NEOM will present a new way of living when it opens fully in Saudi Arabia. The managing director of NEOM Sport, Jan Paterson, explains how variety is at the heart of the strategic planning.
Few destinations capture a vision of the future quite like NEOM, the $500bn regional development taking shape in northwest Saudi Arabia.
From THE LINE, an astonishing vertical city that will be 170km long and just 200 metres wide, to Oxagon, the reimagined industrial city, NEOM will be impossible for the world to ignore in the years to come.
As NEOM presses ahead with efforts to realise its vision for the future, sport is already playing a vital role – and its importance is only set to grow.
The aim is to leverage the stunning natural landscape of the region to nurture an adventurous, outdoor active lifestyle among its citizens, whilst building state-of-the-art sporting facilities for local and international high-performance athletes. In essence, the goal is to create an active society which, in turn, will attract people and businesses to relocate to the kingdom for the quality of life.
According to managing director of NEOM Sport, Jan Paterson, sport will serve as a key tool for social development, aside from the undeniable entertainment attributes.
“Offering the broadest opportunities for everyone of all abilities to participate in, spectate and/or consume sport is key to our strategy of offering a unique liveability – one where residents and visitors find themselves within five to 10 minutes of active opportunities, have a series of global events to attend, as well as driving a thriving sport economy where ultimately we are the most active society globally,” she says.
Diversifying through sport
Saudi Arabia is driving economic diversification, one of the key pillars of Saudi Vision 2030 and the foundation of the national transformation strategy, to ensure its future prosperity.
NEOM, which is supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and is the kingdom’s flagship project to showcase what it aspires to be in the future.
As a starting point, NEOM will be an epicentre of renewable energy initiatives, ranging from wind and solar power through to the world’s largest hydrogen plant.
Spanning 26,500 km sq, NEOM has to date announced four flagship regions – THE LINE, Oxagon, Trojena, and Sindalah. Ninety-five per cent of the landscape has been reserved for nature.
“We have the largest playground and field of play for sport, and therefore adventure sports are a priority. We aim to be a create a sought-after adventure sport tourism destination with a varity of experiences across land, sea and air,” Paterson continues.
Sport will serve as a key tool for social development
– Jan Paterson, managing director of NEOM Sport
Earlier this year, the project established a pilot Adventure Sports Hub – a living lab to test and trail innovations, sport technology and customer experiences across six water sports and three land based sports. In 2024, this will expand and be supported by unique marine research for recreational diving.
Sport’s roadmap
Construction has started across the region, and will be completed in multiple phases, with the first destination, luxury island Sindalah, expected to be complete in 2024. The various regions and locations are spread across NEOM’s diverse landscape, which includes coastlines, deserts and mountains, and are being supported by NEOM’s sports offering.
The aim is to leverage the natural geography in combination with forward-thinking venues that are being built with future legacies in mind. This, it is hoped, will put NEOM in a position to attract recreational and elite athletes alike, as well as a diverse suite of major events.
NEOM is already operational in the live events space, having hosted three editions of the NEOM Beach Games and delivered what athletes have claimed is a “second-to-none experience”. Thousands of Olympic and international competitors, coaches and officials have participated since the Games’ inception in 2019.
This year, the Games hosted more than 800 athletes from around the world in NEOM to compete in five sports, all of which lend themselves to NEOM’s attributes – sport climbing, 3×3 basketball, beach soccer, mountain biking and triathlon.
Work has now been completed on the development of 100 climbing routes for amateur, experienced and international rock climbers on the back of NEOM’s RISE 100 in 2020 – a festival celebrating adventure sport.
Additionally, there have been two Extreme E off-road races in NEOM, with one taking place in the Hismah Desert and the other along the waterfront. The hosting goals were to showcase diverse landscapes and adopt an environmentally friendly “leave no trace” approach to temporary host sites.
Adventure
A large chunk of NEOM’s current developmental work is with an eye on the future.
This year, NEOM’s Adventure Sport team completed the third phase of a groundbreaking Marine Dive Research programme in July by digitally mapping the Gulf of Aqaba and the NEOM coastline, as well as nearby islands. Ultimately, this project will help to lay the foundations for sports tourism by optimising the recreational diving experience whilst simultaneously helping to monitor coral growth.
