Fukuoka, Doha chosen as World Aquatics Championships hosts

[Quaker2001]

My apologies if this was already posted elsewhere, but I didn't see it anywhere..

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2016/01/31/doha-fukuoka-aquatics-world-championships-2021-2023/?utm_network=facebook&utm_post=5037178&utm_source=FB%20-%20NBC%20Olympics&utm_tags=srm%5Bolympics%2Carticle%2Cswimming%5D

The World Championships for swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming will be in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2021 and Doha in 2023.

FINA, aquatics’ international governing body, announced the decisions Sunday for its World Championships, which are held in odd-numbered years. Nanjing, China, was reportedly the only other bidder for the 2021 and 2023 Worlds.

The 2017 World Championships are in Budapest, which was originally to host the 2021 Worlds but took the 2017 edition after Guadalajara, Mexico, gave them up for financial reasons.

The 2019 World Championships are in Gwangju, South Korea.

Hungary, South Korea and Qatar have never previously hosted a World Aquatics Championships.

Fukuoka hosted in 2001, when a 16-year-old Michael Phelps captured his first global title.

The U.S., the nation with the most Worlds medals by far, has never hosted a World Aquatics Championships, which will celebrate their 20th edition in 2023

[StefanMUC]

So, three WCs in Asia in a row then. Sounds somewhat familiar.

And quite alarming for yet another sports organisation that there's only a very limited number of interested bidders for the prime events. Europe (apart from de facto dictatorial regimes) is burnt territory apparently.

[Quaker2001]

Definitely says something - as the article notes - that the event has never been held in the United States. And even Australia will have been out of the mix for nearly 2 decades.

[thatsnotmypuppy]

Melbourne hosted in 2007. With the Gold Coast hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and Sydney about to start major upgrades to the aquatic centre there just isn't any interest right now.

I'd expect a FINA bid in the 2020's along with an Olympic bid not long after.

[LatinXTC]

What are the stadium requirements to host such an event, like capacity size and whatnot? Considering the ridiculousness that Kazan did just to host, it doesn't look like it's worth that much trouble for possibly not a lot of revenue.

[Nacre]

What are the stadium requirements to host such an event, like capacity size and whatnot? Considering the ridiculousness that Kazan did just to host, it doesn't look like it's worth that much trouble for possibly not a lot of revenue.

The city needs one large arena (for swimming and maybe 12,000+), an aquatics center (for diving and synchronized swimming and about 4,000+), some sort of venue for water polo (another 4,000?) and a suitable body of water for open water swimming and high diving.

This is the major event I wish Seattle would host. It needs to rebuild Seattle Center anyway and has a private investor lined up for an NBA arena. It could host everything but the open water events in one park accessible by mass transit.

I think it is the operational costs that kill this event in the USA rather than the infrastructure cost, though. With no Ministry of Sport or "Sport Canada" to commit government money to such a project, there's no mechanism to commit the $100 million in public money required other than a referendum or "courageous" mayor from the city itself.