Abu Dhabi's Mega-Sports Stadium

The Zayed Sport City Stadium

Despite already hosting the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup and successfully holding its first F1 Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi is planning to build a new sports stadium capable of holding 65,000 people... possibly to aid an Olympic 2020 or FIFA World Cup 2022 bid?

Already setting a deadline of 12th December for construction companies to submit bids, the stadium, developed by Mubadala Real Estate & Hospitality, part of the Abu Dhabi-owned investment company Mubadala, will be a state-of-the-art structure featuring a retractable roof.

Any construction firm interested in acquiring the project must have a minimum annual turnover of at least US$1.22 billion over the past three years.

A city of the future

It was recently announced that Abu Dhabi was planning on investing over US$1 trillion into the city's infrastructure to cater for the rising population, which is expected to reach three million by 2020. A portion of this money (US$15 billion) will be invested into power plants and a metro system for the region, whilst the rest will be put towards property and manufacturing.

Sultan bin Saeed al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy said at the time that the stimulus, "will lead to extraordinary demand for building materials and technological innovations, thus boosting the economy further."

When built, the new stadium will overtake the Zayed Sport City Stadium, currently the largest stadium in Abu Dhabi (60,000 capacity and the host of the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup along with Al Jazira Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium).

Abu Dhabi currently has $100 billion worth of construction projects underway including the Saadiyat Island development, the US$22 billion Masdar city project and Khalifa City - the single biggest project in the capital with a budget of US$40 billion.

Relevant articles:

Abu Dhabi invests $1tn into infrastructure | How much is being spent on Gulf construction? | Capital Gate: Defying Gravity

Like this article? Get the RSS feed: