I read a blog which was written by Chang Yong Lee and paragraphs below is what he has written.
Not long ago, the FIFA committe decided to host 2022 World cup in Qatar. Today, I am going to discuss general issues surrounding this incident in marketing context.
http://thegulfblog.com/2010/12/02/qatar-to-host-2022-world-cup/
http://boston.com/community/blogs/less_is_more/2010/12/how_did_we_lose_to_qatar.html
Among other bidding countries including the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Australia, Qatar successfully presented their willingness to host the 2022 World Cup and made their dream come true. However, in a marketer’s perspective, this is not quite a true success. After reading articles linked above, I have narrowed down to one idea that explains how I made my deicision.
“MONEY”
Qatar claimed that they are ready to spend 3 billion U.S. dollars to build 12 ultra-modern stadiums that are LED equipped and fully air-conditioned. Building a stadium is a costly job, and it will cost astronomically to build such modernized stadiums. Building stadiums is not the only problem. Huge maintenance expenses will haunt them down even after the World Cup is over. Transportation system is another one that would bother the Qatar government. Maintaining an excellent transportation system that can afford hundred thousands of new visitors in a geographically limited country is a hard job, and again, costly.
Of course, it is perfectly fine (even legal!) to bring up some magic by pouring in massive “capital” (the rest of the world calls it oil dollar) to buy off the world’s biggest and most famous global event. The Qatar World Cup Committee even paid a famous soccer player Zinedine Zidane over 16 million dollars just to show up in a Qatar World Cup endorsement. They may have got what they wanted, but I would rather say that they failed to succeed in marketing context.
From what I understand, many of the countries wanted to host 2022 world cup and they have tried so hard to host world cup at their countries. Surprisingly, Qatar, the country that has never shown in previous world cups got to host 2022 world cup on their home soil. This was a shock to many of the countries and this could be seen as a true marketing success. The countries that host world cups are the ones that have been participating in world cups as the countries with soccer enthusiasts. Not many people have ever heard of country called Qatar. However, their marketing strategy to earn this amazing chance to host World cup can be seen very successful as there is a minimal chance for a country with no appearance in world cup to host world cup is almost impossible.