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Dubai
already hosts a handful of prestigious events on the
international sporting calendar – the Dubai World Cup is
the world’s richest horserace, the Dubai Tennis Open
attracts the best players from the men’s and women’s
games, and the Dubai Desert Classic brings the world’s
top golfers to compete on the emirate’s lush greens and
fairways. But this could be just the tip of the iceberg
once Dubai Sports City becomes a reality.
Conceived as part
of the massive Dubailand project, Dubai Sports City
seeks to create a centre of sporting excellence with
world-class facilities and top-level coaching combining
to not only bring showcase international sporting events
to Dubai, but also to develop local sporting talent and
introduce future generations to the joys of sport – be
it tennis, football, golf, basketball, handball,
wrestling or even ice hockey.
Covering an area of 50 million square
feet, key components of the project include four
purpose-built stadiums, an 18-hole championship golf
course, sporting academies dedicated to football,
tennis, golf and cricket, a sports-orientated shopping
mall and interspersed residential elements that will
become home to a community of around 70,000 people.
Abdulrahman Bukhatir, a partner and
one of three key local investors in Dubai
Sports City, along with Abdul
Rahim Al Zarooni and Abdul Rahman Falaknaz,
explained: “Bringing together
a unique combination of sports, lifestyle, leisure,
entertainment, commerce and enterprise, Dubai Sports
City will boast an engineered environment where the
world’s finest come together to live and fulfil their
dreams and aspirations.
“We want to
create some of the best and most recognisable sporting
venues in the world and attract the best
individuals and the best teams to Dubai Sports City so
that we can present the very best of world sport - our
aim is that Dubai Sports City becomes the very centre of
the sporting world.”
The project has already attracted
some of the world’s leading sports brands with a
Manchester United Soccer School,
David Lloyd Tennis Academy and
Butch Harmon School of Golf all set to become integral
parts of Dubai Sports City. An international cricket
academy will also feature prominently, while South
African golf legend Ernie Els has been signed-up to
design the championship golf course.
One of the four
stadiums will be dedicated to cricket and another to
field hockey, while the two multi-purpose arenas – one
outdoor and one indoor – will cater to a diverse range
of sports: from rugby, athletics and soccer to tennis,
boxing, wrestling and martial arts. They can also be
used to host concerts and other entertainment events.
Both the cricket and multi-purpose outdoor stadiums will
have 25,000 seats, while the indoor stadium and field
hockey arena will be slightly smaller with each having
10,000 seats, as well as VIP and media facilities.
The stadiums and
shopping mall have been designed by the German
architectural firm Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und
Partner (GMP), which won a global competition to design
the Dh 1.5 billion arenas and neighbouring retail
component. The firm has a long history of developing
sporting venues and is currently refurbishing the Berlin
Olympic stadium in time for Germany’s hosting of the
2006 FIFA World Cup.
Speaking at the
recent unveiling of the designs for the stadiums at
Dubai Sports City, GMP partner Hubert Nienhoff said:
“This will be the first time that a complex of such size
has been built anywhere in the world. The design
principle is to be state-of-the-art whilst recognising
the functionality of each stadium for individual sports.
All playing surfaces and pitch or court dimensions will
be pre-approved by the relevant sport’s international
governing body in order to guarantee their suitability
for international tournaments and events.”
Attracting major
international competitions to Dubai is one of the aims
of Dubai Sports City, with world championship boxing,
international cricket tournaments and major rugby
matches among those to be targeted once the stadiums and
academies are completed in 2007. Not only will such
events boost tourism by bringing in sports fans from
around the world to watch, but televising them will also
help promote Dubai on a global scale.
“It
will provide a lot of international publicity for Dubai
because a lot of people watch sport on television,” Mr
Bukhatir said. “Major sports events like tennis, horse
racing and golf are already held here, but we are
looking to develop other sports as well. The size of the
population would not justify holding the Olympics or the
FIFA World Cup, but we could justify a major rugby event
or a major cricket event like the Champions Trophy -
apart from the Olympics and the World Cup, we could
probably hold any event!”
Mr.
Bukhatir has long been the driving force behind cricket
in the UAE, and is currently the
President of the Emirates
Cricket Board, so it is no surprise the game
features highly in the plans for Dubai Sports City.
Having fallen in love with cricket while studying in
Pakistan, Mr Bukhatir set up
the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) in 1981 and
established the 12,000 seat Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Over the years, cricket has developed to the extent that
there is now a regular annual triangular tournament and
Sharjah has even hosted an international test series
between Pakistan and the West Indies.
His enduring passion for the game has
helped the International
Cricket Council (ICC) chose Dubai Sports City as the
venue for its first Global Cricket Academy - an
international centre of excellence bringing together the
skills and facilities to allow cricket players, juniors,
coaches, umpires, curators and administrators to develop
their abilities.
ICC President,
Ehsan Mani, believes Dubai Sports City offers a unique
opportunity to establish a world-class development
centre that will play a significant role in the ICC's
plans to develop the game.
“The Global
Academy is a very exciting development, not only for the
ICC, but also for cricket globally,” he said. “ Dubai is
an ideal location with its ease of access for the
cricket playing world and climate offering a perfect
setting for this facility. With the facilities that are
being put in place, the ICC Global Cricket Academy will
be an outstanding resource for the ICC and our 92
members to use to continue the growth of the game.”
Abdul Rahman
Falaknaz, Vice President of the Emirates Cricket Board
and a partner in Dubai Sports City, hopes the academy
will encourage even more youngsters to take up cricket
in the UAE, as well as developing the game regionally.
“Cricket is
becoming an increasingly popular sport here,” he said.
“And the introduction of the ICC's Global Academy will
hopefully boost participation even further. Having these
state of the art facilities here in Dubai will offer us
a very exciting opportunity to harness this popularity
and focus on nurturing and developing junior cricketers
throughout the UAE, GCC, African and Asian countries.”
And just as the
ICC Global Cricket Academy will help develop that sport,
the region’s first Manchester United Soccer School is
poised to do the same for football, according to the
British club’s Football Business Affairs Consultant,
Dale Hobson.
“We hope that the
evolution of this unique facility will encourage more
youngsters to participate in soccer and achieve their
full potential,” Mr Hobson said. “ This region has a
tremendous talent pool and now, with the very best
facilities and coaching available at Dubai Sports City,
I am sure we will see teams from the GCC becoming more
competitive on the international stage.”
The Butch Harmon
School of Golf has trained some of the world’s
highest-ranking golfers, while David Lloyd Academies
have proved highly successful in the UK and Australia as
premier health fitness clubs offering a wealth of
expertise from fitness specialists to some of the best
tennis coaches in the world.
“The
academies we have lined up is creating the
infrastructure for local young people to learn from the
best, and we can also attract people from the
Subcontinent and other Arab countries to come and learn
more about their sports,” Mr Bukhatir said.
For homebuyers who are passionate about maintaining an
active lifestyle, Dubai Sports City also offers the
oppurtunity to live in the midst of a spoerting
environment. Luxury villas will back onto the
18-hole championship golf course, state-of-the-art
high-rise buildings will house luxury flats and
apartments, while mid-rise housing complexes and
townhouses will also feature as part of the unique
project.
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