Beijing and Shanghai among world's top 100 sports cities
Beijing and Shanghai are among the world's top 100 cities in sports tradition and influence of international events.
The "2023 Global Sports Cities Index" was recently released by Shanghai University of Sport and The International Association of Sports Economists with intellectual support from an expert committee consisting of scholars and industry experts from countries like the US, Britain, France and Germany.
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London, Los Angeles and New York are the top three cities in the standing, followed by Tokyo, Paris and Doha.
Beijing has climbed to 13th from last year's 31st, while Shanghai dropped nine places to 47th.
The Index is evaluated based on four criteria: historical achievements in the development of professional sports; the influence of top international events and brand events held in 2022; the media communication power that sports brings to cities; and top professional sports clubs' performance in the 2021-22 season.
Shanghai sports officials and experts from The International Association of Sports Economists unveil the "2023 Global Sports Cities Index".
Beijing hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 2022, performing well in terms of the influence of sports events. Shanghai had to cancel a large number of sports activities due to the pandemic, which lead to weak performance in terms of sports event and media influence.
According to Shanghai University of Sport professor Liu Dongfeng, the top-ranked cities in the index share similarities such as highly developed professional sports industries, influential world-class sports competitions and brands, as well as famous sports clubs and powerful sports media.
Recovering from the pandemic, Shanghai organized more than 100 large-scale sports events in 2023, including the Shanghai Marathon on Sunday.
"The socialization and industrialization of sport is the fundamental way for the construction of sports cities," said Liu. "Hosting world-class events is the most direct and efficient way to raise the influence of a sports city."
Shanghai University of Sport and The International Association of Sports Economists also released a 2023 Mainland China Sports Cities Index. Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou top the ranking, and are followed by Guangzhou, Jinan and Chengdu.
The China index applied similar criteria, and added public sport influence into consideration.
