Qiddiya bets big on Saudi Cup to anchor $40B entertainment city

Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya megaproject is galloping ahead with plans to make the Saudi Cup horse race a global showpiece, even as the kingdom trims spending on some other giant developments.

The $40 billion entertainment city is investing heavily in racing facilities and fan experiences tied to the world’s richest horse race, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports.

The Saudi Cup itself carries a $20 million purse for the main race and more than $35 million across the race weekend, drawing top international horses and stables.

Backers see the high-stakes event as a headline attraction designed to anchor Qiddiya’s push to become a global sports and entertainment hub. The new venue will include a 21,000-seat grandstand and a 110-meter parade ring.

Trojena forfeit of Asian Games heralds NEOM restructuring

Saudi Arabia is moving to reconfigure its flagship NEOM megaproject after giving up on plans to stage the 2029 Asian Winter Games at its Trojena ski resort because of construction delays.

A joint statement issued by the Saudi Olympics and Paralympics Committee and the Asian Olympic Committee on Saturday said that the games are being postponed while officials look for a new location.

Trojena’s location in the rocky terrain of the kingdom’s northwestern mountains has complicated construction of the futuristic resort, with projected costs ballooning to over $500 billion. While snow occasionally falls in the area, it is sparse and developers said they could coat the slopes with enough artificial snow to run the tournament.

Meanwhile, the larger NEOM venture – a centerpiece of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan to overhaul the oil-dependent economy – is likely to be fundamentally restructured, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports.

Among the changes being considered are shifting parts of NEOM – including Trojena, its luxury island resort Sindalah and the industrial zone Oxagon – to other state entities so they can be better aligned with Saudi Arabia’s budget-tightening triggered by the steep decline in world oil prices.

Saudi Arabia pitching NEOM as a ‘generational investment’

Saudi Arabia is inviting the world to invest in its sprawling trillion-dollar NEOM megaproject and advising potential backers to ignore the recent bumps along the road.

“The flywheel is starting and it will gain speed as we go forward, as some of the foundational assets come to the market,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih told Reuters this week on the sidelines of the World Investment Conference in Riyadh.

The development in western Saudi Arabia – which features a 100-mile long vertical city, ski slopes and beach resorts – is the centerpiece of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan to overhaul the economy and wean it off dependence on the kingdom’s vast oil revenues. The Public Investment Fund, which owns NEOM, announced that the project’s longtime CEO stepped down this month while it has had to delay some of the project’s target completion dates.

Al-Falih says to be patient. “NEOM was not meant to be a two-year investable opportunity,” he told the news agency. “If anybody expected NEOM to be a foreign investment in two, three or five years, then they have gotten (it) wrong – it’s a generational investment.”

Asked if most of the spending on NEOM will continue to come from the PIF, Al-Falih said funds from abroad are expected to increase.

“I think foreign investors are starting to come to NEOM – they’re starting to channel capital,” he said. “Some of the projects that the PIF will be doing will be financed through global capital pools, through some alternative and private capital. That’s taking place as we speak.”