CAA China, the Chinese arm of the CAA sports and entertainment agency, has been brought in to add its venue management expertise to the running of Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center ahead of the Chinese city’s staging of the 2022 Asian Games.
CAA China has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the owners of the complex, which includes the 80,000-seat ‘Big Lotus’ main stadium and 10,000-seat ‘Small Lotus’ tennis centre as its main attractions, along with a 10,000-seat aquatics centre.
SportBusiness.com said the deal with Hangzhou Xiaoshan Asian Games Stadium Investment and Construction, a subsidiary of the China Construction Eighth Engineering Division, sees the two parties cooperate in the fields of project investment; design and construction; operation and business consulting; venue commercialisation; and special cultural and sports projects.
In October, it was reported that the Alibaba Sports division of Chinese technology giant Alibaba had sealed a 15-year contract to operate and manage Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center.
The contract was rubber-stamped after Alibaba Sports initially won the bid for the project in November 2020, with the complex set to serve as the main element of Hangzhou’s staging of the 2022 Asian Games.
The complex first opened its doors in December 2018. Chinese media outlet Lanxiong Sports said Alibaba Sports’ self-developed smart management, operations and service system for the digital operations of venues would be completed and put into use before the end of 2021.
The event service management platform adapted to the major Asian Games venues will also be launched before the multi-sport event takes place from September 10-25. Alibaba signed up as an official partner of Hangzhou 2022 in December 2019.
Hangzhou authorities this month announced that redevelopment work on the Yellow Dragon Sports Center had been completed following a two-year renovation programme. The complex is located 18km from the Asian Games Village and was first developed between 1997 and 2003, with the main stadium opening in 2000.
In its new guise, the complex will comprise a 52,000-seat stadium with an athletics track, a 6,000-seat arena and a 2,000-seat aquatics centre. The stadium will be one of the football venues for the Asian Games, with the arena hosting gymnastics and the swimming/diving centre staging water polo.
Image: Charlie fong/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size
