Tennis at the top of Burj Al Arab

[Bahraini Spirit]

Hi, just wanted to share this pic with u guys, pretty cool, enjoy:





I wouldn't mind playing there, but it'll be very costly to provide tons of balls plus the fact that if a tennis ball lands on ur head when ur down near the beach, you're in trouble.

[Barsby]

yeh just saw a thing about this on the news, didnt look as if they were too confident about running too much! but whats it for obviously something to do with Nike i'd imagine?

[Monkey]

There are more pics in the World Skybar.

[Krazy]

World No 1 Roger Federer (foreground) and tennis great Andre Agassi could not resist the temptation of hitting some balls on the world’s highest tennis court, the helipad of the Burj Al Arab.

[pakboy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/phot...es/4289977.stm

[Bahraini Spirit]

There is a thread about it in the sky section.

[Emirates ME]

wowo cool ^_^

[SamSam]

It even made it into a fark photoshop contest:

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comm...IDLink=1370496

[Krazy]

Agassi amazed by multi-racial harmony in Dubai


DUBAI (AFP) - Andre Agassi left Dubai disappointed to have lost a semi-final to Roger Federer but delighted with the possibility of being a sort of self-styled ambassador for the Middle East.

Agassi, whose father Mike represented Iran (news - web sites) as an Olympic boxer, claimed to be amazed at the cosmopolitan culture and prosperity of the fast-developing Emirate and appears to believe he might help change some American perceptions.

"It's been an incredible week for me and it's taught me a lot being here. You see so many different people living together peacefully that it's amazing to watch and it's a privilege to be here," he said.

"Seeing a thousand cranes in action in Dubai impresses even me, someone who is coming from Las Vegas. If I were to take a message back home it would be 'come to the Middle East before you form any opinions'."

Agassi is saying that he will bring his wife, Steffi Graf, and his children next time he comes, which will apparently happen whether or not he decides to play in the 2006 Dubai Open at the age of nearly 36.

He has also admitted he is trying to line up some kind of business deal in Dubai and there is said to be a possibility that he might buy a holiday home, only 250 miles across the Gulf from his father's country of birth.

Agassi was visibly moved by the way a multi-racial Middle East crowd reacted to him, an American, when he was playing.

As well as proving an even bigger draw than world number one Roger Federer, with many unable to get into Dubai's 5,000 capacity centre court when he was playing, Agassi continually brought a tumultuous response.

"What is happening here is a reflection of a lot of vision and passion," he said.

"Seeing all these different people living peacefully together - it's the way the world is meant to be, and the chance to share this with my wife and kids would be a pleasure."

Of course Agassi will be able to share things others would not. His visit to Dubai has included a viewing of the city from a 700-foot high helipad, where a tennis court was specially laid down for him, a meeting with Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid, the Crown Prince, and a stay at the world's only seven-star hotel. That is the Burg Al Arab, in which every rooom is a duplex suite with a personal butler, and which boasts an underwater sea-food restaurant. It also claims to be the world's tallest hotel, and was evidently to Agassi's taste.

"Maybe I can play my semi-final on top of that next time," he said.

Agassi is also reported in the Tehran Times to be considering a visit to Iran "eventually". His father shortened his appellation from the Armenian name of Agassian after arriving in the United States at the age of 18.

[juiced]

Compare this to how much the event cost to stage - a few thousand dollars for the hire of a helicopter and a few more for some astroturf - and it is plain to see that this was an incredibly valuable event.

It’s difficult to get noticed these days. Our current media culture means that competition for eyeballs has never been greater. The simplest way out of this bind is to spend more money than the competition: buying advertising space is an expensive, but guaranteed, route to consumers.

The other way to cut through the ‘clutter’ (as they call it in media world) is to be smarter than the competition, by creating something that broadcasters will want to show for free. A whole industry, called PR, has been built up around this idea, but unfortunately, most of it is as bland and unenticing as a poor ad - we should know, we get enough of it every day.

