To get an idea of Zayed Sports City’s place in the UAE community, all you have to do is look at the local currency.
The back of the Dh200 bank note depicts an image of the UAE Central Bank, which issued the note in 1989, well after the first dirham went into circulation in 1973. On the front is an illustration of the Sharia Court building and the instantly-recognisable outer shell of Zayed Sports City Stadium.
Named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s founding father and first president, Zayed Sports City is the nation’s premier sporting facility for hosting both international and regional activities and events.
The Abu Dhabi landmark has stood since 1980 and been an integral part of the UAE sporting scene since its opening, but it has reached new heights in the last half decade thanks to Abu Dhabi Entertainment Company, which took over operations in 2010.
Barry Bremner, general manager of Zayed Sports City and Abu Dhabi Entertainment Company’s first employee, has been part of getting the most out of the venue.
“Zayed Sports City, in terms of the first main building, was built 35 years ago. That was part of Sheikh Zayed’s vision to have the youth of the UAE participate in sport. When we took over as the current company, which is Abu Dhabi Entertainment Company, we had around 400,000 people using the facilities in 2010 and they did roughly six events.
“We’ve worked very hard over the last five years and this year we did 1.6 million, in terms of people participating in the 188 events and sports within the facility,” Bremner told Sport360.
“We haven’t actually built any new facilities. We’ve tweaked and added some pitches and added paintball, but we’ve not actually built a large new facility. All we’ve taken is what was there and helped activate it. Simple as that.”
Originally constructed as an Oly-mpic complex, Zayed Sports City has a number of facilities to cater to different sports.
The ice rink (originally called Abu Dhabi Ice Rink) opened in 1987, the Khalifa International Bowling Centre opened in 1998, the International Tennis Centre opened in 2005, while paintball was introduced earlier this year.
With so much to offer in terms of facilities and range of activities, it’s no wonder what Bremner considers Zayed Sports City’s biggest strength to be for attracting residents.
“I think it’s the diversity of the customer base that we’ve got,” he said.
“Within the ice rink, for example, we have a lot of Emiratis. Within bowling, we have lots of Filipinos. You get on the pitches, we’ve got a mix of international people playing football. We’ve got kids, we’ve got adults, we’ve got high numbers of Emiratis. In rugby, we have a lot of expats.
“So it’s actually the diversity of what we do. When you look at the diversity of the city itself, it sort of matches. The sports we have are actually quite complimentary to the community within Abu Dhabi.
“Obviously the UAE and specifically Abu Dhabi has grown in terms of its population. At the same time, our competition has grown. So it’s not just other facilities we’re competing against, it’s for people’s time. Do people choose to go to the mall, do they go to another sports facility? I would say we’ve been quite successful in that we’ve actually probably activated more than other facilities within the UAE.”
“Some of it is around price point. We don’t see ourselves as an exclusive club. The cheapest thing you can do on site is bowling, which is Dh15 per game, all the way up to having private tennis lessons. There’s a whole diversity and range of programmes.
“You can come and walk for free at night. People run, rollerblade and cycle around the stadium, which is all for free. So we’re very inclusive in the way we encourage people to the site.”
Attracting individuals in the UAE community is one thing, but drawing the interest of events – whether they carry worldwide or local appeal – is another challenge in itself.
On the international end, Zayed Sports City has hosted renowned events such as the FIFA Club World Cup in 2010 and WWE Live just recently in February.
In 2015, more international football has been brought over to the nation’s capital, with friendlies of Ivory Coast v Nigeria, Ivory Coast v Sweden and Sweden v Finland taking place earlier this year, while a match-up between Colombia and Kuwait will be played tonight.
“Behind the scenes, we’ve actually spent a lot of time attracting those big events to Zayed Sports City,” Bremner said.
“Part of it is around the facilities we have on offer. If you want an event for 43,000 people, we can host it at the Stadium. The Tennis Centre quite nicely holds up to 6,000 if you use the floor. So we’ve got a diverse range of hosting capability.
“But actually the strength is in the team that we employ. When clients sit with our events managers, customer service managers, the operations team, they realise they’re dealing with a very professional team at Zayed Sports City. We always like to think customer service is at the forefront of everything that we do. As a client, when you come here, we make sure we have all the answers here waiting for you.”
But while Zayed Sports City benefits from drawing eyes from across the world, the venue’s bread and butter is its ability to host regional events.
Whether it’s the UAE’s largest amateur tennis tournament in the Abu Dhabi Wilson Tennis Cup, or something catering to families like the OMO Carnival, Zayed Sports City have become the go-to location not only in Abu Dhabi, but in the country.
“In Abu Dhabi, we found Zayed Sports City to be the perfect location for the OMO Carnival, as the team at Zayed Sports City is an expert at running family and community activities throughout the year,” said Waqas Javed, market director for foods, refreshments & home care for Unilever Gulf.
“It sure has been a great privilege working directly with Zayed Sports City team and partnering with them to host the first OMO Carnival in Abu Dhabi.”
Just five years into his stay at Zayed Sports City, Bremner and his team have helped take the venue to new heights. Five years from now, more should only be on the way.
“We’re never done,” Bremner said.
“I actually think that you’ll see a lot of facilities revitalised. You’ll see different types of events coming here. I believe that our team will start to expand.
“I think you’ll see a period of growth for Abu Dhabi Entertainment Company, not necessarily just at Zayed Sports City. We may actually look to expand in other facilities within the UAE.”
