Featured image credit: ROSHN Group
Saudi Arabian real estate developer ROSHN has invited expressions of interest from regional and international contractors to help support the development of a planned 45,000-seat football stadium in Riyadh.
ROSHN’s head of commercial Iain McBride told AGBI that the Saudi Public Investment Fund subsidiary was seeking to identify partners “very early in the process” to “de-risk” the project.
A formal tender for the construction of the stadium is expected to be issued next year.
The stadium is currently in the concept phase, with a preliminary design by Populous having been submitted to football’s global governing body FIFA as part of the kingdom’s bid to host the 2034 World Cup.
“What we don’t want is to design, wait and then tender,” McBride told AGBI.
“We want to draw on the experience of the big international contractors that have delivered stadiums recently in the Gulf and further afield, and partner them with big local contractors that have experience within the kingdom.
“We’re trying to take away the risk of a foreign contractor that perhaps doesn’t know the market, or labour or material requirements.”
ROSHN stadium will be located in the north of the city on King Salman Road next to King Abdulaziz Park and will be named after Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia.
ROSHN said in July that its landmark mixed-use project would encompass a wide range of shops, restaurants, and hospitality venues.
Ahead of the bid book being published at the end of July, it was announced that as many as eight stadiums in Riyadh would host matches, with new venues in the capital including 92,000-capacity King Salman Stadium, 45,000-seat New Murabba Stadium, and Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium and South Riyadh Stadium (both with a capacity of 47,000) alongside ROSHN Stadium.
Three more new venues are planned in the shape of Qiddiya Coast Stadium (Jeddah, 46,096 capacity), King Abdullah Economic City Stadium (Jeddah, 45,700 capacity) and NEOM Stadium (46,010 capacity). A total of 11 new venues are planned, with a total of 15 stadiums hosting matches. It is expected that FIFA will confirm Saudi Arabia as the host of the tournament on December 11.
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