Working against Doha are factors it cannot control, like the consensus among people who gossip about host-city horse races that 2016 is the Western Hemisphere’s “turn” after what will have been 20 years of unfriendly time zones. And with security the biggest and ever-escalating expense, it might be difficult to persuade IOC delegates to put the Games so close to Iran. (The last time the region made a push was Tehran’s campaign for the 1984 Games. Had the city not withdrawn its bid in 1977, the revolution two years later would have thrown any Iranian Games planning into chaos.) Even if Doha’s bid fails–and most first-time efforts do–it’s still a smart way to raise the area’s sporting profile. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is another peaceful, wealthy port city with Olympic aspirations that has won sports cred with high-profile golf and tennis tournaments.
The cities’ wealth may actually work against them. Qatar and the U.A.E. have tiny permanent populations, opting to bring in workers from nearby countries. “They import everything there, and that might have to include spectators,” says Ed Hula, editor of Around the Rings, an Olympics news-letter that is the go-to source for host-city speculation. Summer Games typically need to sell 4 million to 9 million tickets–and Qatar’s population is less than 900,000.
And how might Americans feel about an Olympics in the Mideast? Herb Perez, the director of international projects for the Olympic Council of Asia, says the Olympics can be as much about changing a host city as spotlighting its culture. “Games are a vehicle for transformation,” Perez says. “Ideas get in, change gets in. You think China 20 years ago could have pulled off the Games?”
