This time, we will focus on the Greater Bay Area.
In November 2025, the 15th National Games will be held in the Greater Bay Area. Although the National Games does not gather all kinds of attention and resources like professional leagues or commercial events in the map of China's sports industry, it is one of the core driving forces of Chinese sports.
More importantly, from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 to the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, the "super sports cycle" that lasted for more than two years has made Beijing a "double Olympic city". In the past few years, "urban renewal + sports events" has become a kind of "business card combination" embraced by various regions in China, and some slogan-like ideas are taking root in the north and south of the country.
At a time when China's sports are completing the accumulation of a new generation of sports stars, the National Games will go to the Greater Bay Area, especially for the first time in Hong Kong, Macao and other entertainment and exhibition capitals, sports will surely become a welcome gift for the Greater Bay Area to Asia and even the world, and inward, sports is also expected to become a "catfish" in the process of industrial upgrading in the Greater Bay Area.
Hong Kong's Kai Tak Sports Park, which is under construction, will become the venue for the next National Games.
In February 2019, the State Council issued the "Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", which proposed to "further enhance the supporting and leading role of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in the country's economic development and opening up".
In the 2024 Policy Address, the Macao SAR Government regards the development of a "City of Sports" as one of the development directions. Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said that the SAR government is working on the top-level design of the sports industry, hoping to let the sports industry, the arts and art circles, especially the leisure enterprise industry, understand the direction that should be worked towards to develop non-gaming elements.
Not only that, but relevant policies are also being followed. On 13 November 2023, Macao announced the "Scheme for Outstanding Talents in Culture, Sports and Other Industries" and the "Scheme for Senior Professionals in Culture, Sports and Other Industries", officially launching a large-scale talent introduction in the cultural and sports industry.
In the past few years, the international sports industry has been changing, Saudi Arabia and the United States have invested heavily in sports, and the international sports industry is in a new appreciation cycle. At the same time, the sports market in Asia, which is a value depression, will also have strong growth and plasticity in the foreseeable future. Therefore, the Greater Bay Area will once again assume the important task of connecting the world and become an important window for China's sports to "go to the world".
Against this backdrop, at the end of February 2024, the first "Greater Bay Area International Sports Business Summit" will be held in Macao, where we will set sail from the Greater Bay Area and connect the world with sports.
China's sports enter the "Greater Bay Area Time"
In the process of integrating Chinese sports into the world and international sports exploring China, the Greater Bay Area can always become a channel to break the ice.
In the '70s, China actively returned to major international sports organizations, and patriotic Hong Kong businessman Fok Ying-tung went back and forth – until Beijing's bid to host the Olympic Games, he also laid a solid foundation for two Olympic bids behind the scenes through his network with the International Olympic Committee.
In the new century, countless international sports IPs seek to enter the Chinese market, and they also regard the Greater Bay Area as a "pilot". It was from 2012 to 2014 that the UFC, as it is now known to everyone, successfully amplified the enthusiasm of the Chinese audience for mixed martial arts by holding a Chinese event in Macau for three consecutive years. Subsequently, the UFC landed in Shanghai and Beijing, and then created international sports superstars such as Zhang Weili and Li Jingliang.
In 2012, the first UFC China event was held in Macau.
Through the Greater Bay Area, China has been connected to the world many times in sports and business, and now, China's sports industry is about to truly enter the time of the Greater Bay Area.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee proposed in his first policy address after taking office in 2022 that the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau will formulate a 10-year blueprint for the development of sports and recreational facilities, and build about 30 sports centers, swimming pools, sports grounds, parks and other diversified facilities in phases. "Hong Kong plans to host at least 10 major international sporting events every year, attracting more than 350,000 participants.
In addition, in November this year, the Macao SAR Government officially announced the Plan for Moderate Economic Diversification of the Macao Special Administrative Region (2024-2028) (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), proposing the "1+4" moderately diversified development strategy, that is, to make the integrated tourism and leisure industry better, more refined and stronger, and to promote the development of four key industrial sectors, namely traditional Chinese medicine and health, modern finance, high-tech, convention and exhibition, commerce and trade, and culture and sports, with culture and sports accounting for 15% of GDP in the future.
In the Greater Bay Area, the country's most high-profile economic development hub, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have long been the hosts of the Asian Games and the Universiade, and under the label of financial and performing arts capitals, Hong Kong and Macao are taking sports as a new driving force for development.
Hong Kong sports may have been first known for horse racing, but now, Hong Kong is already ushering in the stage of "sporting events".
As early as 2008, Hong Kong hosted the equestrian events of the Beijing Olympic Games, and after the Asian Games in Guangzhou, the Hong Kong Jockey Club also established the Conghua Racecourse in Conghua District, Guangzhou, which became the first internationally recognised equine disease-free area in the mainland.
