December 30 – China’s drive to boost its sports business and make it a key part of its economy was given renewed emphasis this week by the country’s sports minister, Liu Peng (pictured). At the same time the Dalian Wanda Group that has been growing in sports via European acquisition announced it had set up its sports headquarters in Guangzhou, the Capital of Guangdong province.
Speaking at a conference Peng said that the Chinese sports sector was worth 1.357471 trillion yuan in 2014.
“As the business scale of the Chinese sports industry has grown, sports-related consumption has increased significantly. China achieved a 1.357471 trillion yuan sports industry in 2014, accounting for 0.64% of GDP with an added value of RMB404.098 billion. As the structure of the sports industry improves, the integration between sports and culture, tourism, health care, and the Internet will deepen.”
China’s sports industry is expected to account for 0.7% of GDP in 2015, a growth of another 400 billion yuan on 2014. Growth is expected to hit more than 3 trillion yuan in 2020, while central government has projected a 5 trillion target for its sports industry by 2025 in a reform plan issued last October.
Several local governments have outlined their individual projections for the industry, which add up to 7 trillion yuan ($1.08 trillion) by 2025, 2 trillion more than the central government’s 5 trillion target.
Dalian waves its magic Wanda
China’s most acquisitive sports group Wanda Sports, owned by Dalian Wanda, has set up its sports HQ in Guangzhou, which chairman Wang Jianlin says provides “geographic advantages and rich sports heritage. We will achieve rapid growth by virtue of the good investment climate in Guangzhou and we are planning to bring two major international sports events to Guangzhou in the next three years, making Guangzhou the ‘sports centre’ of China.”
Wanda Sports was set up with two companies, Infront Sports & Media and the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), being merged into one sports unit with registered capital of one billion yuan ($151.1 million).
Wang’s growth plan is aggressive, saying: “We plan to keep merging and adding new content to our sports branch. Wanda Sports aims to become the world’s most profitable sports company and the first sports company with an annual income of more than $10 billion.”
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