Zayed Sports City Interview Video

the interview is made with the Director of Business & Corporate Services Mrs. Rebecca Fahmy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zaio78eOn3A&feature=youtu.be

Zayed Sports City Report

Report
LSS 3003 – Sports, Leisure, and Society

                                                                                                                           

Zayed Sports City

Supervised by: Hedley Butterfield

Name	ID
Abdulla Faisal	H00204934
Abdulaziz Mundhir	H00209831
Mohamed Abdulla Saif	H00214394
Feras Mohamed Alahmed	H00154893

 

 

 

 

 

 Story:
One of the visions of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan was building a full sport city that would increase the interest of UAE people in sports. Zayed Sports City was built at the beginning of 1980, specifically in January 1980. For its first appearance Zayed Sports City was considered as an art facility and the interest in sport was not a priority, but with time the interest of UAE society in sports increased and several developments made it the first sports and entertainment destination.

Developments:

Several developments were established in order to improve this iconic landmark. These developments were varying in their objectives. Some of these developments were related to improve Zayed stadium while others were about adding new facilities. As example: of these facilities: ice rink, bowling center, tennis stadium and external football/rugby pitches.

Facilities and what they include:

Football stadium:

The stadium was the first facility built in this landmark. The stadium facility consists of the management department under the stadium and this department includes the finance, IT, marketing and repairs facility. The field is very famous because of the playground field. The grass covering the playground is one of the best grass types and this was rated by the FIFA which is the International Federation of Association Football. The stadium hosted the FIFA Club World Cup in 2010. This is considered as one of the biggest football events.

 International tennis center

The tennis center was established in 2005. The center includes courts for sports other than tennis. The center consists of eight practice courts, four junior courts and one international standard center court. This international stadium has 5000 seats. The seats are divided into three categories;
Premier: in this category the seats are the closest to the tennis court and the ticket for this category is the most expensive among the three categories.

Category “1”: this category is located between the two other categories and the cost of this category differs from adults to children.

Category “2”: this category is considered as the cheapest among the three categories because of the seats location which are the farthest from the court. The pricing also varies from adults to children.

 With the establishment of the international tennis center, several facilities have been established alongside the center such as; nine tennis courts, four beach tennis and volleyball courts, two paddle tennis, three basketball courts, fitness gym and fitness studios

The international tennis center has hosted many events such as: Mubadala World Tennis Championship – WWE RAW World Tour – Harlem Globetrotters – Abu Dhabi Fighting Championship – Jiu Jitsu World Championship – Inter-Gulf Netball Championship.

The Ice Rink:

The ice rink at Zayed Sports City is the only Olympic size skating surface in the UAE. This Olympic arena has features such as an ice area of 1860 meter square and the ice surface is 30.9m x 60.3m. The arena holds a seating capacity of 1280. Seats are divided into three categories which are; 1100 general audience, 160 VIP seats and 20 royal box seats.

 Throughout the years, the ice rink arena hosted several events and matches such as ice hockey matches and figure skating shows. The facilities of the ice rink include a pro shop, a dance studio, private event space, and also include one of the best pizza restaurants in the world, Figaro’s pizza.

Bowling Centre:

The bowling center is the best bowling center available in the UAE. It is composed of 40 lanes with an automatic scoring system. The lanes are equipped with bowling ramps that are used for children when they play. The ramps are positioned at both edges of the lane insuring that the ball gets to the end of the lane. The ramps are raised automatically by the reception staff. Scoring monitors are provided above each lane. The center provides 938 seats for spectators and these seats are divided into 3 sections; general (616 seats), gallery seats (312) and 10 seats in the media box section. The center provides the service of three restaurants. Furthermore the center has a conference room which is used by the staff for development ideas and problem solving and last but not least the center has a billiard room which has 13 professional billiard tables.

The bowling center hosted many bowling championships. Actually the purpose of building the bowling center was to host the 14th FIQ World Bowling Championships. Also the center hosted the world bowling championship in 1999 and the world championship of 2014 and 2015. Many local tournaments also take place in the bowling center such as Ramadan bowling tournament.

 Special events and activities:

There are basically three activities in Zayed Sport City which are held for staff of different companies and some activities are special for the faculty and their families.

1-      Family fun day: this event is held for the employees at Zayed Sports City and their families. In this type of event, they organize an agenda with challenging sports activities. The challenges include children and adults of all ages. The point of this event is that Zayed Sports City employees and employers represent a big happy family and this event is to show how grateful and thankful Zayed Sports City is to their faculty.

2-      Team Building Events: sports are an important factor at Zayed Sports City and it is an example of teamwork and outstanding skills in leadership. This event is special for companies that are hosted by Zayed Sports City. They arrange games and matches between the staff of different companies and the point of this event is to get the best benefits out of companies and to gain credibility between employees and also to build stronger relationships.

3-      Corporate Health Programs: Zayed Sports City arranges a health program for companies’ staff. The program consists of a health assessment for employees and gives them a fitness program and also nutrition advice and this program is designed for them to approach their goals in fitness.

4-      One of the greatest events that were presented at Zayed Sports City was the 40^th National Day celebration in 2011. This was a huge event because it is arranged every decade at Zayed Sports City. The arrangement and expenses for the celebration almost cost the same as hosting the Olympics. 

Interview with the manager:

The interview we made in Zayed Sports City was not with the manager of Zayed Sports City who is Bari Brenner because he wasn’t available to make the interview. Therefore the administration gave us the chance to get information by making the interview with the director of business and corporate services manager Mrs. Rebecca Fahmy. Mrs. Rebecca was the finance manager for 4 years. She came to UAE by an offer from Zayed Sports City. The interview was on 13^th November 2013. It was held in a meeting room inside the administration department which is located under the football stadium. The duration of the interview was nearly half an hour (29 min). The interview was recorded by video and voice recorder and the recordings are attached. According to Mrs. Rebecca, they didn’t face any major problems in Zayed Sports City. She also indicated that events are prepared to the highest standards. Therefore, no failures have occurred. As for the facilities, they are always checked for maintenance to ensure that it is always ready to operate. She indicated that Zayed Sports City hosted some world events such as the Monster Jam this year. Also she told us about Manchester City Football School At the end of the interview we took some photos of Rebecca with us and we took more photos of the facilities available in Zayed Sports City.  

 

 

References:

1.      Ahlan wa Sahlan. (n.d.). Zayed Sports City. Retrieved November 26, 2013, from http://www.zsc.ae/en/

 

2.      Mubadala World Tennis Championship. (n.d.). Ticket Master. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from https://www.ticketmaster.ae/event/mubadala-world-tennis-championship-tickets/1087

 

3.      Zayed Sports City Brochures

 

4.      Director of Business & Corporate Services Mrs. Rebecca Fahmy

Zayed Sports City PowerPoint

Snooker Presentation

Mohamed Ali Clay

Mohamed Ali Clay

 

Cassius Clay was an American boxer who changed his name to Mohamed Ali later on because of his enrollment to the religion of Islam. After becoming a Sunni Muslim Mohamed Ali refused to join the military, saying it is against his religion and that the Vietnamese didn’t do anything wrong to him. Mohamed Ali is considered as one of the great boxers in the world, winning the Heavyweight Championship 3 times in a row, facing many rivals such as Joe Frazier. He was known for his style and he describes it by “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee; people described his fighting style as unorthodox because of his moves such as Ali shuffle and rope-a-dope. Mohamed Ali had a lot of titles awarded and the last two were the biggest among them by giving him the title of “Sportsman of the century” and “Sports personality of the century”. He is still alive till this day with an age of 71 years old.