The new campus on Saadiyat Island will boast open-air tennis courts, two outdoor fields — one grass, the other synthetic fiber — a 400-meter track, spaces for high jump, pole vault and a separate area for shot put, complete with stands for spectators, locker rooms and storage rooms for equipment. Its enclosed area is equipped with a rubberized 200-meter track that surrounds three multipurpose courts separated by divider curtains, a rock-climbing wall, squash and racquetball courts and adjacent laundry facilities. There will also be a new athletic training room where a certified athletic trainer will treat injured athletes for their sports-related injuries.

“We have a lot of great facilities we’ll be able to access and utilize. That’s the thing I’m looking forward to — we can go out the back door and play. Here the back door’s a parking lot,” said Wayne Young, assistant director of Athletics at NYU Abu Dhabi.

An eight-lane, 50-meter, Olympic-sized swimming pool with moveable lane dividers, one three-meter diving board, two one-meter diving boards and an area for confined water dives for PADI certification can also be found on the Saadiyat campus.

“[The new fitness center will be] a large facility with windows looking out towards the north side where the outdoor fields are located with plenty of light; it’s a big facility … maybe three-to-four times the size we have now,” says Peter Dicce, NYUAD director of athletics.

Young said that the Athletics department plans to use the additional space to host events for the community, as well as for student events and inter-university sporting activities.

“Ultimately, the goal for me is to develop some kind of competitive [outlet for] road racing or track and field with the other colleges in [the Abu Dhabi Inter-University Sports League],” said Young.

Dicce said that they hope to host 5 km running races, golf tournaments, dragon boat races or aquatic sports events; however, he indicated that it would depend on student interest.

Next year, the athletics department plans to standardize practice schedules for competitive teams, non-fitness center PE classes and Intramurals.

“What we’re trying to do is build in commitment in certain areas so we’re going to try to program in specific times and reliable dates from week to week, so that students are able to plan accordingly,” Dicce said. “In order to move [competitive athletics] away from any conflicts with other programing … we’re going to move training and practices in the morning before school starts, roughly from 7 – 9.”

Competitive ADISL sports nights will primarily take place on Wednesday evenings.

All of the PE classes held outside of the fitness center will be held between 5 and 7 p.m. on weekdays while intramurals will mostly take place on Thursday evenings.

“With regard to squash for an example, the only thing we’ve really done is provided an opportunity for students to play squash, by transporting them over there, making sure somebody was there during the time that they played, but they’re going to have these opportunities already in place in the new campus,” said Dicce.

Whether there needs to be a SIG for these sports is under question. “We’ll support whatever sports the students are interested in. I guess from our perspective we’re not sure what the benefit is for being a SIG versus not being a SIG,” said Dicce.

“We’re not inclined to expand [the Athletics] program based on the fact that we have facilities. We’re hoping to improve the quality of the programs we have … We’re pretty sensitive to the fact that we don’t want to start creating opportunities for the sake of creating opportunities. We want to be more purposeful with what we do,” said Dicce.

Ultimately though, a lot of these decisions are driven by student interest and the Athletics Office has an open-door policy. Conversations have sparked the idea of having a student athletics advisory committee.

“I think that we’ve always viewed our [athletics] department as a department that tries to bring people together, and we just use sports as an excuse to do that, but when you have nice facilities you can build a culture that’s inclusive and welcoming that’s a great way to make inroads and build relationships,” said Dicce.