Two World Champs, two very different experiences

Subject: Two World Champs, two very different experiences.

They bought the World Athletic Championships. They bought the occasion. They bought the Media. They bought the advertising. Oil money, lots and lots of oil money allowed Doha the capital city of Qatar to host the World Champs, but unfortunately they didn't tell any of their citizens to turn up and watch and so each night the stadium is empty. The worlds best athletes turn on the performances of their lives but having won, their lap of honour, is in front of an empty stadium. It's yet another example of the corruption of neo-liberalism and the  values we used to hold dear. 

Today in Yorkshire in the heavy rain the fans turned up, soaked to the skin, cold and wet, they cheered the cyclists round each lap of the race and in doing so added enormous value to the race. There was no oil money in the choice of the circuit, no massive advertising rights, it was after all free to air on the BBC. It was simply an event run in the old traditional way, which, in the British Isles meant not letting the inclement weather get in the way.
Money unfortunately taints everything it touches, the people who are bought by it, the opportunity of ordinary people to experience the event.  The roof over your head when you stay in the hotel and the food you eat along the way.  Empty stadiums say only one of two things, the people of Qatar are not interested in athletics or, they can't afford the price to enter the stadium. 
What was the Sheik of Qatar  thinking when he bid for the 2019 World Championships. Did he have the wild delirium of the London Olympics in mind, every event sold out and packed to the roof tops. Did he imagine the image of crowds of happy fans somehow transported to his stadium in Doha, because tragically  it backfired.  Instead it was an event held in the wrong place for the wrong reasons. 
The Athletics Governing Body, the IAAF headed by Sebastian Coe has a lot of questions to answer. Like Sepp Blatter, the ex president of FIFA, the International Footballing Organisation, the taint of money destroyed his career through accusation of malpractice could this event hold a similar judgement on President Coe's tenure in the job.
It doesn't matter which sport, money destroys as much as it creates. 
Indian cricket mired in betting controversies and match fixing. The Football League engaged in hideously over inflated pay and bonus schemes for the players, who's sense of fan loyalty is tempered by the size of next years pay rise. 
The Championships will run their course but the 2019 event is a damp squib.   In another place the dampness never got in the way of proper folk to show their enthusiasm even when drowned on Chevin.