"Go for it! Port Adelaide! (go! Adelaide Port!)"
Starting in 2017, every year in late May, at Jiangwan Stadium in Yangpu District, such a deafening slogan of encouragement can always be heard.
Photo: Wang Jiabin
Australian football is a well-deserved "first sport" in Australia. From March to August each year, more than 6 million Australians go to the stadium to watch the game, while Adelaide Port team, As an established Australian rugby alliance team, it approached Shanghai two years ago to bring the established event, which originated in 1897, to overseas cities outside Australia and New Zealand for the first time in history.
Watching the ball, there is one more reason to go to Shanghai
"it's a very difficult step," said Tang Siqi, chief executive of Adelaide Port. Playing Australian football games in Shanghai first has to solve the venue problem. In an Australian football game, 36 players play at the same time, not only spacious enough, but also with lawn courts and stands at the same time. Australians look all over Shanghai. In the end, only 83-year-old Jiangwan Stadium in Yangpu District is worthy of this. Now, the long history of Jiangwan Stadium as the home court of Adelaide Port team, once again radiate fresh vitality.
In the past two years, more than 4000 Australian fans have flown across the Pacific to Shanghai at the time of the event. The event not only brought many Australian fans to Shanghai, but also promoted sports tourism in Shanghai. Many Australian fans said they would set aside a week to travel in Shanghai during the match.
"We have learned from Australian fans watching the game in Shanghai that a large number of them may not choose China first when choosing their destination. But because of the game, they followed their team to Shanghai, and after such a trip, they also had a new impression of Shanghai and even China. "in addition, there is a very interesting phenomenon," the staff of the Planning Industry Department of the Shanghai Sports Bureau told journalist. "it is well known that foreigners like to drink beer while watching football matches, compared with the past two years. Whenever the event is held at Jiangwan Stadium, the supply of beer from convenience stores within three kilometers around is in short supply. From such details, it can be seen that the sports industry has a significant driving effect on the consumption of local tourism. "
In addition to sports events to drive sports tourism, Shanghai in recent years has also emerged a number of "sports towns." These towns may have their own superior ecological environment, mainly focus on the combination of ecotourism and sports model, or with the help of local influential sports events to promote the development of sports.
As one of the most successful international events in Chinese professional sports, the Shanghai Tennis Masters Competition not only stimulates tourism consumption at the time of holding it every year, but also shapes the tennis culture of Minhang Maqiao Town, which belongs to the Qizhong Tennis Center. Today, Maqiao Town has transformed into a "tennis hometown" in Shanghai, with a supporting service system and a competition, and the event has also "fed" the land where it was nurtured, allowing the economic of Maqiao to insert wings.
Government, the municipal party committee of Shanghai, has made it clear that Shanghai will basically become a world-famous sports city by 2025, and there are three dimensions to achieve this goal, one of which is to build the capital of sports events. At the two sessions of Shanghai at the beginning of this year, some representatives put forward that it is an important starting point for Shanghai to build a sports tourism city by focusing on cultivating international events IP, and vigorously developing the participating sports tourism industry.
As we all know, the most popular sports event in Shanghai in recent years is the Shanghai Marathon: more than 30000 online registration places, basically "easily beat." Behind the popularity of the event, the tourism consumption created by it can not be ignored. Nowadays, around the holding of sports events, the model of "sports tourism" has become the most important part of the transition from traditional sports to "sports".
Online Celebrity Sports ground, Shanghai is becoming more and more "fun"
In an interview with Xinhua earlier this year, Xu Bin, director of the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau, said that in the process of promoting the development of the sports industry, Shanghai will give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources as the most prominent feature. "the degree of marketization of the sports industry is very high. As the competent department of sports, we leave the specific activities and events to the market as far as possible to operate. We mainly pay attention to the design of policies, control and guide, and deepen through reform. It not only creates a good atmosphere and environment for sports development, but also deeply releases the vitality and creativity of sports and consumption of enterprises and individuals.
Nowadays, when people come to 886 Wenshui Road, Jing'an District, Shanghai, they can always hear the sound of playing basketball in the surrounding building materials market. It turns out that in such a "unattractive" place, the headquarters of Shanghai Luohe Sports Company is located here, as well as their main brand "Locke Park" under the Wenchui Road Basketball Hall. The basketball stadium, which is built next to the parking lot in front of the supermarket, is not geographically located, but it attracts nearly a thousand people a day. As soon as holidays and nights, the scene is full. Unlike unattended courts in the community, there is a gym, shower room and dressing room. Thirty or fifty yuan to go to Locke Park to play a game, has become the fashion of young people in Shanghai.
Dai Fuqi, chairman of Shanghai Luohe Sports Company, told Xinmin Weekly journalist that since the establishment of the first Locke Park in 2005 in the open space outside the back door of Huachi Road Shopping Center, the brand concept is to make rational use of vacant space. The abandoned factory building is used as a venue, using German standardized building materials accessories to build or transform it into an American style basketball hall. At that time, however, the development environment of sports industry in Shanghai could not be compared with that of today, and private enterprises could not get effective support on sports land, which also led Dai Fuqi to experience setbacks at the beginning of starting a business.
Because the abandoned factory building is not allowed to be used as commercial land in principle, the land problem of "Locke Park" could not be solved very well at one time, but at present, taking advantage of the "Dongfeng" of the sports industry, which is vigorously developed by the sports authorities, The problem was dealt with on a temporary basis. Nowadays, Locke Park has more than 20 branches in Shanghai. In Shanghai, one in three basketball enthusiasts has a registered member of Locke Park, according to the data. "Locke Park can be regarded as a typical case, that is, in the process of the development of Shanghai's sports industry, we have introduced and learned from the previous' Wenchuang'50, in the enterprise land, Give them corresponding support in terms of funds and taxes and fees. "
In an interview with Xinmin Weekly journalist, the staff of the Planning Industry Department of Shanghai Sports Bureau presented the latest documents to the journalist, which has been clearly pointed out in the article "strengthening the supply of Fitness and Leisure facilities." Support social forces to use urban renewal policy, invigorate existing stock resources, and build fitness and leisure facilities in commercial facilities, old factories and warehouses. Dai Fuqi said in an interview that with the support of relevant departments, Locke Park now uses factories and warehouses to reconstruct sports venues, and there is no need to go through the formalities of changing the nature of the land within two years. In addition, they also made full use of roof space to build a pink basketball court in Suzhou Center, unexpectedly becoming a landmark of online celebrities signing in for wedding photography.
It is obvious that more and more sports enterprises choose to come to Shanghai for development, and the city provides a good business environment. China ranked 78th among the world's business environment rankings issued by the World Bank in 2017, but rose 32 places to 46th in 2018. As two sample cities in China for the World Bank's Business Environment report, Shanghai has a weight of 55 percent and Beijing 45 percent. In the field of subdivided sports industry, Shanghai also has the leading advantage: sports service industry is the core of sports industry. The practice of developed countries has proved that the sports service industry in a region is positively correlated with the development level of sports industry. Across the country, sports services account for less than 40 percent of the sports industry, compared with 65 percent in Shanghai in 2017.
Why did the sports industry choose Shanghai? Sports industry professionals pointed out: "on the one hand, the market is well developed, the degree of marketization is high, Shanghai is more willing to pay for sports than other cities in the country." On the other hand, government is willing to give enterprises the opportunity to create a platform for enterprises to participate in sports and sports services. "in short, the business environment in Shanghai is unique to the sports industry.