A New Coat of Paint: Examining Saudi Arabia’s Reputational Overhaul
From golf leagues to soccer tournaments to Mr. Beast videos, Saudi Arabia is emerging as a global hub for entertainment and tourism. The nation began expanding its entertainment capacities through the Sports for All (SFA) initiative, a subsection of Vision 2030, the larger plan launched in 2016 to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil. In recent years, this program made significant strides in affirming Saudi Arabia’s place in popular culture as its new sports leagues and opportunities have drawn in stars with massive fanbases. The most prominent early step in the initiative was the creation of the LIV Golf League in 2022, a direct competitor to the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA), the traditional, well-established golf league that most professionals call home. The key factors differentiating the two leagues are the tournament length and the prize pool. The LIV Golf League offers an increased reward for golfers, which attracted several prominent PGA players like Phil Mickelson and Bryson Dechambeau.
The increased pay that Saudi Arabia offers also attracted star soccer players and tournaments. In 2023, Saudi Pro League teams recruited prominent athletes such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar da Silva Santos, providing the players contracts of $$260 million USD and $170 million respectively. Additionally, Saudi Arabia will be hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2034, which will draw millions of fans to spectate. Besides these contracts and the other 900 sponsorship deals Saudi Arabia holds across sports, the kingdom is also attracting influencers. Youtubers such as Jimmy Donaldson, known online as Mr. Beast, have collaborated extensively with the Saudi Arabian government, creating content documenting tourist attractions, and even constructing their own in the case of Donaldson’s Beast Land theme park in Riyadh.
Despite the general success in publicity of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 Plan, the nation drew criticism with allegations of sportswashing, the covering of crimes and human rights violations by increasing publicity for popular attractions like sports. These accusations arose more frequently as Saudi investments and press focus towards entertainment increased. Most notably, the sportswashing allegations ramped up as attention moved away from actions such as the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 following his criticisms of the Royal Family. Saudi Arabia’s heavily reduced rights for women and members of the LGBTQ community also contribute to their reputation to disregard humanitarian principles, as discussed by the Human Rights Watch. The combination of these actions and Saudi attempts to divert publicity led to the suspicions of sportswashing.
Sportswashing has other consequences more nuanced than simply distracting from this reputation of violations. One such consequence has a positive impact; a benefit to everyday people, especially women. Exercise is now a part of school and women have the opportunity to join gyms and find new careers in the fitness industry. Despite the positives, the relative success of Saudi Arabia establishing themselves as an entertainment hub and covering their formerly oppressive reputation gives veracity to the idea of authoritarian capitalism. As opposed to democratic capitalism, authoritarian capitalism is the idea of a society that is free economically but not politically. Saudi Arabia’s success and wealth indicates that a capitalist nation can be successful even without the social freedoms granted in a democracy, a message that could be adopted by currently democratic capitalist countries.
Saudi Arabia’s attempts at sportswashing their reputation with investments like the LIV Golf Tour and the recruitment of soccer superstars were mostly successful, although the process is still ongoing. While the nation is seeing improvements in regards to access to some rights, there is still a broad suppression of minority rights and free speech. The success of the Saudi Arabian authoritarian capitalist regime despite these suppressions could serve as a model for other capitalist nations as rights violations are overlooked in favor of spectacle.
However, the start of the war in Iran jeopardizes these efforts to establish the attractive reputation to safety the nation is striving for, but it could also supercharge them. Recent strikes on Riyadh and other civilian centers in gulf states led to airspace shutdowns and suspensions in the region, affecting travel out of cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Following strikes on energy infrastructure and the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia warned Tehran that further strikes could push Riyadh to respond with strikes of their own. This response encouraged those who want to leave the region to travel to Saudi Arabia, a powerful step for the nation in securing a reputation of safety in the Middle East.