有件事我一直覺得很有意思：中國擁有如此多的露天體育場和大型體育館，但中國對主流體育運動的興趣卻很一般。這種情況直到最近幾年才有所改觀。的確，這個國家常年出產大批精英運動員，但體育作為主流娛樂產業卻是一個新的概念。
中國現有體育設施數量已經非常驚人，而新的體育設施仍在不斷被設計建造。為什么現有場館大多數時間無所作為卻在耗費資源？這種情況下新建再多體育基礎設施顯然都是徹頭徹尾的浪費。本文的目的在于提出場館管理存在的問題，或者說，場館管理在中國其實是缺失的。
關于體育地產的規劃、設計、管理和推廣等話題太過宏大，限于篇幅很難徹底講清，所以在這里暫且不談這類話題，我希望從體育IP投資和場館管理技巧開發的角度展開討論，為中國體育場館的商業發展獻言獻策，即使不說保證盈利，至少也應達到收支平衡。
▲ 伊麗莎白女王奧林匹克公園
放眼世界，美國和歐洲許多體育場館的商業運營都是很好的范例。運營者發掘出體育場館的全部潛力，通過多種渠道創造營收，其中有些渠道是體育相關的，而另一些則更多聚焦于商業、社會或零售行業。雖然體育場是為體育而建，但這并不意味著體育館的功能就只與體育相關。
足球體育場就是最經典的例子。以往，足球比賽可能每周僅有一到兩場，在沒有比賽的日子里，空空蕩蕩的看臺和比賽日才使用的設施仿佛失去了生命力。如今這種情況已經消失，隨便到一家小型職業足球俱樂部的足球場閑逛，你會發現里面熱鬧非凡，不同年齡、不同性別的人們都在使用足球體育場，但并不是在球場上踢球。這是為什么？原因在于足球俱樂部在通過提供球場清理、供暖和整理布置等服務創造營收。
小型足球俱樂部通常會租用會議室舉行商務會議或演講會；老年俱樂部或兒童俱樂部則每周來踢幾場比賽，把這里當做球隊的主場；周末，年輕的新婚夫婦可以選擇在這里舉行婚宴。生日聚會、結婚周年紀念日、同學聚會……體育場可以做的事情太多太多，而這其中都能找到可以帶來收入的項目。
但在中國，任何城市的體育場館至少有95%的時間都在閑置，但為了維持場館的安全和正常運轉，當地政府又不得不為之耗費大量資金。有使用體育館習慣的人，甚至僅僅是偶爾去體育館的人在當地總人口中的比例非常小。所有的一切都說明，中國的體育場館急需被注入活力。在北京這樣的體育場館有24座，上海有28座，這些無法自己自足的鋼筋水泥大家伙相當之多！
那么，政府或體育場館管理者們該怎么辦？中國的體育經濟生態諸多問題還未解決，迫使人們改變生活方式又不可能，更重要的是他們接觸到全新的場館管理模式也僅僅是最近幾年的事。所以，我的建議是，去海外買下體育場館！
之前我已經提到，歐洲和美國的體育基礎設施管理的非常好，中國商人為什么不對此進行投資呢？盈利模式已得到證明，而風險也相對較小，更重要的是，擁有海外體育場館會豐富管理層的場館運營技巧和經驗，這將為中國培育自己的體育IP做好準備。一家擁有海外體育場館的中國企業可以將部分管理人員安排進場館，向現有運營團隊模仿和學習，然后再將他們召回或安排定期輪值。
同時，海外場館管理團隊也可以被帶到中國管理特定項目，并使對接國際上的網絡供應商、運動隊、娛樂界以及服務提供商等等成為可能，而企業投資的海外場館也可以按原有方式運營。
▲ 某英國體育地產規劃圖
如果用一家適合海外投資的體育地產來舉例說明的話，目前在英國中部就有一家這樣的體育館，可以容納32500名觀眾，是一支英式橄欖球俱樂部和一支足球俱樂部的主場。除承載體育賽事外，這座體育設施還可以舉辦室內或室外演唱會，擁有121間房間供旅客住宿、6000平方米的會展空間、15000平方米的會議和宴會空間、4000席位的賭場、辦公間，甚至擁有自己的火車站。
這樣的基礎設施顯然在設計之初就被當作一個多功能體，但擁有基礎設施和通過運營基礎設施賺錢是兩件完全不同的事。如果這些運營經驗能夠走進中國，那么中國體育場館應該至少能實現收支平衡，同時對贊助商和體育娛樂組織產生更大的吸引力，以及，最重要的是，中國的普通老百姓能夠真正用好這些場館、在這里消費。
投資海外體育地產的商業邏輯對中國投資者來說可能沒那么容易理解，但我的建議是，投資者不需自己去運營體育場館，應讓現有的運營方繼續去運營，這是中國獲得場館運營專業能力最直接的方式。
作者簡介：Ken Grant 鴻俊，MSc, DipM, MCIM, Chartered Marketer
體育業內人士、投資人和觀察家；國際主席俱樂部(IPC)及亞英體育俱樂部(AASC)董事；The English Football League中國區官方商務開發代表。在足球、高爾夫、馬球等體育領域擁有廣泛的國際關系。
英文原文：
Its always been interesting to me that China has so many stadia and large sporting venues for a country that hasn’t really had much interest in mainstream sports until the last few years. Yes, the country has had elite sports men and woman for many years, but sport as a mainstream entertainment industry is a new concept.