However, done well, PR can be more effective than the best ad. A reminder of exactly how effective came last week when Dubai Duty Free and Jumeirah International teamed up with the ATP in creating a priceless piece of publicity for Dubai, the Burj Al Arab, and the DDF International Tennis Tournament.

On 22 February, in the first week of the men’s tournament, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer played a game of tennis nearly 300 metres in the air on the helipad of the Burj Al Arab.

Jumeirah International, which owns the Burj, had come up with the idea after a similar stunt last year featuring Tiger Woods hitting golf balls into the sea from the same location.

However, they did not expect the unprecedented reaction from the world’s press that they received.

On the afternoon of the 22nd, after three months preparation, arguably the two biggest stars of the men’s game were filmed by a Getty Images, and tournament photographer Jorge Ferrari, who did the stills, and Sportsbrand, the TV production company behind the filming of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open.

Aerial shots were taken from an Airwing Helicopter, and one of the photographers was harnessed to the spire on top of the Burj - a completely safe place to be, according to the organisers, but quite terrifying to any normal person none the less.

The shoot began at about 3.30 pm. By 7.30 pm, the shots were at the press office and being sent around the world.

By midnight, the video footage had been edited into a three minute film, and was on its way to broadcasters around the world.

By the next day, DDF, JI, and the ATP, the three parties who had come together to make the stunt happen, were starting to get an idea of how well it had been received.

It was on the front cover of USA Today, and was covered by the national and regional press throughout the United States; in the UK, all eight national dailies carried the photos; and in Europe, all the major newspapers carried it, with Il Journale putting it on the front page.

On television, CNN ran a feature on it a number of times throughout the day, to an estimated viewership of 200 million people; all the major US networks carried it, including some of the highest rating shows in the country, Good Morning America, and the Today show to a combined audience of around 37 million people.

ESPN, the sports network, showed it repeatedly and has requested to use it as the feature of the month.

Globally, the story is pretty similar: major broadcasters from China to Chile, including BBC World, CNN Asia and CCTV took the story and ran it throughout the day.

Radio stations around the world also took soundbites from the players talking about the experience. A search on Google for “Agassia Federer Burj” returns 10,500 pages.

DDF was still trying to ascertain how much the coverage is worth, - media monitoring companies are still returning new coverage over a week after the event - but figures are still coming in, and “several million dollars” is the best that anyone is prepared to venture at this stage.

“I think it might have been seen by half the planet,” said Iggy Jovanovich from the ATP tour.

DDF created Dubai Tennis Championship to help put Dubai on the map. This year’s event has definitely achieved that.
Unfortunately, opportunities like this do not come along every day; it will be interesting to see what they do next year.

http://www.7days.ae/20050304/Busines...a.PR.stunt.asp

[Nick in Atlanta]

I saw a "photo" yesterday of a tennis match that took place between Andre Agassi and another player, and it looked like it was played on the Burj supertall hotel's heliport, which had been converted to a tennis court. I was convinced that this was some sort of creative photo manipulation, but I'm not totally sure. This does seem like the kind of publicity stunt that someone in Dubai could pay for. Can someone just confirm that this "tennis match" never took place?

[Bahraini Spirit]

Ya this happened like 3 weeks or so ago, and it's real. It's a publicity stunt basically, Tiger Woods teed off the helipad also a while ago.

[Nick in Atlanta]

Originally Posted by Bahraini Spirit

Ya this happened like 3 weeks or so ago, and it's real. It's a publicity stunt basically, Tiger Woods teed off the helipad also a while ago.

Do you know how much they paid Agassi and Tiger? The Agassi match had no audience!

[Bahraini Spirit]

I have no idea, am sure a lot, same goes to federer.

[DUBAI]

they did it for free!

well, they got as much publicity out of it as dubai did , so fair doo's i suppose...

[Chay]

Originally Posted by Nick in Atlanta

Do you know how much they paid Agassi and Tiger? The Agassi match had no audience!

it was not a match. there's no referee no audience how could it be a match. it was just some form of advertisement for dubai and the tennis tourney

[Qatar4Ever]

who cares.. its really kool..