Nike Festival of Sports: Let's play 'hunt the athlete'
Surprisingly, when we are only six days from the festival, only very little details have been confirmed for this across-the-board sports event.
Organized by Nike, Festival of Sports is promoted as a comprehensive event, aiming to “encourage Shanghai youths to use sports to change their life”.
According to Nike China, the four-day festival will present competitions, training courses, games and performance shows in basketball, football, jogging, extreme sports, tennis, golf and mixed martial arts. And attendance at all the events is free.
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In fact, the festival is so broad in scope that it is reported to be “the most comprehensive sporting event China has seen since the 2008 Summer Olympics”.
Where to meet the stars?
Shanghai-born hurdler Liu Xiang (刘翔), NBA star LeBron James and U.S. skateboarder Paul Rodriguez have confirmed they will attend the opening ceremony of Festival of Sports at 8 p.m. on August 18.
According to a staffer at the communications department of Nike China -- who preferred not to be named or directly quoted -- anyone who wishes to attend the opening ceremony can just show up and watch for free.
Good as this all sounds, but when we were trying to get more details for Shanghai sports fans -- like what they can expect from the festival and how they can meet their icons -- things became iffy.
Fans of Liu, James and Rodriguez might need to start practicing jogging as they are likely to have to bounce between Shanghai Stadium and Shanghai Indoor Stadium to find exactly where the opening ceremony is taking place.
We were first told that the opening ceremony would be held at Shanghai Stadium, a 80,000-seat outdoor stadium. It was later changed to the “outer-ring of Shanghai Stadium” or possibly the “outer-ring of Shanghai Indoor Stadium” without more specific directions.
Although the two facilities stand next to each other, they cover nearly 192,000 square meters fans will have to search around, which is something of a worry.
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Other (uncertain) highlights
“Surprising concerts” are also planned for every night during the festival, according to Nike, but when and where people can go to see them, what type of music will there be and who will sing, remains unknown.
One thing has been confirmed: tickets for these mystifying concerts can be obtained by participating in free sporting events during Nike Festival of Sports.
And the men's basketball game Georgetown and Ba Yi (八一男篮) takes place on August. 21.
Here are some of the other highlights -- according to the press release. All of them will take place in Shanghai Indoor Stadium from 3 p.m.-9 p.m.
- Nike Tournament of Champions, a series of basketball games for Chinese amateur basketball teams with LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire and Kyrie Irving as guest stars
- Amateur football games Nike Cup Final
- Running competitions
- The final of the skateboard circuit Nike City Jam Series 2011 with Paul Rodriguez, Eric Koston, Shane O’Neill, Omar Salazar and Theotis Beasley as the judges
- Mixed martial arts show and free training
We'll be sure to post more details as soon as we hear of them.
Chinese sports market
As Shanghai’s new sports landmark, Shanghai Stadium Basketball Park is located within the Shanghai Indoor Stadium complex and was unveiled on August 3.
Renovated by Nike, the park will be a permanent sporting venue for Shanghai and is expected to receive 400,000 sports fans every year.
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While the investment in Shanghai Stadium Basketball Park and the Festival of Sports could be heavy on Nike’s side, the multinational brand is also pleasing an enormous sports market.
Sohu Sports reported that China’s sports industry output has reached a total of RMB 200 billion in 2010, 80 percent of which comes from the sale of sports gears.
Nike Festival of Sports, 3 p.m.-9 p.m., August. 18-21, Shanghai Stadium, 666 Tianyaoqiao Lu, near Lingling Lu, 天钥桥路666号，近零陵路, + 86 21 6438 5200
