Thursday 19 April 2012

Real Madrid Sells Soccer Allure in Desert That Beat Tiger Woods - Businessweek

Real Madrid is at the center of a $1 billion bid to make a soccer-themed resort succeed in a Middle East country where race cars and golf failed.

The world’s richest soccer club is lending its name to a project in the United Arab Emirates with a 10,000-seat stadium and a target of 1 million visitors a year. The attendance goal exceeds the number of people who last year travelled to the emirate of Ras al Khaimah, where the project will be based.

Branded real-estate developments ranging from the Ferrari World amusement park in Abu Dhabi to a planned Tiger Woods golf resort in Dubai stumbled after the global financial crisis in 2008 caused investors and visitors to retreat. Securing financing for the park will be easier than attracting enough paying customers to make the investment pay off, according to Saud Masud, chief executive officer of SM Advisory Group LLC, a New York based investment firm.

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