I don't know when, but Faris al-Sultan is their poster boy. I bet he is racing for team Tri-Dubai next year (assuming he wants to).

would that make him the Sultan's Sultan of Tri Dubai???

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http://www.clevetriclub.com

rob reddy

Roger that.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

holy allah!! one hell of a peace pipe there.

Agreed. I'd sign up for a HIM or IM in Dubai (or anywhere in the UAE) today if they posted one up. Great place. Hawaii must have seemed like a picnic to Faris after training there. I was there around the end of Sept about 2 years ago and it was no less than 110 degrees F everyday and very humid. I would imagine a race would have to be in the winter months (for us northern hemispherians).


The Gold Market



The Spice Market



Main river through downtown Dubai.



The Burj Al Arab.

Maybe I just have to get over my anti-Arab bias... I'm actually put off by the whole Tri Dubai thing. It's just such a transparent attempt at buying positive PR.

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Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

I kind of feel the same way, if the city's name didn't rhyme with "Tri" would they try to buy some positive PR with some other sport?

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Portside Athletics Blog

THere is BAD PR about Dubai? HUH?
The place looks freakin cool.

Stop watching Fox News.. maybe that will help.

http://www.tridubai.com/

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19° 38’ 11.08” N 155° 59’ 30.66” W

Well, remember, whatever negative image the Arab community has had to endure since 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq- those things are absolutely NOT indicative of the Arab world and culture in general.

It is like saying all Americans are evil becasue the U.S. invaded (name a country). It is neither fair nor accurate.

Have traveled quite a bit in the Middle East and Africa. I always receive a warm welcome and have an enjoyable trip. It is a beautiful region and the populatons are varied and interesting.

My impression of the Arab culture is that it is a culture and society deeply seated with strong family bonds, a fine work ethic and wonderful and colorful conventions. I live in Dearborn, Michigan where we have the largest or second largest Arab-American population in the U.S. and the largest Mosque in the U.S. as well as the Arab-American Museum. The influx of Arab immigrants into our city revitalized it economically, culturally and politically. Dearbon was known (under the Hubbard administration) as a last bastion for racism and biggotry. The new Guido regime and Arab influence has changed Dearborn for the better to make it a cosmopolitan and international little town. It is infused with the fine and quaint traditions of the Arab world. Right now we are celebrating the month of Ramadan.

The Arab influence is one we feel every day in Dearborn. when we get a flat on a ride the first word out of someone's mouth is "haruum", loosely interpreted, the Arabic word for "too bad for me". When someone is moving slow we tell them "Yul-lah" which is Arabic slang for "move it". The Arabic language has pervaded our own on a day to day basis.

Familiarity breeds understanding. Understanding breeds peace. Sport is one of the greatest ways to foster familiarity and understanding. To travel to Dubai to race would be to fall in love with the Middle East at its cosmopolitan best. There are many faces to the Arab world- Dubai and the UAE are only one, but it is a great opportunity for Western athletes to be able to see, feel and touch a Middle East different than the one we so frequently see on CNN.

That is so important.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Let's not turn this into a mean-spirited thread. :-)

I don't know of any bad PR. Just the image of the rest of that region. And really, it's not so much that. It's the pure transparency of the matter. Poke around on that website... Does anyone really think that they care about that charity work? Clearly all in the name of purchasing affection, and ultimately tourist money. But hey, that's no different than the myriad corporate sponsorships or the offensive self-serving Janus Corporate Charity Challenge (anyone else almost pass out during that lengthy corporate speech at the awards dinner?). At least the Janus bit actually benefits charity rather than an oil-made nation that lucked into natural resources that's thinking ahead to the post-oil boon days.

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Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

 
Ask the indians, africans, and arabs who built those emirates....

As I recall.. Dubai doesn't actually have much oil. They are almost entirely financial services and tourism... not unlike many places in the USA. You could say Texas "lucked-out" with oil too.

I hear you. One thing I have learned about wealthy people and organizations: Money and resources do not remove a person's ability to act with charity from their heart and with genuine generosity.

It isn't all self-serving and mercenary in nature. Some of it is genuinely kind-spirited.

"A wise man associating with the vicious becomes an idiot; a dog traveling with good men becomes a rational being. " Arab Proverb.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I am certainly not put by the Tri Dubai thing! of course the city of Dubai are trying to generate positive PR, I thought that was the whole point about sponsorship. Dubai is a dynamic city, triathlon is a dynamic sport, I think that we should be lucky that they are investing in a small sport like ours.

We as a team have also managed to generate a substantial amount of money for various chariots of our choice, I am sure they do not think anything negative about TRI Dubai!

Agreed- absolutely.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Simon, what do you think the likelihood of a 70.3 occurring in Dubai is? Or do you think an ITU is more likely?

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

I am not in a position to say right now. There has been some interest in creating a half IM race with lot's of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Like anywhere else, someone has to justify spending the money and generating some return.

If I was a betting man and Dubai was sponsoring a IM/70.3 team.....where would ITU stand?

I'd be there.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Ditto, that would test my theory of the hotter the better. Although IM France's 40 degrees throughout the day was close ;-)

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"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

I'm glad to hear that the team has raised substantial money for charity. My point is that I doubt Dubai really cares about that -- they are in it for themselves (in the same way any corporation would be).

I disagree w/ you about the point of sponsorship. The *true* spirit of sponsorship is to support something without drawing attention/publicity rather than strictly doing so because it's good for the sponsor. But practically speaking, that is rare now. It's really about the sponsoring entity evaluating what's in it for them, rather than what's best for the "community." I think real sponsorship is mostly limited to individuals now, people like all of us, who "sponsor" others to do marathons, various charity drives, etc.

Tom D - I understand your viewpoint. It'll be tough to unwind my 40 years of bias. :-)

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Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

Sponsored by Blue Shield PPO.

Don't want to dump all over Dubai and the UAE, but it's not a place that I would fly 1/2 way across the world to race. I was there in '95 and granted a lot has changed but there are lots of places I'd rather go first from a tourist standpoint. Strictly from a race standpoint, I'm sure it would be ridiculously well organized and supported, not to mention flat as a pancake.

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"Knowledge is good" - Emil Faber

I'm not quite as cynical. A company/entity sponsors something because they want to be associated with it, think it can help them financially, and people are interested in it. A bank may sponsor a ballet performance because the president's wife like ballet. Tom D. probably sponsors local races.

In both cases, they think the cause is decent and hope by doing so their money spent benefits their organization. Those making the sponsorship decisions are people with likes and dislikes, interests. I think Dubai's interest is at least as "community minded" as Ford's...guess I'd have to know more about what $$ goes where.

Per Webster's:

Sponsor: "A person or an organiztion that pays for or plans and carries out a project or activity, especially one that pays the cost of a radio or television program usually in return for advertising time during its course."

Nothing in there about altruistic giving.

Exactly.

Given a choice of being cynical or constructive (and we all have that choice) I choose to be constructive since I don't see how cynicism (in this case) could benefit anyone.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com