Saudi Arabia sees sports as a winning formula to refresh its image, part of a campaign led by its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to transfigure the country from a sleepy, conservative oil producer into a dynamic hot spot for tourism, investment, futuristic technology and more
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia at the G20 summit meeting in Osaka, Japan on June 29, 2019. The prince has spearheaded an extensive overhaul aimed at weaning the kingdom’s economy off oil. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)
CAIRO — When Saudi Arabia invested $3.5 billion in Uber in 2016, few people outside the business world took notice. When it took a $500 million stake in Live Nation, the world’s largest concert producer, concertgoers barely blinked.
But when it bought a storied English soccer team, Newcastle United, last year, thousands of fans massed outside the club’s stadium in northeast England to cheer Saudi Arabia, some of them wearing Saudi-style headdresses. It was a startling reception for a distant Middle Eastern desert kingdom better known for oil than sports or entertainment, and frequently a target of international condemnation over its human rights record.
Small wonder, then, that Saudi Arabia saw opportunity in bankrolling a new, upstart golf tournament to challenge the PGA Tour this year, an investment that has pitched the world of professional golf into turmoil and divided its biggest stars.
The kingdom sees sports as a winning formula to refresh its image, part of a campaign led by its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to transfigure the country from a sleepy, conservative oil producer into a dynamic hot spot for tourism, investment, futuristic technology and more.
The Saudi financing of the upstart LIV Golf circuit is the latest example of Gulf monarchies pouring vast oil wealth into sports and culture over the last decade or more, hoping to raise their countries’ international profiles and shift how they are viewed in the West.
©2019 New York Times News Service