Olympics could attract contracts worth billions

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The UAE could witness investments worth several billions of dirhams in constructing the infrastructure if it wins the bid to host the 2020 Olympics, a senior industry official has said.

On Sunday, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched the Dubai 2020 initiative that will explore the emirate's potential to host the World Expo and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.

According to Jason Prior, President of Edaw Aecom, the company responsible for preparing the master plan for the London Olympics bid, told Emirates Business the UAE has excellent infrastructure for hosting the Games.

"The airports are world class and then you have the Metro is coming up. Additional sports facilities should, however, be created to cater to the requirements of hosting an Olympics," said Prior.

Speaking from London, he said the United Kingdom's expenditure for hosting the Olympics is estimated at nearly £9 billion (Dh54.47bn). "You need to create the infrastructure to host and transport about a quarter million people a day during the event. It includes the contingent of athletes, officials from various countries and the International Olympic Association.

"Apart from the venue, we need an athletes village that can host about 17,000 to 20,000 people. The main venue itself should have a seating capacity of about 80,000. Then we need various other sports venues, an equestrian centre, indoor arenas, the external infrastructure, sailing and shooting venues, etc," said Prior.

According to him, those in charge of planning should keep in mind the relevance of these infrastructure on the post-Olympic life in the country. "It is a big undertaking. We all know how bad the experiences for Athens was and how it took off in Barcelona," said Prior.

Meanwhile, Dubai Sports CityDubai Sports City, an integrated purpose-built sports city yesterday said it has submitted information to the UAE National Olympic Committee detailing its existing facilities and said it supported the government's initiative towards making a bid for the World Expo and Olympic Games of 2020, a top official of the company said.

The Dubai Government said a Working Group of government and private sector representatives will explore the potential and possibility of Dubai hosting the global events in 2020.

"We welcome the government initiative to host the Olympics in 2020 and we will do anything to support the government in its Dubai 2020 endeavour," said Malcolm Thorpe, Marketing Director, Sports Business, Dubai Sports CityDubai Sports City.

Thorpe said Dubai Sports CityDubai Sports City is currently not equipped in terms of its existing facilities to be able to solely host an event as large as the Olympics. "The Dubai Sports CityDubai Sports City has not been built with a view of hosting such a large event. We are right now not equipped to host such a big event considering our existing facilities and infrastructure. Currently, we are still in the initial process of submitting information to the government about our facilities," said Thorpe.

"The decision is going to be made later this year as to where the 2016 event will be held. So we will know in another four years time as to where the 2020 event will be held. It is too early to speak about bidding, however, we will support the government in any which way in its Dubai 2020 initiative," he said.

Thorpe said hosting big events such as Olympics calls for a number of temporary facilities and infrastructure to be established, which requires a lot of planning to be done in time.

According to Thorpe, current investments into the Dubai Sports CityDubai Sports City stands at about $4bn (Dh15bn), which includes the real estate development and its existing facilities and infrastructure.

Set on 50 million square feet within the Dubailand development, Dubai Sports CityDubai Sports City will feature four stadia, a 60,000-seat multi-purpose outdoor stadium for rugby, football and track-and-field events, a 25,000-seat capacity dedicated cricket stadium, a 10,000-seat multi-purpose indoor arena for hard court games such as ice hockey, concerts and other entertainment events, and a field hockey stadium for more than 5,000 spectators.

By Joseph George and Anjana Kumar

© Emirates Business 24/7 2009