There have been many murmerings and insinuations previously, but in the last week it was confirmed at the highest level Dubai has an interest in staging the Olympic Games. Both HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and his wife Princess Haya discussed the point at this year’s SportAccord.
I assume the bid if for the Summer games. While Ski Dubai is the world’s largest indoor snow park and field, it probably still isn’t enough to consider the Winter games. 😉
At this point in time consultants are just going to evaluate the readiness of DXB to host the event, then determine how much work would be required to proceed.
One obvious issue is that during the Olympic month of September the temperature doesn’t get much below 30 degrees celsius.
I saw first hand at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 the amount of infrastructure, development and planning that was required to get the nod. My initial thought around the UAE is that we’re not yet ready. However Sheikh Mohammed is always confident on the city’s ability to rise to the occasion:
“if we decide to make a bid for the Olympics, we will be in it to win”
. There are many examples where UAE has proven itself to be able to carry out the near impossible. Most recently the 808m Burj Khalifa should make people wonder.
One thing’s for sure. If Dubai takes the bid on, I’ll be behind it. And another thing is for certain, if Dubai gets the nod, I’ll need to stay here longer than the 5 years I initially proposed. For anyone that’s been to Dubai it will no doubt be a very interesting story to follow.
Who knows, we could be in with a real chance. It seems Hobart, the capital city of Australia’s tiny island state of Tasmania are considering their chances after a radio prank was a little too successful.
http://www.business24-7.ae/sports/other/dubai-evaluates-olympics-bid-2010-04-26-1.236829