Risks, Challenges and Strategies of the Creation of China’s “City of Events”– A Case Study of Hangzhou

Abstract

From 2007, when Jinjiang proposed to build “China’s first sports city”, to the successful hosting of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, an increasing number of first-tier cities have regarded sports events as an important strategic layout for urban development. The construction of the “city of events” is proposed by the first-tier cities in China based on the national development strategy, serving the demands of the times for urban development, people’s livelihood and well-being, economic growth and window display. Based on literature, expert interviews and case studies, the article analyzes the current situation of Hangzhou as one of the first “city of events” in Zhejiang Province, existing predicaments and potential risks, strategies and paths for risk aversion, and the risks and challenges of Hangzhou in creating a “city of events”. The results show that there are risks such as lack of culture, imbalance of profit and loss, and lack of core strength in the creation of “city of events”, and it is necessary to focus on multi-dimensional efforts such as sports characteristic positioning, professional events and mass sports cultivation to realize the differential order development pattern of sports events integrating urban characteristics, and thus deduce the action logic of the creation of “city of events”. Diverse urban culture determines the difference in the development orientation of sports cities, and the idea of synergy, profit and loss balance, risk avoidance, and facing the future with a more positive outlook is the meaning and inevitable way of the creation of the domestic “city of events”.