "We want a grass that is durable, attractive to the eye and can survive heat and humidity. Yes, we have summer winds and dust storms but all grass really needs is sun, water and fertilizer. We are looking for turf that can survive here in Doha and in the region." Qatar's World Cup "will be held in November when temperatures still reach the mid-20 degrees Celsius (75 Fahrenheit) but the grass will run their stress tests through the Gulf summer." This is when temperatures typically range from 40 to 50 degrees Celsius (104 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit) and the turf "will absorb an Olympics swimming pool worth of desalinated water every 10 days" (REUTERS, 5/3).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2016/05/04/Facilities/Qatar-World-Cup.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2016/05/04/Facilities/Qatar-World-Cup.aspx

CLOSE