TWO trips to Abu Dhabi this past week, Formula 1 and international cricket both in the UAE’s capital, just an hour drive from our base in Dubai.
I’ll be there again this week too, as Abu Dhabi owned Manchester City come to play the UAE national team. I suspect a few more trips in that direction will follow, as there is a huge range of sporting events now lined up for Abu Dhabi. An international Ironman race was announced this week, while the Yas island formula 1 base also has an impressive line up of music events for
the coming year.
In TV as well, Abu Dhabi is taking centre stage in the Middle East as the sports TV enviroment changes rapidly. Abu Dhabi media’s acquisition of the Middle East rights to the English Premier League rights for the next 3 years has helped shake a crowded market into consolidation. The 2 primary English language services, Showtime and Orbit, have merged in a building right next door to us at Ten Sports. Meanwhile the two big Arabic sports rights holders, Al Jazira and ART are now co-operating with each other after years of paying unjustifiable amounts for sports content.
It’s a much needed organisation of the Middle East TV market. Trying to watch the English Premier League, the soccer world cup and the UEFA Champions League by satellite in Dubai currently involves subscriptions to three different firms and a mass of boxes and cables in your front room, unless of course you do what most people do and sign up for illegal services. Pirate Dish TV and Tata Sky boxes are common, despite supposedly being limited to operations in India, whilst illegal boxes from Africa mean that South Africa’s array of Supersport channels are a further option to subscribers in the Gulf.
The lack of income from Middle East broadcasters should argue against the number of big events coming to this part of the world, but state support for sport is so strong that the events just keep on coming. Brazil v England football in Qatar on the 14th, the FIFA beach football world cup in Dubai on the 16th, the new Dubai World Championships of golf on the 19th, the stunning new course for the Dubai World Cup horse racing is nearly ready and the Dubai Olympic bid committee met last week. However, above all it’s Abu Dhabi that is leading the way at the moment, where there seems no limit to ambition and new announcements come on a weekly basis.
Of course, to justify these sort of events under the “sports tourism” banner, you need a quality execution as well as a good basic idea. Events are needed that will showcase the country and bring people back again. I’m not the biggest fan of Formula 1 live events (which seem to be purely aimed at people in executive boxes with tvs to explain what’s happening), but the Abu Dhabi Yas Island experience was a superb feat of organisation.
A range of races in the morning, big name music events in the evening (Aerosmith on the night of the main race) meant that traffic was arriving and departing at a variety of times down the specially constructed highways. I didn’t see any traffic jams or delays, and the view from every seat of the newly constructed stadia is excellent (even if, like me, you don’t really know what you’re seeing).
While it was clearly a rush to get things ready and there were a few messy areas carefully hidden from the views of the TV cameras, even the aerial ones, there was no doubt that Yas Island was a great advert for Abu Dhabi. It stressed quality, it delivered big and satisfied crowds.
There’s no shortage of sports events or organisations wanting to be seen in India. I would argue that there is potentially more genuine commercial support for sport in India than in the Middle East (being “asked” to sponsor something by the government doesn’t count).
If there is a positive sign for India in the array of events a couple of hours away in the Middle East, it is that sports federations can be persuaded to change their calendars by the potential of a new market. What is needed is promoters working with central and local government to create not just excellent proposals, but also excellent delivery.
2010 and 2011 should be massive years for sport in India with the Commonwealth Games, Hockey World Cup, ICC World Cup (and IPL and cricket Champions League), as well as Formula One coming to these shores. The hope is that as with the Middle East, the Federations see what is delivered and want to come back for more.
The author is COO, Taj Television Ltd.
