Recently installed as ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Andy Rodríguez Duránis already pulling the strings to open opportunities in a country that is changing the sporting landscape of the planet, from soccer to tennis, including golf and speed sports.
Rodríguez Durán met last week with Nayef Binhumaid, president of the Saudi Baseball and Softball Federation (SBSF), the Dominican diplomatic representation in that Persian Gulf nation informed Diario Libre. Also participating in the meeting were Abdulrahman Alshehri, CEO; and Jean-Michel Mayeur, technical director.
“With this meeting, the links and collaboration of the Dominican diplomatic headquarters with that federation continued to be strengthened with a view to supporting the Dominican Republic in the development of baseball in that nation,” says the press office.
The meeting addressed exploring ways to formalize technical cooperation, organizing field visits and sports exchanges and experiences, among other initiatives.
Last week, Rodríguez Durán received technical director Mayeur to advance these preliminary aspects of cooperation.
He also visited Kash Shaikh, president and CEO of Baseball Unitedthe new professional league in the Middle East and South Asia based in the United Arab Emirates, with whom he spoke about the development of baseball in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the collaboration of the Dominican diplomatic mission in this expansion process.
These approaches are situated in the context of the public diplomacy strategy developed by the Dominican embassy in Riyadh to promote the progressive consolidation of relations and the bilateral agenda between both countries and the region.
Rodríguez Durán highlighted the condition of the Dominican Republic as a world baseball power and everything it can contribute in technical, managerial and player terms to the promotion of this sport.
“With these diplomatic actions, we promote joint objectives between the Dominican and Saudi baseball and softball federations for the achievement of important large-scale sporting achievements, investment, job creation with the hiring of our coaches and players, and the promotion and the positioning of the country,” said Rodríguez Durán.
Becoming a sports venue of planetary weight is the objective
Saudi Arabia has burst onto the global scene in such a decisive way that everything seems to indicate that in the coming years Saudi capital will dictate many of the rules of this business. A bet that, recently, was estimated at over $6 billion between 2023 and 2024, according to the British media The Guardian. To put it in context, world sport, in terms of business deals, moved around 17 billion in 2022.
Beyond the “imagewashing”, it is included in what has been called ‘Vision 2030’, a social and economic reform project for the country whose one of its pillars is to become a “world investment power.”
This has been clearly seen in football, one of the sectors in which the emergence has had the most importance. The more than 900 million spent by the clubs of the emerging Saudi Pro League made it the third largest competition in world football in terms of investment in the last summer transfer market. Figures like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Neymar play there.
The earthquake in golf
The impact on the world of golf is up to par, to see how the foundations of one of the sports that generate the highest turnover have been cracked. The emergence of the LIV Golf circuit, with an initial injection of almost 2,000 million dollars, made it a very attractive destination for a good number of stars who have not hesitated to change to the classic PGA for the new project. Like the Spanish Jon Rahm, who left the PGA Tour for a contract estimated at 500 million dollars.
Aramco and the engine
In the case of motors, Aramco, the Saudi state oil company, signed a long-term sponsorship agreement with Formula 1 in 2020, with its own grand prix in Jeddah. Arabia also hosts the prestigious Dakar Rally, to name a few. Its investment in the last two years has doubled and is estimated to be close to 1.3 billion.
Boxing and WWE
In recent times it has become one of the great capitals of boxing, displacing classic places such as Los Angeles, New York or even Las Vegas. Wrestling’s long-term partnership contract with WWE or its forays into rival organizations of the UFC are other bets.
Saudi Arabia is hosting the Next Gen Finals, in which the best young tennis players of the season are measured, until 2027. They have an ATP Masters 1,000 close by (it is suggested that for 2025) and they aspire to host a WTA tournament .
Graduated in Social Communication from O&M University. He has been a sports journalist since 2001.
2024-04-29 14:04:19
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