Alibaba Sports at the wheel of Hangzhou venue

Article posted by Coliseum, November 3^rd, 2021

Image: NBBJ

Alibaba Sports (China) announced recently that after winning the bid for the project in November last year, the company has completed the signing of the entrustment agreement to secure the operation and management rights of the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center in Hangzhou, China, which includes the main stadium and the tennis center for 15 years.

‘Lanxiongsports’ stated that the main stadium and tennis center of Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center, which has been termed the ‘Big and Small Lotus’ venues by Hangzhou citizens, sits in the Hangzhou High-tech Zone (Binjiang).

The Alibaba Sports Group aims to transform the China sports industry through the use of Internet-based technologies to bring greater and better products and services to consumers, sports participants and sports fans alike.

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The Hangzhou Sports Park or Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center is a multiuse sports complex in Hangzhou, China. It was completed in 2018 and it is used mostly for soccer matches. The main stadium was designed to hold 80,000 spectators.

‘Lanxiongsports’ further stated that the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center has hosted international competitions such as the 2018 World Short Swimming Championships. The ‘Big Lotus’, as the main venue of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the sporting extravaganza. The 35^th Hangzhou Marathon – exclusively operated by Alibaba Sports – will also be held at the main stadium of the Asian Games venue ‘Big Lotus’ for the first time.

The 2022 Asian Games, also known as XIX Asiad, will be a multisport event to be held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China from September 10^th to September 25^th, 2022. Hangzhou will be the third Chinese City to host the Asian Games, after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

Alibaba Sports CEO Mu Yang said that taking into consideration the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games, the company will fully cooperate with relevant departments in the safe organisation of the Asian Games, the Asian Paralympic Games and a series of activities involving the Asian Games.

Added Yang, “Alibaba Sports plans to combine the existing infrastructure of the venues and use 5G, Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT), big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital twins and other new-generation information technologies to connect the data resources of the ‘Lotus Stadia’ and surrounding areas to form a low-carbon, efficient, intelligent, and convenient new pattern, providing digital support for venue operations, urban transportation, local service, and other dispatching during the event, and guaranteeing the service for the ‘digital smart’ Asian Games, helping Hangzhou to host a ‘Green and smart’ Asian Games.”

Alibaba Sports’ self-developed smart management, operation and service system for the digital operation of venues will be completed and put into use within this year.

Alibaba Sports has obtained the operation and management rights of ‘Lotus and Lotus’ for 15 years. The goal is to leverage its own domestic and foreign connections and ecological resources.

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