Al Thumama Stadium – stadium description

The venue is located in the district of the same name in the southwest part of Doha (12 km from the city centre). The facility was built on the site of the would-be underground football arena (The Wall Stadium), the plans of which had been abandoned a few years earlier.

The design of Al Thumama Stadium was developed in Qatar in cooperation with famous international architectural studios. The Turkish-Qatari consortium officially began the construction of the facility on March 1, 2017, although preparatory work had already started in 2016.

Originally, the stadium was supposed to be commissioned in September 2020, but the implementation was slowed down by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. In the end, the arena was inaugurated on October 22, 2021 with the final match of the Amir Cup.

The venue has a very clean and expressive form. It is built on the plan of a perfect circle (240 m in diameter) despite the football layout. The facade and roof refer to ghafiya, a traditional Arabic head garment worn by boys and men.

The facade, covered with nearly 25,000 square metres of perforated panels, is snow-white and rich in lace-like ornaments. The arena's roof is a cable structure covered with a white membrane and takes up a total of approx. 35,000 square metres. The height of the stadium is 43 metres.

The auditorium is divided into two levels - separated by a strip of business boxes - and has 44,400 seats. From an engineering point of view, the most interesting aspect of the stadium is the cooling system (Advanced Cooling Tech), which allows the interior to be kept at a temperature of around 18 degrees Celsius during the games. In total, 54 air treatment units were installed in the arena.

The above-mentioned solution also improves air quality in various areas located at the back of the stadium. Interestingly, the cooling system uses energy from solar radiation processing.

After the 2022 World Cup, the stadium's capacity will be reduced to 20,000 seats as a result of the dismantling of the upper tier. A sports clinic and a 60-room boutique hotel will be built on the site.