On the evening of October 8, the Hangzhou Asian Games officially closed. The feast, which lasted for 16 days, froze countless wonderful moments and left many unforgettable memories.
However, after the carnival, when the flame is extinguished and the flag is lowered, the host city of the Asian Games, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other co-host cities will face a lot of "post-Asian Games" topics.
Among them, the most concerned about the public is how to operate many stadiums built for the game. After all, the use of heritage is a must-answer question at major international events. Around the world, many host cities have faced high maintenance costs for venue facilities, which has even led to economic recession.
So, how will the Hangzhou Asian Games solve the "post-Asian Games" problem, and what kind of "reuse" answer sheet will be handed over?
A worldwide problem: how to reuse venues
Looking back at various world sports events, almost all major venues such as the Olympic Games and the Asian Games have presented a wonderful and extraordinary "A" side in the competition time stage; However, due to the large amount of construction funds, large construction scale and high maintenance costs, it is faced with solving the "B" side of the post-match utilization problem of stadiums.
The more famous example is the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Greece invested more than 3 billion euros in the construction of more than 30 Olympic venues, which won praise from the world during the games, especially the scene of "welcoming the Olympic home" at the opening ceremony is still fresh in the memory. However, due to insufficient post-game utilization, the vast majority of venues have not been commercialized and socialized, and are basically in the dust, and the once lively Olympic Center is now old and dilapidated, falling into the situation of doors. After the Olympic Games, the high maintenance cost of more than 100 million euros per year has become a major "heart problem" for Athenians. The deputy mayor of Athens once said: "The debt of the Athens Olympic Games will need to be repaid by future generations of Greece." ”
Russia has had the same problem. After the 2018 World Cup, even cities with top football league clubs, such as Yekaterinburg and Rostov, had not enough fans to support the operating expenses of the huge new stadium. The Russian government has said that given the high cost of stadium operation and the expected low income of football clubs, it is impossible to expect the stadium to turn a profit in 3-5 years.
This is enough to show that after a large event, one of the core problems faced is the reuse of stadiums, and once the operation is not done well, it may bring serious consequences of runaway costs.
Of course, not all competitions lose money. Venues in some cities operate properly after the games, and there are many cases of revitalizing the development of local mass sports. After the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing also showed the world the "Chinese solution" for the reuse of event venues. Among the many venues, the three large-scale comprehensive venues, Bird's Nest, Water Cube and Wukesong Sports Center, have a very high post-game utilization rate, and more than 80% of the year is dedicated to various sports and cultural events. At the same time, they have also become among the landmarks of Beijing, standing in front of the world in another way.
Photo by Wukesong Sports Center Xinhua News Agency
Gradually, there is a growing international consensus that a successful event is not only about the wonderful presentation of the holding period, but also the subsequent use of the venue should be an important indicator of its success.
Now that this answer sheet has been submitted to Hangzhou, how should we answer?
Host City: Creating a "City of International Competitions"
"At the beginning of the layout construction, the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee fully considered the post-game utilization of the venue, and planned according to the principle of 'can be changed or not built, can be repaired or replaced, can be rented or not bought, can be borrowed or not rented'." Mao Genhong, the main spokesman of the Hangzhou Asian Games, said that among the 56 competition venues of the Hangzhou Asian Games and Asian Para Games, only 12 new venues were built, and the rest were renovated and upgraded from existing venues, including 26 renovated venues, 9 continuation venues, 9 temporary construction venues, and 31 training venues were all transformed venues. The concept of green, low-carbon and sustainable is integrated into the whole process of Asian Games venue planning, design, construction, operation and management. It not only saves the cost of hosting the competition, but also facilitates the reuse after the competition.
Yao Gaoyuan, mayor of Hangzhou, also said that Hangzhou should not only host a successful Asian Games, but also make good use of the venue hosting experience and resources left by the Asian Games to amplify the comprehensive effect of the Asian Games.
So how can Asian Games venues be further utilized after the games? In the past few days, Hangzhou, as the host city of the competition, has continued to send two clear signals.
First, based on people's livelihood, continue to use for national fitness and avoid idle after the game. For example, in the renovation project of the Huanglong Sports Center, 13 national fitness projects such as basketball, tennis and swimming have been integrated and opened, which can accommodate more than 6,000 people for exercise every day. In addition, a 1,000-meter-long air runway was also designed, such as a rainbow around the stadium, for public fitness. The glorious Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center gymnasium, swimming pool and comprehensive training hall will also be opened to benefit the people. The gymnasium will be mainly used to hold large-scale events, the swimming pool will mainly operate professional swimming and diving events, swimming opening and training, and the comprehensive training hall will be open and operate basketball, badminton, table tennis and other sports training on a daily basis.
