A 18000 seat basketball center is rising in Zhuji, a county-level city in the north central Zhejiang Province. With the pouring of reinforced concrete, it is the ambition of this small city about basketball.
There are about 500 more than Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, not less than Shanghai Mercedes Benz Cultural Center Gymnasium and Beijing Cadillac Center Gymnasium. Zhuji Basketball Center under construction is currently the largest single basketball center in Zhejiang Province and the top ten basketball centers in China in overall scale. The venues planned to be delivered for use in June 2025 are sufficient to meet the needs of hosting top level events such as the FIBA Basketball World Cup and the NBA China Tournament.
In fact, Zhuji has no shortage of basketball courts, and even holds the Guinness record of the Shanghai Grand World for "county-level cities with the most standard basketball courts" with the data of "2251 pieces". However, when "basketball is also a productivity", a basketball center is not a landmark for icing on the cake, but to polish the confidence and ambition of the city brand.
According to the textual research of Zhuji County Annals, before 1911, the new school opened basketball classes, making Zhuji one of the earliest places to carry out basketball in China. In the fifties and sixties of the 20th century, basketball rose widely in the county, and the unprecedented grand occasion of "playing with mud feet and watching with bare feet" appeared. It became a fashion for villagers to raise funds to hold games spontaneously.
After the reform and opening up, Zhuji adheres to the concept of "more courts, less casinos", and the construction of basketball courts has ushered in a period of rapid development. Through the government led, hospital and local co construction, village collective joint construction and joint operation, enterprises, and township elites funded construction, the basketball courts are all over Zhuji and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The arrival of CBA made the outside world see the "hometown of Zhejiang basketball". As the home city of the former Zhejiang Wanma Basketball Team and Zhejiang Guangsha Basketball Team, Zhuji has hosted nearly 900 CBA events since 2018. Since then, in addition to the "City of Socks" and "Hometown of Xi Shi", "the only county-level city that also hosts CBA full season events and all star weekends" has also been printed into the city card.
After hosting CBA league matches for three consecutive seasons, in 2023, Zhuji will integrate grassroots event resources, launch the first Zhuji Village BA, a large-scale national basketball game with the village as the unit, and attract nearly 4000 people from 281 teams in 23 towns and streets to sign up for 681 matches. The second village BA was unveiled at the beginning of this month, with 311 village (community) teams playing nearly 800 games.
"It can be seen that Zhuji people's love for basketball is engraved in their genes." Yao Ming, president of the China Basketball Association, said that we can not simply use a basketball game to evaluate the village BA. "In Zhuji, basketball is a competitive sport, a mass culture, and a spiritual home.".
"There is no higher goal than the championship. Last year we were champions, and this year we will definitely fight for the championship." He Weili, a member of the team of Kuangting Village, Anhua Town, Zhuji City, works in Hangzhou at ordinary times, and specially goes back to his hometown for the competition. "The team members who come back as far as Shanghai and Qingdao must also win glory for their own village."
According to Huang Shenghua, the chairman of Zhuji Basketball Association, the hometown feeling pinned on basketball must be guaranteed by a perfect and fair competition mechanism. According to the rules, "Village BA" cannot invite foreign aid, and must be a villager who is originally from the village or whose registered permanent residence (including affiliated registered permanent residence) is in the village. They worked in agriculture, labor and business during the day. In the evening, when they changed their uniforms and put on their shoes, they went on to play.
Recently, the opening battle of the BA in Anhua Town started. The members of the two teams came from all walks of life, including the director of the printing factory, middle school teachers, employees of the bullet train station, people's mediators of the court, self-employed people, college students, and so on. Young voices such as "Come on, Dad" and "Come on, Uncle" were often heard in the cheers of the audience. The identities of the players are different off the court, but when they decide to play, they have to work hard to become "the pride of the villagers".
The tense relations among villagers, village communities, cadres and the masses are relieved because of basketball.
According to Yang Binbin, Deputy Secretary General of Zhuji Village BA Competition Organizing Committee, the smooth progress of Zhuji power grid UHV construction project is related to a basketball friendly match between Zhuji Power Supply Company of the State Grid and Daolinshan Village. In the early preparation process, the project encountered a problem - according to the plan, the construction of the substation requires the relocation of multiple graves in the land, which is difficult for the villagers to compromise. After the ball game appeared, the emotion was released, the trust was established, the truth had a home, and the problem was solved. Since then, the basketball friendly game between the two sides has become a regular event.
