Two of international soccer's biggest teams soon will be fighting not for a cup, but for tourists in the Middle East.
Yas Mall, in the heart of the Yas Island resort in Abu Dhabi, has opened City Challenge, an interactive experience for fans of Manchester City Football Club. The brand experience center features several skills challenges, including the opportunity to take a penalty kick against a robot goalkeeper.
Visitor start by creating a virtual avatar before stepping into City Challenge's game arena, where they can see their scores in the challenges and overall rank on a leaderboard. City Challenge also includes exhibits celebrating the Manchester City's history, including a display of the club's kits dating back to 1884. Manchester City last season achieved the "treble," winning the Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League.
The experience also includes an official Manchester City Store, operated by PUMA, and soon will include a food and beverage location where fans can watch live Manchester City games and highlights.
"We are delighted to launch City Challenge at Yas Mall," Nuria Tarre, Chief Marketing and Fan Experience Officer at City Football Group, said. "This is a fantastic opportunity for adults and children across the UAE and the Middle East region – whether they’re football fans or not - to enjoy a unique and interactive experience. City Challenge will allow visitors to enjoy the spirit of football, celebrate the club’s major achievements in a new way and allow people to connect with Manchester City from afar. We wanted to create something fresh and distinct, and we hope our fans enjoy it."
Manchester City Football Club is owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group and its kit sponsor is Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways, so the club has plenty of connections to the United Arab Emirates. In addition to Yas Mall, Yas Island is home to the Yas Marina Formula 1 track, as well as Abu Dhabi's Ferrari World, Warner Bros. World, and SeaWorld theme parks. Follow those links to our visitors' guides for each.
Just up the road in Dubai, rival destination Dubai Parks and Resorts is developing Real Madrid World, a theme park devoted to the Spanish soccer team, another legendary club with a long history of trophies. There's no announced opening date for that attraction, however. You can read the latest on Real Madrid project at One of the world's top sports teams is getting its own theme park.
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This feels like an attempt to get in ahead of the Real Madrid project, and to provide a little something for the Man City fans who actually end up booking a trip on Etihad to Abu Dhabi after seeing that logo on the kit for the past however-many years.
But if the Real Madrid park happens and is actually impressive, I would think that someone in Abu Dhabi likely would come forward with an investment for a more substantial Man City attraction on Yas.
By the way, it's only tangentially related, but I just want to note that Coach Beard's Man City joke in the final season of "Ted Lasso" made me laugh louder than any joke I've heard on TV in ages. I can no longer see a Man City story or kit without thinking of it.
As an American male everything I know about soccer I learned from Hank Hill.
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Meh. Just another quick brand experience. I remember when they had these in the late 90's and early 2000's at MOA with everything from Kelloggs to Disney shows...