Jeddah gears up for king’s cup in new Sports City

Jeddah is eagerly awaiting the grand opening of the King Abdullah Sports city on Thursday amid an air of festivity and excitement.
The stadium opening will witness the final match between the Al-Ahli and Shabab teams for the Custodian of Two Holy Mosques Cup, a prime football competition between highly popular football clubs in the Kingdom.
Around half of the tickets for the 60,000-capacity stadium were distributed for free through post offices on Tuesday, resulting in stampedes and police deployment to keep order.
Authorities have been made aware of space constraints at the stadium and are making arrangements inside the city for residents to view the opening ceremony and final match through large LED screens.
“We are airing the opening ceremony and final match through one of the world’s largest LED visual display screens inside the city,” said Mohammed Al-Bogaimi of the Jeddah Municipality.
Screens will be set up in the northern part of the Corniche, one in the central area of the waterfront, one in Saqra Park in Baghdadiah and one in downtown Jeddah, he said.
Aside from these screens, the municipality has also arranged for 27 visual display devices at various shopping malls, he said.
Television channels will be able to broadcast the event live, announced the General Authority for Audio and Visual Media.
Abdul Rahman Al-Hazza, chairman of the authority, has announced that the authority will provide a transponder uplink to television channels free of charge.
Jeddah police, meanwhile, has made elaborate security arrangements.
A 1,000-member police squad will be deployed at the venue, according to Aati Al-Qurashi of the Makkah regional police headquarters.
Jeddah’s traffic police have also drawn up a vehicular control system in two modules from the city to the new stadium’s six gates.
Saudi youth soccer fans created severe congestion on some of the city’s busiest roads on Tuesday morning.
Thousands of hardcore fans flooded various Saudi Post office branches trying to acquire tickets, which were handed out on a first-come, first-served basis. Many could be seen queuing up for hours.