The Mena Tour received a huge boost with the news that staging experts Arena have come on board as ‘umbrella sponsors’. The global company have provided a roof over the head of millions of sport fans at events across the world and will now provide their services to further enhance the region’s fast growing feeder Tour.
Returning to the world schedule after a year of restructuring, the MENA Tour by Arena features 10 tournaments in 2019 – five of which, apart from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic Shootout and two stages of the Qualifying School, were played earlier in the year and five are being played currently as part of the Autumn Schedule.
Worldwide Golf’s Jordan Smith was lucky enough to receive an invite for the Abu Dhabi Open by Arena Pro-Am at Yas Links last week and caught up with Paul Berger, CEO of Arena, to discuss the plans for the tour and what new additions have already been implemented.
Jordan Smith: How excited are you to be a part of the Mena Tour as a main sponsor?
Paul Berger:As a company Arena is synonymous with golf, in terms of what we do in the sport across the world from the US Open to the British Open through to what we build in Asia and here in the Middle East. The opportunity presented by the Mena Tour is an opportunity for us to give something back to golf. To be able to support a tour that is up and coming, it’s a feeder tour and for us to get in at the early stages to be able to contribute to the success of a very exciting tour in world golf, is fantastic.
JS: You’ve thrown away the plastic and implemented ecofriendly bottles. Can you tell us a bit about this?
PB: As a company, Arena is very socially conscious about being seen to recycle the materials that we use to build events. And to be much more sustainable as a business and internally there’s a big drive on that. With this partnership with the Mena Tour it made sense for us to come up with an idea for the tour that fitted in with our own principles. The idea of disposing plastic bottles for the players and the partners by introducing a stainless steel water bottle is all part of our own initiative to be much more environmentally aware in the world today.
JS: Do you have any other plans with the Mena Tour moving forward?
PB: Our plans for the tour are the same as when we are designing and building a golf tournament. We strive to be creative and innovative in growing the tour to be one of the best feeder tours in the world. So we will constantly be looking at new ideas, programmes and plans to share with the tour and stakeholders for the benefit of both parties.