The second is to actively bid for high-level events and create a city of international "competitions" and "meetings". Taking advantage of the Asian Games venues and Asian Games legacy, Hangzhou has put forward the goal of successfully hosting three top-level events of international individual sports organizations by 2025, holding more than 10 international and domestic high-level events every year, and more than 6 well-known brand events in Hangzhou. By 2035, we will strive to hold another high-level comprehensive event and 3-5 top individual events such as the World Championship and the World Cup.
At present, Hangzhou has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the World Badminton Federation, the International Canoe Federation and the International Hockey Federation, and several international heavyweight events will land in Hangzhou. Among them, the BWF World Tour Finals will be held in Hangzhou from December 13-17; The inaugural International Canoe Sprint Super Cup will be held next year; The Hockey Super League (2024-2025 China), which is being bid for, is expected to be successful.
At the same time, Hangzhou will also bid to host top international events such as the 2024 Global E-sports Games, the 2024 World Arrow Federation World Cup, the 2025 International Shooting Federation World Cup, and the 2025 Sudirman Cup Badminton Competition.
Co-host cities: one museum, one program, each with its own characteristics
Taking advantage of the comprehensive effect of the Asian Games, the host city will develop the event economy and create a new engine for urban development. So, where should the competition venues in the five co-host cities of Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing and Jinhua go?
Mao Genhong introduced that at the beginning of the preparation, the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee respected the individualization of the project, formulated "one competition and one plan" and "one hall and one plan", with "territorial guarantee", giving play to the role of the territorial government in the event and realizing the seamless connection between urban operation and venue operation.
In other words, the co-organizer city market hall is the local government responsible for revitalizing the function of the venue, "who has the child who holds".
The reporter found that among the five co-host cities, the Wenzhou competition area involves three competition venues of different types, which are more representative: both the Wenzhou Sports Center Stadium transformed from the old hall, the newly completed Wenzhou Olympic Sports Center Main Stadium, and the more professional Wenzhou Dragon Boat Sports Center. How these three types of venues should be operated in the future, the reporter took Wenzhou as an example to get a glimpse of the whole picture.
Wenzhou Sports Center is located in Lucheng District, Wenzhou, completed and put into use in 1997, under the management of Wenzhou Sports Bureau, is the most "old" national fitness main position in the local area. The center mainly includes stadiums, gymnasiums, swimming pools, etc., of which the stadium has been upgraded in an all-round way and successfully hosted some women's football competitions in this Asian Games. After the Asian Games, the stadium will return to Wenzhou Sports Center for normal operation, relying on the mature management model and central area advantages to provide venues for local large-scale sports events, theatrical performances, gatherings, etc.
The main stadium of Wenzhou Olympic Sports Center, located in Longwan District, is a newly built Asian Games venue, built by Wenzhou Chengfa Group, with a total investment of about 1.003 billion yuan and a capacity of more than 50,000 spectators to watch the event. In this Asian Games, Wenzhou Olympic Sports Center made a stunning appearance and undertook 10 women's football competitions. As the largest sports venue in Wenzhou so far, the follow-up operation has aroused strong attention from local citizens. "We are continuing to dock with high-level star concerts, and Zhang Xinzhe concert in November has been scheduled." According to Wenzhou Chengfa Group, it is currently planning to introduce professional sports companies for later operations, hoping to diversify the transformation and utilization of venues through market-oriented operations, in addition to competitive sports competitions, but also to provide a series of cultural and tourism products that meet market demand, so as to achieve sustainable development and further improve the operational efficiency and profitability of venues.
As one of the most standard dragon boat sports competition venues in China and even in Asia, how should Wenzhou Dragon Boat Sports Center manage and operate such a "professional" venue?
Weng Dingbo, director of the Ouhai District Sports Development Center, told reporters that they will adopt the "event leading + socialized operation" model for post-management. On the one hand, it introduces top dragon boat events every year, and continues to launch the slogan of "watch dragon boats, go to Wenzhou"; On the other hand, as a PPP project (i.e. public-private cooperation, which is a project operation mode in public infrastructure), Wenzhou Dragon Boat Sports Center has introduced a third-party professional operation team, Guangzhou Zhujiang Cultural and Sports Company, to carry out daily operations.
Tao Zhaoyun, the person in charge of "Pearl River Culture and Sports", said that they will use the unique site facilities and resources of the dragon boat sports center to launch more than 10 water experience and training projects such as water rafting, paddle boarding, power surfing, OP small sailboat, kayaking, etc., which will be fully opened to the public. In addition, the Dragon Boat Culture Museum located in the venue will also attract many teenagers to visit during winter and summer vacations.
Column editor-in-chief: Qin Hong Text editor: Dong Siyun Title picture source: Xinhua News Agency Photo editor: Yongkai
Source: Author: Chao News