Sport - one of the best ways to build a nation's Brand

But the international brands of Dubai, and more recently of Abu Dhabi, have been immensely strengthened by the clever use of sport to build recognition and identity.

Sport in Dubai was never a consultant lead strategy!

As far as I know there was never an expensive report from the likes of McKinsey or Accenture which recommended the use of sport as a tool for brand building in Dubai. It was the leaders of the emirate who had the vision to realise that if you want to attract people to take vacations or to come and do business here then the media coverage that comes from international sporting events is hugely valuable. The organisers of the One Day cricket tournaments across the border in Sharjah had shown, beginning in 1984, that if you put on quality sport with top class competitors then the sporting world will sit up and take notice. Similarly the Dubai Rugby Sevens started in a small way but soon grew into a world class tournament. But it was the imaginative decision to green the desert with the construction of Emirates Golf Club that really put Dubai on the international sporting map.

The 'Dubai Desert Classic' showed the way

The Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club was not the first golf course constructed from the unpromising terrain of the desert (I remember seeing one in Death Valley in California back in the 1970s) but it was the first in the Gulf and it remains one of the more remarkable examples of man's capability to tame even the harshest elements. The course opened in 1988 and the following year the first 'Desert Classic' was played there. To establish a European Tour event so early in the course's history was a gamble, but one that paid off as gradually its status grew and famous names like Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Fred Couples and Colin Montgomerie won the trophy. When Tiger Woods competed for the first time in 2001 the Classic had become truly symbolic of Dubai's ambitions. This was brand management of a high standard involving the creation of a world class event, the attraction of the very best competitors and the exploitation of all this in the world's media. True the costs were huge (Woods appearance money alone has always been well over a million dollars) but the value to the Dubai brand far exceeded the cost.

The Dubai Tennis Open took a little longer to catch on

The first Dubai Tennis Open in 1993 was a slightly tentative event and the tournament took a little while to catch the imagination. I remember many empty seats even for some of the top games during the 1990s. But two things began to raise the event's profile a few years later. In 2001 the decision was made to run a Women's Open at the same time as the Men's championship and the stadium seats began to fill up as Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova strutted their stuff. Then, following the Desert Classic model, the really top male stars began to compete - especially Roger Federer who had a hat trick of wins between 2003 and 2005. Later this week we will see Federer again in Dubai along with reigning champion Rafael Nadal and , in total, more than half of the world's top twenty players. The Dubai brand will get another boost as the tennis world focuses again this week on happenings at the Dubai Tennis Stadium.

The Dubai World Cup - a seven star event

The Dubai Desert Classic and the Dubai Tennis Open established the winning formula - create a world class venue, pay top dollar prize money and attract the world's best competitors. Well that model was refined to a remarkable degree when the rulers of the emirate decided that the next step was to be a horse race to rival the European and American classics - and the Dubai World Cup was born. The World Cup was in planning about the same time as the totemic Burj al-Arab hotel - and it matches that building's extraordinary ambition and 'seven star' status. The first race was won by the incomparable American champion Cigar and every year since this richest of horse races has attracted the world's best horses.

Formula one was a missed opportunity for Dubai

In the late 1990s plans were well advanced for the building of a top class motorsport circuit in Dubai that would allow the inclusion of a Dubai Grand Prix in the F1 calendar - and the directors of Formula one were ready to agree that the emirate should be F1's first Middle East location. Curiously and uncharacteristically Dubai vacillated a bit and the chance was lost. First Bahrain and now Abu Dhabi have won the right to be in the F1 world championship and Dubai's opportunity looks to be gone for the foreseeable future. For Abu Dhabi the hosting of Grand Prix in 2009, following on from the building of a modern cricket stadium and the hosting of European tour golf events, means that the emirate is also realising the potential value of sport in brand building.

…and next the Olympic Games?

The 2016 Olympic Games presents a fantastic opportunity for the UAE to take another quantum leap in raising its profile using sport as the means. Whilst most of the talk has been about a Dubai bid there is no reason why Dubai and Abu Dhabi should not pool their resources to host the Games of the XXXI Olympiad. It is time that the Middle East region hosted its first Olympics and there is nowhere better than Dubai or Abu Dhabi (or both) to start!