The team behind the World Record-breaking Kingdom Arena pitch, SIS Pitches, has shared its ambitious long-term plans to expand into Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
SIS Pitches, which produces premium hybrid, synthetic and natural pitches for an array of sports, including football, rugby, golf, tennis and cricket, made its first foray in the Middle East in 2011 in Dubai UAE.
Recognising a growing appetite for high-level professional sports, and the growing need for cutting edge surfaces, the sports surface specialist established a Saudi Arabia office in July last year. Within weeks, they undertook one of the world’s most ambitious sporting infrastructure projects to complete the Kingdom Arena – the world’s first fully indoor hybrid pitch, famously built in just 21 days – in partnership with Sela.
So far, SIS Pitches has invested more than 1.3M SAR ($370,000) into the region – with Saudi Arabia now firmly established as a country key to the business’s long-term plans.
The company has opened three maintenance depots across the country in Tabuk, Jeddah and Riyadh, all designed to cater to local professional teams, including Neom FC, Al Ahli-FC and Al-Hilal FC. Those will also enable SIS Pitches to undertake major maintenance and pitch care projects in the Kingdom, which have previously included the Italian and Spanish Super Cups at King Fahd Stadium and Al-Awwal Park.
Additionally, two new turf farms have opened in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, joining the already established UAE site, to grow high-resilience turf, guaranteeing efficient costs and turf health to support major projects in the region. This includes high-level pitches and surfaces for a range of sports – from rugby and football to equestrian sports and cricket – as well as commercial landscaping.
The current team, which is 40 people strong, is also expected to grow to 60 people in the next year.
David Ball, Managing Director at SIS Middle East, said: “Over the past five years, Saudi Arabia has clearly established itself as a key destination for some of the world’s biggest athletes. People’s love of sports here is apparent, and there’s been a real appetite for the high-standard facilities to rival those of major European teams.
“The opening of our Saudi Arabia office last year reflects our commitment to establish ourselves in the region, bringing our experience working with some of the most recognisable names in sports to the Kingdom’s professional teams and supporting them as they step onto the international stage. Being local also means we can offer a speedy, domestic solution throughout a full season of sport.
“This is a pivotal moment for sports in the region,” David added. “We’re looking forward to helping the Kingdom make history.”
SISGrass, which offers hybrid playing surfaces using a small percentage of polymer fibre stitched into a natural grass pitch, is part of the SIS Group, a fully international business with offices around the world, including UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Turkey and the Middle East. The product forms part of SIS’s wider portfolio of sports surface solutions, which includes the artificial variant SISGrass Synthetic, made with a choice of monofilament or fibrillated yarns – or a mixture of the two – plus thatch support yarn and surfaces developed specifically for athletics tracks.