The woman tasked with making sure that Saudi Arabia’s new mega-city NEOM can become the most physically active place on earth by 2030 has insisted it’s “a marathon, not a sprint” as she revealed plans for sporting success.
Jan Paterson, head of the sport sector at NEOM, told Arabian Business she felt like “a kid in a candy shop” as she helped sculpt the sporting landscape at the 26,500-square-kilometre development on the Red Sea, in the northwest region of the kingdom.
Among the 14 core pillars around which NEOM is being envisioned, since its launch by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, there is a strong emphasis on sport.
She said: “This is a marathon, not a sprint, and so it’s making sure that we put one foot in front of the other and we either don’t drop the baton or don’t trip over our own feet, to make sure that we do succeed and we do become the most active place in the world by 2030, welcoming the world’s best athletes and having global partners that have made a monumental difference to the development of sport and also facing global challenges together.”
A large part of that has been looking for partnership and sponsorship opportunities at a regional, national and international level.
Back in 2019, NEOM hosted its inaugural Beach Soccer Cup, which saw Oman run out winners against Egypt in the final. After a Covid-enforced break in 2020, the tournament is scheduled to return this year, while earlier this month, the Dakar Rally 2021 roared through the area.
In March last year it signed a long-term sponsorship agreement to become the principal partner of the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E team and Nyck de Vries claimed a dominant victory for the German manufacturer in February at Diriyah at what was the first ever night race to take place in Formula E.
And Formula E organisers are understood to be in discussion with representatives from NEOM about adding the destination to the Saudi race calendar.
Paterson said: “Partnerships are critical for us on a number of fronts. It’s also about ensuring that we can learn fast, we can have exchange of best practice, but we can target those organisations that we believe have the same value systems that we do, around building for the future, around developing what the future should look like and how do we address together the current global challenges that are out there.”
Most recently, NEOM has become a global partner of the Asian Football Confederation in a deal through to 2024.
The agreement includes major AFC national team competitions, including the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar Final Round featuring the continent’s top-12 football nations, and Asia’s flagship national team competition – the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 – which is set to take place in China PR, as well as the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 and the AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022.
NEOM has become a global partner of the Asian Football Confederation in a deal through to 2024
In addition, NEOM will be a strong supporter of the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup globally.
Paterson said: “It’s a way that we can use football as an opportunity to drive change, encouraging physical activity and good health and building stronger communities, championing inclusion and also looking at accelerating human progress and performance on and off the field of play, for the current generation, but as important if not moreso, for those to come.
“Our intention very much is to have discussions with global brands whose value system matches our value system and have a view of profiling NEOM to the world, but also wanting not just to profile but to make a sustainable and material difference to the development of what’s happening in NEOM, in the direction and vision that we have for NEOM itself.”
Jan Paterson, head of the sport sector at NEOM
The high-tech city will feature ground-breaking technology and renewable energy infrastructure within its key sectors.
Its economic hubs will focus on the future of energy, water, tourism, media, health, wellbeing, sport, food, mobility, biotech, manufacturing, and liveability. Driving innovation across these industries is part of the kingdom’s vision to wean its economy away from oil.
The promotion of sports includes everything from grass roots level up to international class, as well as adventure sports and E-gaming – the hybrid KSA edition of Digital Games Conference Middle East and Africa (DGCMEA), to be held from December 15-17, is being brought by NEOM under its ambition to become the regional epicentre of the gaming industry.
“Our aspirations are literally from grass roots through to high performance and everything in between. And the nice thing for us is that it’s not just about what you and I would know to be traditional sports, we have aspirations around challengers sports, within the E-sports world and the XR sports world,” said Paterson.
“It’s enabling Neomians and those who visit NEOM to take part in all of the broad adventure sports that we will be able to offer because of the incredible natural topography that we have here, through to you and I going along to a local Zumba class, or having a kickabout on a football pitch five minutes away.”
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