Champions at Marriott, Doha
If you’re a ‘bro’ and looking for a sports bar then this is probably your best bet in Doha. Which isn’t really saying much…
As the name implies, Champions is one of these modern sports bars where everything is shiny, neon lit and utterly soulless. The last refuge of the damned if you want to get all melodramatic about it.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get why all sports bars have to look like shit nightclubs these days. When I picture a sports bar I think of some Boston dive with a beat-up television in the corner screening baseball games, old Budweiser signs from the 80s cluttering the walls and off-duty Irish cops knocking back whiskey shots with beer chasers.
But I digress; Champions is bright, modern and has giant photos of Formula 1 cars on the walls. They also have lots of plasmas scattered throughout the venue. Curiously, all they seem to show is football (soccer). At any given moment there might be 3–4 different games on various screens. This can be quite disconcerting if you’re hammered.
One good thing about Champions is that the booze is actually pretty reasonably priced. Beers will run you about 30–35QR (USD $10) and scotch is in the same ballpark. If you’re going out to a proper bar later in the evening you can get a nice buzz going here for under 100QR (USD $30).
They also have a reasonably priced bar menu. I can’t vouch for the quality of the food because the ‘waiter’ who took our order failed to actually pass it on to anyone. When we enquired about our food after 40 minutes we were meet with blank stares and told it would be another hour before anything arrived because they were ‘hella busy’. Based on this fact (and because they wouldn’t give us a free round by way of apology), I’m going to go ahead and say the food is awful.
Oh, and the crowd is pretty grim too. As you’d imagine the ratio is heavily skewed towards dudes. Especially old dudes. If you’re looking to meet your ‘life partner’ then this isn’t the place. Unless of course you’re looking for an overweight white guy in his 50s who hangs out in sports bars.
So yeah, Champions sucks. But it’s still the best sports bar in Doha.
You can find more tips on living and working in Qatar in my book — God Willing: How to survive expat life in Qatar.