Two brand new award categories, aptly representing the changing face of sport and sport sponsorship, will highlight the 2014 edition of the SPIAs, the Sports Industry Awards.
Instituted by Sport360°, the only English language daily sport newspaper in the world, the SPIAs were first held last year.
The inaugural awards proved a massive success and the initiative has now been embraced by the sports industry in the region.
For this year’s SPIAs, as many as 173 entries were received in 12 categories, with 42 of them coming from neighbouring countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.
Michael Chalhoub, CEO of Sport360°, and Didier Brun, the Publisher, revealed the shortlisted nominees at a press conference held in the royal box of Zayed Sports City in the capital.
And, as it did last year, the line-up boasts great diversity, with some of the region’s biggest tournaments, facilities and organisers pitted against several who had limited budgets, but showed great innovation in executing their projects.
The two new award categoriesthis year are ‘Best Use of Social Media in Sport’ and ‘Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiative’.
Chalhoub said: “We decided to institute these new awards because of the feedback we received from the inaugural SPIAs.
“It’s apparent in this day and age that companies and organisers are paying a lot of attention to the use of social media and are trying to use various sports to interact and enhance health, fun and other related issues with their own employees and the community.
“Having set a benchmark with the first edition, we wanted to do something different this year, and what better than keeping it relevant with the changing times?”
When asked how different this year’s awards will be, Chalhoub added: “The first year was a unique challenge, but we set the benchmark. Now the expectations are more. The second year is always a very crucial year. One problem we have faced is that a lot of competitors who did not win anything last year, have been sceptical and some of them did not come back this year.
“So, it is important for us to consolidate on what we did last year by not only doing new things, but also constantly showing everyone that these are genuine awards which have transparency and objectivity.
“It’s obvious that we have done something right, because we have a lot more entries this year – which are not just from the UAE – and we have a lot more sponsors for the awards.
“It just shows that the word has spread. One of the big challenges we are facing this year is that we have limited space at the One & Only Royal Mirage, and we have already been inundated by requests for tables.
“We really are delighted with the way the GCC sporting industry has reacted to our initiative.”
The SPIAs, which will be given out at a gala dinner ceremony at the One & Only Royal Mirage on Wednesday, March 26, are sponsored by Emirates Airline, Emirates NBD, Lacoste, Salomon, Al Mana Fashion Group – Go Sport, MMC Sportz, Dubai Sports World, Suunto and Thanyapura Phuket.
To see a full list of the categories and the nominees simply click here
