By Nicolas Teisseyre, Alia Sabala and Mohamad Yamout

The award of hosting rights in December 2024 marked a major milestone in the Kingdom's national transformation journey. Saudi Arabia's FIFA World Cup 2034 bid is built around 15 stadiums spanning the Kingdom, four refurbishments and 11 new builds or venues currently under construction. But as planning shifts from ambition to execution, a defining strategic question comes into focus:

How can these stadiums generate sustained economic and social value long after the tournament concludes?

From isolated venues to integrated urban destinations

The role of the stadium has fundamentally changed. Where venues once served primarily as event-day facilities, today's leading examples function as 365-day, mixed-use destinations that combine sports, entertainment, commerce, hospitality, and community activity. The economic value of a stadium is no longer measured by seating capacity alone, but by the ecosystem it anchors and the year-round experiences it enables.

Saudi Arabia's stadium investments generate value through two complementary mechanisms. First, they create value by hosting sports matches and entertainment events. Second, they capture value through the surrounding masterplan, which drives continuous economic growth outside the venue to keep the stadium financially viable. Together, these mechanisms transform a stadium from a single facility into the centerpiece of a broader development ecosystem.

What distinguishes Saudi Arabia from most comparable markets is the scale of its greenfield opportunity. With 11 of the 15 venues either under construction or planned as new builds, the Kingdom has the rare ability to design venues and surrounding districts from scratch. This makes it possible to integrate stadiums into broader mixed-use masterplans and optimize them for year-round use from the outset, a structural advantage that markets constrained by legacy infrastructure cannot easily replicate.

Utilization: the gap between interest and attendance

Revenue generation in stadiums is shaped by two interconnected drivers: utilization, how frequently and effectively the venue is activated, and sponsorships and partnerships, which convert visibility into long-term commercial income. Both present clear opportunities and real challenges for Saudi Arabia.

Football is the Kingdom's most popular sport, yet Saudi Pro League stadium utilization rates have lagged well behind comparable leagues. Current projections indicate that Riyadh may face a potential oversupply of large venue capacity relative to its resident population by 2034, a dynamic that requires a proactive and coordinated response from stadium operators, clubs, and government stakeholders alike.

The path forward lies in diversifying the events portfolio, securing home tenant clubs, and strengthening fan engagement before and after venues open. Across global benchmarks, stadiums that host a broad mix of sports competitions, concerts, cultural festivals, and business events—while building deep digital connections with their fan communities—consistently outperform those that rely on a single event category or season. Accessibility, too, plays a direct role in revenue performance: the easier it is for visitors to reach, navigate, and return to a venue, the greater the impact on attendance, dwell time, and per-capita spend. Saudi Arabia's approach to each of these levers is examined in depth in the full publication.

Sponsorship and commercial partnerships: a significant untapped opportunity

Sponsorship investment in the Middle East currently trails significantly behind North America and Europe, reflecting both a market maturity gap and substantial untapped commercial potential. For Saudi stadium operators, the strategic opportunity lies not only in growing total sponsorship volume, but in broadening the partner base across sectors such as technology, entertainment, and tourism, areas aligned with the Kingdom's wider economic ambitions and well-positioned to benefit from global event visibility.

Partnerships with sports federations, event rights holders, and commercial brands allow stadium operators to convert audience reach into sustained commercial revenue streams that extend well beyond individual events.

This report is an independent publication by Roland Berger. References to ‘FIFA’, ‘FIFA World Cup’, and/or ‘FIFA World Cup 2034’ are made solely for descriptive and informational purposes to identify the event. Roland Berger is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially connected to FIFA or any FIFA-related entities, and no such relationship is implied. All trademarks and related rights referenced remain the property of their respective owners. Nothing in this report should be construed as marketing, sponsorship, or an offer of services on behalf of FIFA or any official tournament rights holder.