Arena Delivers Stadium for Clash on the Dunes

Arena Group’s Middle East & UK divisions have teamed up to build a spectacular 15,000 seat temporary stadium and 3,500 sqm hospitality structure for the Middle East’s first ever heavyweight title boxing match, the “Clash on the Dunes”.  The hotly anticipated fight, which will take place on the 7th of December as part of the Diriyah Season, will see British boxer Anthony Joshua attempt to reclaim his world title from Andy Ruiz Jr, having suffered a shock defeat at the hands of the Mexican-American in June.

PROJECT HEADLINES

  • 10,000 sqm event site

  • Diriyah Arena is the largest gradstand that Arena has built since the London 2012 Games

  • Just 44 days to construct

  • 3,500 sqm Arena Super Deck hospitality structure, with bespoke interior design, fit out and furniture

  • 15,000 – seater stadium with Arena’s CLEARVIEWTM Seating

  • 1,507 VIP seats and 240 VVIP cinema-style seats

  • Constructed by a multi-national team of 175 staff

  • 350,000 fixings

  • 295 tonnes of steels, which when arranged end to end would stretch a distance of 57km



THE DIRIYAH ARENA


As the single largest temporary seating structure that Arena has built since the London 2012 Olympics, the Diriyah Arena has been designed with in mind. The stadium features Arena’s CLEARVIEWTM seating system, which is both modular and demountable, designed specifically to maximize audience sightlines.  The arena has been mounted on a substructure provided by our partner, PERI Group, which they supplied from their depot in Riyadh, allowing us to keep timelines as short as possible while cutting down on unnecessary transport and logistics.  The arena will be reconfigured a number of times to suit the various events taking place in it as part of the month-long Diriyah Season.

CLEARVIEWTM has been designed to deliver the most sustainable, cost-efficient “spectator experience” at whichever event it is deployed. The cleverly engineered componentry of CLEARVIEWTM enables the rows to be adjusted in the form of a faceted parabolic curve.

CLEARVIEWTM is an eco-efficient solution.  As it is constructed from a minimum number of components, fewer resources are required during the build process, which results in the generation of less waste and pollution, satisfying even the most challenging of client briefs.



HOSPITALITY STRUCTURE


In addition to the main event area, Arena has designed and installed a 3,500 sqm temporary hospitality structure, created as a unique piece of architecture which sits seamlessly alongside the existing Al Diriyah heritage site, which comes complete with bespoke high specification interior design, fit-out and furniture. The luxurious building is designed to provide a premium experience for VIP guests and was constructed using Arena’s proprietary Arena Super Deck (ASD) system, which offers a permanent look and feel.

An ASD temporary structure answer’s the clients exacting project brief perfectly, and is already playing its part in a month of energy, excitement, elegance, and most importantly, memorable moments for both international and local visitors alike.

ASD is a tried and tested highly versatile modular product designed to deliver the most practical, sustainable and cost-effective semi-permanent solutions for any infrastructure requirement. It is fast to install and not only creates a perfectly level platform but has the ability to create modular buildings of up to four levels high, which makes this perfect for executing highly creative structure designs like the Diriyah Arena Premium hospitality facility.

Additionally, the ASD underframe can create a perfectly level platform on uneven surfaces and slopes of up to 20%, without the need for permanent foundations. This allowed us to build the structure directly onto the sand.

The hospitality structure has been completed with bespoke high specification interiors and furnishings. The luxurious building has been designed to provide a premium experience for VIP guests.



As a safe, sustainable and multi-functioning temporary event environment, the Diriyah Arena has been receiving universal praise from clients, boxing fans, sporting officials and even Eddie Hearn, Managing director of Matchroom boxing had this to say: “The arena and site are utterly breath-taking. It’s like nothing we’ve seen before in boxing. The Clash On The Dunes will be a night to remember. We can’t wait.”

The Clash On The Dunes forms part of the Diriyah Season, an epic month of sports which kicked off with Formula E, the Diriyah Tennis Cup featuring eight of the best men’s players on the planet, and the Diriyah Equestrian Festival, an elite competition with Tokyo Olympics 2020 qualifying points on the line.

The Diriyah Season is also supported by the Diriyah Music Festival with huge concerts taking place around the event, all of which Arena will accommodate.