Further innovations are being formulated by NEOM on the track.
The NEOM McLaren Electric Racing team was announced in June 2022, representing a motorsport first by delivering support across two different racing series – Formula E and Extreme E. At the 2023 London ePrix, the partnership enabled an FIA-approved world first in motor racing, as an AI text-to-image-generated racing livery was unveiled at the season finale.
“The livery was a collaboration of thoughts from both McLaren Formula E drivers (Britain’s Jake Hughes and René Rast of Germany) and four young Saudi NEOM graduates who then joined the NEOM McLaren Talent Development programme for 12 months at the McLaren Technology Centre,” Paterson says.
“These young people are the first of several cohorts who will be exposed to working in a high performance culture with cutting edge technology in an award-winning company and have the ability to be future leaders.”
Importance of profile
With sport as a strategic element of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has recently looked towards global partnerships, as a way of driving economic impact and building awareness.
NEOM is a global partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), with the multi-year deal set to run into next year. The collaboration encompasses major AFC international competitions including the Asian Cup and AFC Champions League.
Building on this, NEOM’s name is set to take centre stage for the next edition of the Asian Cup, scheduled to run from January 12 to February 10 in Qatar. The latest edition was postponed due to high summer temperatures in the Persian Gulf and the host’s participation in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Gold Cup.
Also serving as a global partner sponsor alongside NEOM is Visit Saudi, a 2020 creation of the Kingdom’s Ministry of Tourism that promotes its travel industry.
On a more local scale, ownership of Tabuk’s Al-Suqor Sports Club was transferred to NEOM in June. Part of the national Sports Clubs Investment and Privatisation Project, the club will increase participation, develop talent pathways and enhance performance achievements across 14 sports for men and women, including a men’s football team that is currently in the second division which aims to reach the SPL in the future.
Athlete development
Tabuk is one of four locations – including capital city Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam – that stages the Shuhub Community Programme, which is aimed at identifying future Saudi Arabian footballers.
The initiative is managed by NEOM Sport and has featured more than 3,500 children aged between seven and 12 years of age attending specialised training courses since its launch in 2022.
The Shuhub Community Programme is aimed at developing future Saudi Arabian footballers
“The Shuhub Community Programme continues to reflect NEOM’s commitment to providing a platform for developing the next generation of talent,” Paterson adds. Similar plans are underway in cricket following a collaboration with Indian Premier League team the Rajasthan Royals.
The programme aims to facilitate an active lifestyle among NEOM’s residents, and in the second half of this year, 700 players and officials from 57 companies and more than 20 countries have participated in a T-10 style tournament, with the finals held on December 7-8.
The scheme is said to focus on inclusivity, with Paterson claiming it will deliver cricket opportunities “for men and women, girls and boys alike, in the community at NEOM”.
Additionally, Trojena is due to host the 10th edition of the Asian Winter Games in 2029 after being awarded hosting rights at the Olympic Council of Asia General Assembly in October last year. A new ski resort is being built to fulfil the hosting duties and position NEOM as a home of winter, as well as summer sports.
New opportunities
Such a variety of sports is consistent with NEOM’s overall outlook as it attempts to position itself as a place where sports enthusiasts – and those who are pursuing an active outdoor lifestyle – will be keen to visit and live.
Opportunities for hiking, kayaking, water sports, skiing, zip lining, alpine coaster, mountain biking, skateboarding, bicycling and climbing will all be available, and the positive impact of these offerings, as part of NEOM’s broader developments, will extend into the economy and society at large. For instance, Trojena alone is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs by 2030.
Indeed, NEOM is emblematic of a momentous societal, economic and sporting transition in the kingdom, and its role at the heart of the Middle East. This is encapsulated by the development’s moniker, with the first three letters of ‘NEOM’ forming the Ancient Greek prefix ‘neo’ – meaning new – while the fourth letter represents the start of the Arabic word mustaqbal, meaning future.
With solid foundations for future growth being put in place, the sporting world will look on with interest as this extraordinary destination with undeniably grand ambitions promises to open up a new frontier for athletes, fans and the sports industry alike.
