Empty streets, cranes: the city built for Qatar's World Cup

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Less than a month before it is set to host the World Cup final, Lusail City is oddly quiet.

Wide empty streets, idle lobbies and construction cranes are everywhere in the sleek district 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital, Doha, built to accommodate World Cup fans and hundreds of thousands of host nation Qatar’s residents.

But with soccer’s biggest event underway, the empty futuristic city is raising questions about how much use the infrastructure Qatar built for the event will get after more than a million soccer fans leave the small Gulf Arab nation after the tournament.

Elias Garcia, a 50-year old business owner from San Francisco, visited Lusail City from Doha with a friend on a day when there wasn’t a soccer game in the city’s bowl-shaped, golden stadium.

“We came to check it out but there’s not much here,” Garcia said, looking up at a huge crescent-shaped skyscraper behind him designed to look like the curved swords on Qatar’s national emblem.

Across the street, a building site was concealed by a low fence illustrated with desert scenes. “Everything looks like it’s under construction,” Garcia said. “It's just empty lots with little walls they put up to make you think it's up and running.”

Driving north from Doha, Lusail City's glittering skyline and marina are hard to miss. Pastel-colored towers that look like crates stacked on each other rise from the desert. Wide avenues give way to zigzagging buildings, glass domes and clusters of neoclassical housing blocks. It’s unclear if anyone lives in them. Most are advertised as luxury hotels, apartments or commercial office space. Cranes hang above many buildings.

Plans for Lusail City had been around since 2005 but construction was fast-tracked after Qatar won the rights to host the...