The Kingdom has shifted towards a novel sport to achieve a qualitative shift in the industry through a Global Cycling League.
Saudi Arabia has done this by hosting the most important international tournaments and teams on its land. It never ceases to amaze the world in sports. The football transfer revolution attracted the most elite players to the Roshn Football League and established its dominance in the summer transfer market.
According to Reuters, the Saudi SRJ Company is in exclusive talks to spend around 250 million euros ($270 million) in a new global cycling league headed by several top European teams. The league would comprise both new and existing events.
KSA Is Negotiating for a Unique Victory
After investing billions of dollars in various sports throughout the world, including football, racing, and combat sports, The Gulf state will engage in a lot of cycling if the aforementioned transaction goes through.
Sports are one of the cornerstones of the Saudi government’s Vision 2030 economic diversification initiatives, which aim to develop new sectors and generate employment possibilities.
According to the source, Saudi SRJ Company, which emerged victorious in an auction against CVC Capital Partners and other investors, appears to complete the commercial components of the agreement in the next two months.
Fierce Competition
Ernst & Young, a consultancy firm, requested expressions of intent from investors for the new project last October. According to many reports, some prominent cycling teams are unhappy that the majority of income from major events, such as the Tour de France, goes to race organisers, and that the new league may be a method to reset profit allocation.
According to those reports, a few teams, like Visma- Lease a Bike and INEOS Grenadiers, backed by billionaire industrialist Jim Ratcliffe, are spearheading the idea, which may incorporate both new and old races.
Ernst & Young, INEOS Grenadiers, and representatives of Saudi SRJ Company declined to comment in this regard.
Visma- Lease a Bike told Reuters, “This idea is being explored, as are many ideas to come up with a sustainable business model for cycling in the future.”
Possible Exclusion
A person with knowledge of the situation stated that neither Amaury Sports Organisation, which oversees the Tour de France and La Vuelta a España, nor RCS Sports, which oversees the Vuelta an Italiana, are involved in the discussions. Whether either will eventually join is unclear.
There have been attempts to develop a new cycling league; in 2012, for example, eight teams formed a project named the World Cycling Series; however, the plans were not successful.
It is noteworthy that the Public Investment Fund founded the Saudi SRJ Company in August of last year with the goal of “accelerating the growth of the sports sector” in the Kingdom, the Middle East, and North Africa.
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