In addition to emotional value, basketball also brings visible economic value. Since May 1 last year, the "Village BA" has been competing in Anhua Town, Zhuji for 8 consecutive days, and the traffic volume of the local food street has doubled every night than usual. The village BA and other activities were held to light the fireworks in Anhua at night. According to the data, in 2023, there will be more than 100 night snack shops in Anhua Town after two o'clock in the morning, with an average daily passenger flow of nearly 30000 person times, of which 60% will be in other towns and markets, with an average household income of more than 350000 yuan, driving nearly 3000 people to start businesses and obtain employment.
As one of the venues for the BA in Zhuji Village, the original construction goal of Wuxie Town Cultural and Sports Center was aimed at "common prosperity". Jiang Guohui, secretary and director of the Party Committee of Wuxie Community, Wuxie Town, said that the Cultural and Sports Center was jointly built by Wuxie Community with five surrounding villages. It was completed and put into use in October 2021. The appearance of the venue not only provided a place for people to exercise and relax, but also changed the local "path to wealth" due to the arrival of village events such as BA.
"Without business type, it is difficult for the village to create operating income, but sports+tourism has changed this situation." Jiang Guohui said that the economic development of "sports events" has achieved remarkable results. By the end of 2023, the Sports Center has hosted more than 50 provincial and municipal sports events at all levels, introduced more than 130000 people, and added more than 1 million yuan to the collective economy of the village, It will increase the income of each household in the surrounding rural areas by 40000 yuan.
In addition, local prizes such as "Anhua Big Yellow Cattle", "Baita Lake Goose", "Caota Mutton", "Ruanshi Fried Goods", "Tongshan Roast" and so on have filled the village BA with nostalgia. The village BA has also become a display platform for Zhuji's characteristic industrial elements, such as pearls, socks, copper, towels, etc., and is waiting for "breaking the circle" with the help of live broadcast and short video.
Huang Weifei, a 36 year old villager in Huangshan Town, became an online basketball anchor after saying goodbye to basketball due to injury. "My father is the main player of the village basketball team, and I can't let go of basketball". At first, a village basketball game was broadcast live to "hundreds of people watching", but since the launch of the village BA last year, the number of viewers has soared, "In the past, there were only three or four people engaged in live broadcast, but now there are thirty or forty people against me in a game."
"In the atmosphere where the whole people love basketball, teenagers are the beneficiaries, and it is easy to get support from families and society to participate in basketball." Chen Chuming, director of Zhuji Municipal Bureau of Education and Sports, said that at present, there are nine national youth basketball characteristic schools in Zhuji, nearly 30 youth basketball training or training institutions in total, and the number of students in each institution is basically 100-200, It covers students from kindergarten to high school. On this basis, there are also highlights in the campus basketball and competitive talent transfer. "In the 17th Middle School Basketball League, Huansha Junior High School and Caotah Senior High School reached the finals with all wins. Excellent young players such as Wan Jiyuan and Hu Jinqiu also came from Zhuji".
High quality events and venue resources are placed in schools. Jiyang Sports Center of Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University is one of the venues for the BA in Zhuji Village, and was once the venue for the CBA League and the All Star Game. Zhang Jianqing, the person in charge of the venue, said that the venue can not only provide students with a high-quality sports teaching and sports environment, but also provide them with opportunities for voluntary services and close watching of the games, "creating a strong sports culture atmosphere".
In the stadium that once hosted the CBA game, the player posters of Zhejiang Guangsha Club were hung above, and the slogan of "local flavor" of the BA of Zhuji Village was hung below: "Be bold, don't believe three times, try it", "Be hard, the stone slab is pure black", "Dude, take out of the small cloth shirt". Yang Binbin said that the three proverbs respectively expressed Zhuji people's spiritual characteristics of never giving up, being pragmatic, and being generous and responsible, regardless of their entrepreneurship or basketball spirit. In his opinion, the current excitement of the BA in Zhuji Village not only needs to be sustained, but also needs to further "break the circle". With the help of the event platform, "the output of local culture is more worth looking forward to than the output of local tourism".
Zhuji, our newspaper, April 22
Liang Xuan, reporter of China Youth Daily, China Youth Network Source: China Youth Daily
