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Dubai and Qatar creating sports oasis |
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4/15/2006 10:22:01 AM |
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Cocooned inside a concrete tunnel, an artificial ski slope runs into the sand dunes of the Arabian Peninsula.
In a desert where summer temperatures reach 120 degrees, the snow hill at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai is a gimmick designed to draw customers to the region's largest shopping center.
But while the slope won't be attracting Bode Miller or any other top skiers, there are several serious sports projects around the Persian Gulf -- financed by big oil money -- that are drawing world-class events.
There are golf courses designed by Ernie Els and Vijay Singh, and soccer facilities are attracting famous teams such as Manchester United and Bayern Munich.
Investors hope the projects change the region's image, draw tourists and boost annual golf and tennis events in the area. The $6 million Dubai World Cup already is the world's richest horse race, and the defending champion of Dubai's Desert Classic is Tiger Woods.
Separated by a few hundred miles, Dubai -- one of seven states of the United Arab Emirates -- and Qatar are spending almost $5 billion between them to build two elaborate sports complexes that would fit nicely in Southern California or Australia.
"We are building world-class sporting facilities with the aim of bringing serious, world-class sport," said Englishman Malcolm Thorpe, sitting alongside the 18th fairway at the Emirates Golf Club. "People are very used to going to the States and seeing fantastic sporting facilities anywhere you go. People don't say that about the Middle East."
Thorpe is the marketing director for Dubai Sports City, a project to transform a vast, vacant desert into a sprawling, futuristic sports campus.
"It's not just in the Middle East, but in Asia and what is known as the developing world, the culture of sports is going to drive very fast forward," he said.
Qatar's capital, Doha, is looking ahead to the Dec.5 Asian Games, with many events taking place at its Sports City complex. Qatar is the first Arab country to play host to the event, and the first in the Middle East since Iran in 1974.
"This will confirm the position of Qatar on the map of sport business," said Abdulla Khalid Al Qahtani, director general of the Asian Games Organizing Committee. "Hopefully by the end of the games, we'll be the center of sport excellence in the Middle East and be recognized as a center of excellence in Asia."
Other Persian Gulf states are constructing sports venues with the same assumption: Build the facilities, and world-class events and athletes will follow.
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