The sporting Gulf

This emerging region has big plans for future sporting success

Not content with building some of the most impressive and adventurous sporting facilities in the world, the sports authorities of the Gulf countries now have their ambitions set on winning the 2020 Olympics for the region.

A United Arab Emirates (UAE) bid for the Games is now in preparation, with a host of new developments in progress or in negotiation, aiming to boost the region’s ability to welcome competitors at the very highest level.

Tennis action at the Khalifa Sports City
complex in Qatar

Among them is the Sports City development in Dubai, a USD 5bn combination of sports stadiums, residential and commercial property developments able to house tens of thousands of people and allow hundreds of thousands to come and watch top-level sport. Besides the traditional stadiums and swimming centres, Dubai has constructed the first indoor ski centre in the region, bringing an Alpine experience to a country noted for its hot dry climate.

Yet this project is just one strand of a concerted regional programme of sporting improvements and bids to capture the world’s sporting attention. Late last year Doha, Qatar played host to the 2006 Asian Games, bringing in more than 30 countries to compete in this continental version of the Olympics, with participants including China, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and many Middle Eastern States. The modern Asian Games began in 1951 in New Delhi and have gradually increased in popularity and importance.

Chinese sports organisations will be watching these games with particular interest, not only because of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but also because Guangzhou has been awarded the 2010 Asian Games.

Qatar is spending an estimated USD 700m building new facilities and refurbishing existing ones in preparation for the games. For example, the Khalifa Sports City complex, with a redeveloped stadium, new aquatic centre, large sports hall and indoor hall will be a centrepiece of the games. UK-based architectural firm Arup was commissioned to design a new roof and lighting system for the main Khalifa Stadium, to provide shelter from the sun for the 50,000 spectators. A new 270m-span lighting arch is, say the architects, “tipped over at a jaunty angle without visible means of support to provide a visual counterpoint.” The new structure “appears to float above the crowd,” the company says.

The event organisers are fiercely proud of having been selected to host this event. “The 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 will be the biggest sporting event to be staged in the Arab World,” said Abdulla Khalid Al Qahtani, director general of the Doha Asian Games Organising Committee prior to the event. “The games have prompted a number of multi-million dollar projects to bring Doha’s infrastructure up to international standards with new roads, hotels and leisure facilities either finished or well underway.”

Qatar already hosts several international sporting tournaments, including the Qatar Masters Golf, the Qatar Tennis Open and the Qatar Airways Squash Challenge, but the Asian Games were by far the highest profile event in the country’s history. This will build on Qatar’s reputation for hosting major international meetings such as the recent World Trade Organisation meeting where a number of important agreements were reached – now referred to as the “Doha round”.

Hotel designs for Dubai Sports City

The Doha Asian Games is just the most recent in a series of ever larger and more prestigious sporting events to be held in the Gulf region. Bahrain now sees the annual arrival of the Formula One circus, as Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and their world famous colleagues race around the newly constructed track. This 70,000-spectator track made Bahrain the first Middle Eastern country to host a Formula One race, with facilities including a 10,000 capacity grandstand, a VIP viewing tower, multi-purpose pit buildings, helicopter landing pads and a media centre for 500 journalists and camera crews.

Three years ago, Abu Dhabi hosted the FIFA World Youth Football Championships in stadiums including the giant Zayed City Sports venue, with room for 49,500 spectators. New facilities including the Mohammad Bin Zayed stadium were built specially for this event, giving further impetus to the UAE’s bid for international sporting respectability. “Zayed Sports City can easily be turned into a fully-fledged Olympic Village,” according to Abu Dhabi’s sports authorities.

Abu Dhabi already has a wealth of watersporting facilities, with much of the activity focused on the International Marine Sports Club, a gift from the late Sheikh Zayed. This venue will host the 2006 World Formula One Powerboating Championship in December, while the rest of the year sees events including jet skiing, waterskiing championships, windsurfing and yacht and dinghy racing.

Dubai has been at the forefront of these high profile events, with leading competitors from the worlds of golf, tennis, horse racing and rugby making their way to the emirate to compete in highly paid and well-attended events. The Dubai Cup is the world’s wealthiest equestrian event, while the Dubai Classic golf tournament has been attended by stars such as Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, competing on courses designed by former champions such as Greg Norman. This standard of sporting performance and calibre of facility has continued to attract the world’s attention. Abu Dhabi has also pitched for the international golfing community’s affections, launching a World Sand Golf Championship – players including Nick Faldo, Padraig Harrington and Ian Woosnam have competed.

Doha hosted the 2006 Asian Games in December

Cricket facilities have also progressed quickly, with Dubai’s cricket stadium, with 40,000 seats, due to see international test matches and to be a venue for a future Cricket World Cup. An international cricket academy is to feature in Dubai Sports City, with the International Cricket Council said to be moving from its current home at Lords in London to Dubai. Although cricket had been registered as a sport for the Doha 2006 Asian Games, it has now been withdrawn because too many leading players were unavailable due to other commitments.

Each of the Emirates has a particular sporting concentration: in Kuwait, a new international tennis centre is due for completion by the end of 2006, designed by ArupSport. The Kuwait International Tennis Centre complex will comprise 12 outdoor and eight indoor courts, with a multi-purpose centre court with seating for 5,000 spectators. A hotel and retail development will sit alongside the centre.

“Designing a tennis arena is a bit like designing a theatre,” says ArupSport director Steve Burrows. “You have to consider the acoustics, the ventilation, sightlines and appropriate lighting to create an optimal atmosphere. In sports design terms, and in creating this environment, the projectile is small and moves at high speeds, so it’s a very different design solution from an athletic or football stadium because the audience needs to be closer to the action.”

Meanwhile, the preparations for the Doha Asian roused the country to a new level of excitement at the thought of all the international attention that the event would provoke. Visits to more than 100 schools were completed.

The games featured the largest ever number of sports at an Asian Games, and has given the people of Qatar a major boost to their sense of international identity: “To us it is not just a sporting event, nor is it solely about greeting our visitors and showcasing our country,” said Tamid Bin Hamad Al Thani, chair of the organising committee and a member of the International Olympics Committee as he looked ahead to the games.

“The Doha 2006 Asian Games mean so much more. It is about our sense of belonging and our position in the world and it is about our community, our culture and our environment of which we are very proud,” he said.

For the wider Gulf region, the success or failure of the 2006 Asian Games, and the quality of the facilities used there, may have an influential role in helping the members of the International Olympic Committee decide whether the UAE is ready to host a full-blown Olympic Games. Issues such as transport and hotel infrastructure, along with the efficiency of the administration of the events, could also prove to be important. If the event does well, there will be many more new facilities springing up in the region in the years to come.