SURJ Sports Investment is enlisting the help of two US operators to help it run a network of arenas and stadiums and promote music and sporting events in Saudi Arabia.
Semafor said the Public Investment Fund (PIF)-owned SURJ Sports Investment is in talks to form a joint venture, to be called Radia, with arena developer Oak View Group and ticketing giant Live Nation.
The deal is expected to include promoting music events held in the kingdom to global audiences and may also cover sports tournaments hosted in the country.
Launched in 2023, SURJ Sports Investment is mandated to invest in sport in a way that fosters international growth and enhances the on-ground domestic sporting ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East.
Investing directly into sports and the parallel enablers that drive fan and audience participation is at the core of SURJ’s strategy.
Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup™ and plans to build 11 new stadiums and renovate four existing ones.
The flagship venue, the planned King Salman International Stadium in Riyadh, would seat more than 90,000 spectators and serve as a flagship entertainment venue.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Sport recently invited qualified contracting companies to submit prequalification bids for the preliminary works on the King Salman Stadium in Riyadh, one of the centerpiece venues for the 2034 FIFA World Cup™.
The King Salman International Stadium is a planned multipurpose stadium with extensive sports facilities and capability of hosting world-class events which would be the largest within the King Abdulaziz Park Project in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East.
One of the 2034 FIFA World Cup™ stadiums it is planned to have a capacity of 92,760 people which would host the Opening and the Final of the greatest soccer show on Earth.
The kingdom is also building a $1.4 billion Royal Opera House and a 20,000-seat arena in Diriyah, a UNESCO World Heritage site undergoing a $63 billion redevelopment.
Riyadh is also developing entertainment arenas alongside a Formula 1 race track at Qiddiya, a new complex on the outskirts of the city, and is growing as a touring destination for music stars, hosting concerts by Benson Boone, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, and Hans Zimmer.
Live Nation and Oak View have worked together before — they jointly developed and operated a stadium at the University of Texas at Austin.
OVG has developed arenas for the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken and the New York Islanders.
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