Although the pandemic has affected the scale of Hong Kong's horse racing industry, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has reached a total of $304.8 billion in 2022-23 and has been able to give back $35.9 billion to the community, both of which have reached a record high and strengthened a pillar of Hong Kong's sports.
2023 Hong Kong International Horse Racing Race
In the context of the National Games, Hong Kong is using the venues as a fulcrum to promote the development of popular sports and elite sports in Hong Kong. Among them, the Kai Tak Sports Park, with a budget of HK$31.9 billion, has become a focus project in Asia and even the world at a cost more than ten times the cost of the super-national stadium "Bird's Nest". The large-scale investment in sports not only reflects Hong Kong's public fitness heritage, but also carries the imagination of the outside world for Hong Kong's future "sports events".
Similarly, Macao's sports also have the characteristics of "individual events driving the overall situation", while "sports + tourism" has further increased the imagination of Macao's sports industry.
In terms of sporting events, the Macau Grand Prix, which began in 1954, has been successfully held for 70 years and has grown to become one of the most recognised street races in the world. Today, events such as the Macao International Regatta, the WTT Macau Championship, the Macao International Dragon Boat Races, the Macao Open Golf Championship, and the Macao International Marathon are also enriching Macao's event calendar.
Under the vision of the Greater Bay Area as a "City of Sports", we hope to use Macao as a window to connect with the world through sports, and welcome the world in Macao.
Macao in transition, a new direction as a "sports city".
In the past, gambling was clearly Macau's most conspicuous label, and since 1847, when gambling was legalized in Macau, the gaming industry once accounted for more than 70% of Macau's GDP. In order to optimize the industrial structure, the Macao SAR Government proposed in the Policy Address for the 2023 financial year that it will adopt a new strategy of "1+4" moderate diversification, and set a development target of 40% of GDP for the gaming industry and 15% for each of the four major industries.
In order to achieve the grand goal of achieving 15% of GDP in the cultural and sports industry, Macao did not stick to the traditional form of sports events, but took the lead in exploring virtual sports and other forms.
Different from the traditional type of industry, which separates professional sports and sports consumption, the Greater Bay Area may be the "testing ground" with the most sports and entertainment genes in China. In this year's Grand Prix, such a shift can already be seen.
In addition to the event itself, MGTO also organized a series of activities such as the "70 Legends from the Collection of the Macao Grand Prix Museum", the VR 360° Racing Exhibition, and the "Oracle RedBull Racing" exhibition of the world's top teams, to ensure the long-term atmosphere of the "Motorsport Month". Thanks to the long-term accumulation in the convention and exhibition industry, Macao does have a foundation that is difficult for other cities to have in terms of creating sports and cultural products.
In addition, Macau is also playing a more important role in the high-profile field of e-sports. In June 2023, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AFE) jointly launched the Asian esports official event "Journey to the Asian Games" in Macao. The fact that the first stop of e-sports has settled in Macau is enough to show the city's commitment to this emerging project.
Of course, what makes Macau and the Greater Bay Area so special is the region's tolerance and embrace of new forms of consumption. At the beginning of December 2023, the first Asian Cards and Sports Collection Exhibition was held in Macao, and IPIM President U Yu Sang said: "The sports industry is not only about hosting events, but also involves many peripheral products and new business formats. We hope to continue to promote the addition of new sports products, which can not only expand the opportunities for MICE negotiation, but also enrich the tourism program."
In the Plan, the main tasks for the development of Macao's sports industry even include "extending the content of sports events and peripheral activities, creating diversified sports products, especially encouraging the industry to design more diversified and rich sports training products for the youth and parent-child markets, strengthening the linkage between sports events and cultural and creative industries, and providing a platform for Macao's cultural and creative industries to conceive, design, display and sell related sports and cultural and creative products." ”
Actively exploring the new situation of sports products and embracing young people may be one of the core reasons why Macao's sports industry is optimistic. Coupled with the Greater Bay Area's facilitation policies for overseas capital and the many powerful sports-related companies in Guangdong Province, Macao is expected to carry the expectations of all parties and become an important center for sports industry exchanges in East Asia and the world.
Leaders are invited to gather in Macao to connect the world with sports
Taking advantage of the policy wind and the trend of sports, we will discuss the many possibilities of Chinese and foreign sports business in Macao. The "Greater Bay Area International Sports Business Summit" came into being, and the world-renowned Leaders Sports Business Summit will provide strategic support for the summit throughout the whole process and receive guests from all over the world.
We look forward to in-depth discussions with Chinese and foreign sports business elites in the fields of sports policy, professional sports, Gen Z consumers, sports marketing, and sports brands.
Sports is an international industry, and for Chinese sports, it may be that only by fully integrating into the exchange of world sports can we realize our bright expectations for the industry. On February 23-24, 2024, Let's connect the world through sports!