Saudi Arabia sees sports as a winning formula to refresh its image, part of a campaign led by its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to transfigure the country from a sleepy, conservative oil producer into a dynamic hot spot for tourism, investment, futuristic technology and more
CAIRO — When Saudi Arabia invested $3.5 billion in Uber in 2016, few people outside the business world took notice. When it took a $500 million stake in Live Nation, the world’s largest concert producer, concertgoers barely blinked.
But when it bought a storied English soccer team, Newcastle United, last year, thousands of fans massed outside the club’s stadium in northeast England to cheer Saudi Arabia, some of them wearing Saudi-style headdresses. It was a startling reception for a distant Middle Eastern desert kingdom better known for oil than sports or entertainment, and frequently a target of international condemnation over its human rights record.
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