Dubai: City officials planning to bring the Olympic Games to Dubai may want to study a new report by 11-year-old schoolchildren revealing the basics of a successful bid.
Grade six students of Emirates International School, Jumeirah, have completed a class project on how Dubai could host the international sporting competition in 2020.
The pupils hope Dubai authorities will consider their research if they bid for the next decade's games. The students had split up into teams three months ago to tackle various challenges the emirate would have to overcome before hosting the Olympics.
Thorough research
Based on stadium, transport and infrastructure costs, students said, the investment needed would be similar to the sum the last host Beijing reportedly spent in 2008 - about $40 billion (around Dh147 billion). The spending would be recovered through sponsors, advertising income and broadcast rights. The event would also create jobs for residents.
"Tourists will also help get the money [investment] back; they'll buy souvenirs and shop around," said student Faizan Malek.
The stadium, meanwhile, would be unique - a giant egg-shaped facility housing different sporting venues in one arena, to save space and costs. Meydan City would be the location because, pupils said, it already has plans to build sporting facilities, hotels, shopping malls, business centres and a dedicated transport network.
As part of the project, the pre-teen consultants had also approached Dewa (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) and telecom company etisalat to find out their plans for coping with the heavy infrastructure demand associated with the Olympics.
They prefer to move the games from mid-2020 to the year-end. Classmate Vivan Sharma said: "Dubai's really hot, so the [Olympics] dates should be after the summer. As a back-up plan, we can use Qatar's new outdoor stadium cooling technology."
One team was also on the lookout for new sporting talent. "We can't promote the athletes of today; by 2020 they'll be too old. We're looking at 10-11-year-olds," said Hashim Al Sadek.
"Some people, despite being talented, can't take part because they're not Emirati, but if they do some good deed for the country, the ruler has the power to give them citizenship, enabling them to participate," he said.
The students had also interviewed residents about their enthusiasm for hosting the games here - 85 per cent said Dubai can and should put in a formal bid.
The students plan to present their 100-page report to the Ruler's Office shortly.
"We enjoyed doing the project, found out new stuff. We're excited about trying to bring the Olympics here," added Saif Al Nuaimi. The project was supervised by class-teacher Appley Groch.
147
billion dirhams is what the kids estimate the 2020 olympics will cost
