John Leicester wrote about how Qatar manages to keep its stadiums full:

• Qatar has a population of 1.8 million. Of those only about 300,000 are Qatari citizens. The rest are temporary workers.
• Volleyball, handball, and football matches are played in front of full stadiums as workers are offered $8 to pretend to be a fan.
• Given the amount of time a match takes this comes out to less than $1 an hour.
• Some even dress up in white robes and headscarves to look like proper Qatari citizens.
• While the crowds look good for television, they’re actually keeping real fans from going to the stadium. Two thirds of a survey’s respondents said that paid fans are the reason why real fans don’t go to matches.

Read more about the practice here.

Source: AP

Via: Marginal Revolution, Slate

Leslie Wayne wrote about today’s monarchists:

• The International Monarchist League argues that countries should seriously consider a monarchy as an alternate form of government.
• Members of the League – sometimes the descendants of overthrown monarchs themselves – point out that statistically monarchies perform better than republics.
• Supporters of the ideas don’t want absolute monarchies. Instead they point to Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Japan, and the Netherlands as examples.
• They argue that monarchies provide stability, continuity, and unity. And contrast the chaos in American politics with Canada’s relative calm.
• Other examples abound. Even in the turbulent Middle East, the monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Jordan have fared much better than countries like Iraq and Iran.
• Monarchists gloss over the absence of basic freedoms in countries such as Brunei, Oman, Qatar, and Swaziland.
• Many of the more economically successful monarchies have been propped up by natural resources – especially oil. In a world more focused on renewables it’s unclear these political models are sustainable.
• And then there are all the examples of societies working very hard to fight off monarchies through revolutions – which are prone to repression and incompetence.

Read more on The New York Times.

The Economist checked in on the 2017 market for football players:

• Manchester City, an English club, has spent €179 million on defenders – this is more than the defense budget of 47 countries.
• Clubs and their egomaniac billionaire owners would like to spend even more, but in a bid to curb runaway inflation leagues have “financial fair play” rules which require them to limit their losses.
• One French team paid €222 million on Neymar, a forward – over double the previous record for the price of a player.
• He’s a good player – betting markets estimate that he single handedly boosted the chances of his team winning the Champions League from 5.5% to 9%.
• But prize money and ticket sales from winning the trophy don’t justify a hundred-million-dollar investment.
• Part of Neymar’s appeal is his brand. He has more Instagram followers than Nike, the supplier of kit for the team. When the time comes to renegotiate the deal, the club will have the upper hand against Nike.
• The club is owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and the investment is a signal that the troubled country remains rich and confident.

Read more on The Economist.

Qatar is running an online auction for special vehicle license plate numbers. Elysia Windrum reported on some of the more astounding numbers:

• Of the 19 license plate numbers being auctioned, number 333355 has attracted a bid for $55 million – and may go higher.
• To put things in perspective, one could purchase about 20 of the Bugatti cars depicted above for that amount.
• The BBC reports that the allure of an easy to remember number is such that in the past people have taken out loans to bid for appealing numbers.
• Qatar set a Guinness World Record in 2006 when it auctioned off the telephone number 666-6666 for $3.7 million.
• Winners of the license plate auction will have two days to pony up the cash or be fined $5,492.

Read about the auction, how it works, similar promotions and more over here.

Source: Doha News

Via: BBC

Nandagopal J. Nair wrote about yet another Middle Eastern conflict – the battle to have the best airport:

• Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi are all about six hours away from two thirds of the world’s population and want to leverage this to become global travel hubs
• Dubai is currently in the lead. This year it became the second busiest airport in the world, and in 2015 it is expected to overtake Heathrow to become the busiest.
• The success of the airport has led to Dubai’s Emirates Airlines becoming the world’s third biggest airline.
• So many people go through the airport that Dubai Duty Free is expected to make $1.8 billion this year.
• But Dubai isn’t resting on its laurels. By 2020 it wants its airport to generate 22% of total employment and 32% of the emirate’s GDP.
• Qatar isn’t just going to take this sitting down though. It is building an airport in Doha which is two-thirds the size of the metropolitan Doha area.
• The airport will also have its own monorail network and a residential district to house the 200,000 employees who will work there.
• Never one to miss out on a good fight, Abu Dhabi is also trying to get in on the action. It is spending $3 billion on an international terminal to be opened in 2017.
• Aviation experts point out that there will soon likely be over-capacity in the region. Travelers are “only” expected to increase by 120 million a year – much less than the capacity that is currently being installed.

The entire article is fascinating and a very good and easy read. You should go through it here.

Source: Quartz

Damon Lavrinc wrote about a luxury we’ll soon likely be criticizing the rich for: portable hotel rooms.

• Designer and architect Margot Krasojevic was asked to design a hotel that could be wheeled onto a runway and connect with an individual’s private jet.
• For short stops this saves the owner the effort of disembarking and checking into a hotel. Instead they can exit their plane and enter a luxurious hotel room.
• The design is, of course, for a client based in Qatar.
• The room also filters rainwater for consumption and has photovoltaic cells for visual effects.

Read more about the design and see more photos over here.

Source: Wired