The Business of Sport in the Arabian Peninsula

Abstract

Cities in the Arabian Peninsula have been very active in shaping their image as destinations for business and pleasure and have shown tremendous investments in infrastructure. Following the first Gulf War, sport became an important field of business activity, linked to city re-branding. The next section addresses the question of the contextual background in which global forces (International Non-Governmental Sport Organizations, multinationals) and local ones (local elites in business and politics) shape a city’s brands and finances. This chapter shows ways in which sports-related projects of investment in urban regeneration affect the regional economy, as well as the effects of the reverse process — injection of local capital into global markets. Hence the aim of the next section is to discuss the internal dynamics of the Gulf region in the so-called postindustrial “glocal,” “transnational” or “translocal” era. Sport is used here as a lens through which to examine the global-local nexus in the region. Sport, in its multiple forms, is becoming a tool for leaders in the Gulf area to reposition their countries on the world map (Amara and Theodoraki, 2010).