The number of existing facilities is already huge, yet there are new one being designed and built very regularly; why when everyone of the existing ones sits there doing nothing most of the time and is actually costing money to sit idle, more idle sports infrastructure would appear to be a complete waste of money. My point is to raise the issue of venue management, or lack of it here in China.
The topics of sports venue planning, design, management and promotion is large and would take too long to touch the surface of, so I will not enter into them here, but I want to start the discussion related to investing in the IP and skill sets to turn China’s ‘white elephant’ stadiums into commercial businesses that break even at least, and ideally make money.
If I look around the world at the USA or Europe there are many great examples of stadiums and sports facilities being run as a business. By this I mean the operators sweat the assets and generate income from many channels across the facility; some will be sport related, but others will be business, social or retail focused. Just because a stadium is built with a primary sports focus, it doesn’t mean that that is all it can be.
The classic example is a football stadium. The football pitch maybe used once or twice per week in some cases otherwise the stands and the infrastructure necessary of a match day is lifeless. These days that isn’t the case if you were to visit a stadium of a small professional football club you will find it buzzing with people of all ages, sizes and sexes using the facilities, and you will not see a football all day. Why? Because football clubs are generating income from the facilities that are costing them money to clean, heat and decorate.
This small football club is likely to be renting meeting rooms to businesses for offsite meetings or presentations, clubs for the elderly or very young children maybe meeting a few days a week and using the club as their home, and at weekends young couples may chose to hold their wedding receptions within the stadium space. Birthday parties, wedding anniversary events, school reunions…….the list is endless and this is all brining money into the facilities and paying for it.
Compare this with China and if we visited any stadium in any city, it is likely to be sitting lifeless for 95% of the time at least, costing the local government money each year to pay for to keep it safe and functioning. The local people who use it or even just visit it will be a very small number and percentage of those in the district or city. Multiply this up across the country and there is a big herd of white elephants waiting to be slowly brought to life. In Beijing alone there are 24 venues like this and 28 in Shanghai, that's a lot of concrete not paying for itself!
So what can the government staff or their venue operators do about it? There is a big hole in the sports ecosystem in this and every other area, and it’s not possible to train people, and more importantly give them real life experiences of running this type of venue in just a few years. My suggestion is to buy it!
I have mentioned well managed sports facilities in Europe and the USA, so why don’t Chinese businesses invest in these venues that are making money, their risk is relatively low to do so, but more importantly they are buying access to the skills and experience of the staff that will enable IP to be transferred back to China. A Chinese entity that owned such a stadium could place some of its staff in the venue to shadow and learn from the existing operational team and bring them back or rotate them through on a regular basis.
Overseas staff could be brought to China to manage specific projects, connections into international networks of suppliers, sports teams, entertainers and service providers are all possible, and the asset that was invested in will still be operating as it did before.
To give an example of the type of venue that is a suitable investment opportunity, there is an arena in the middle of England which seats 32,500 people and is home to a rugby team and a football team. In addition to hosting sports matches, outdoor and indoor music concerts are held there, it has a 121 room hotel, 6000 sqm of exhibition and conference space, 15,000sqm of convention and banqueting space, a 4000 seat casino, office accommodation and its own railway station.
This facility was of course designed to be multifunctional from its inception, but having facilities and being able to sell them to make money are two different things. If these experience and skill set could ne mirrored in China we might see some of the countries sporting venues come closer to breaking even at least, and they would be more attractive for sponsors, sports and entertainment promoters and most importantly to the people who need to be there to spend the money; the general public.
The idea of owning a facility on the other side of the planet may not be easy to understand for a Chinese investor but my suggestion is not about running the facility yourself, the people doing it now can carry on doing it, but what it does do is to provide immediate access to the know how and expertise that China so badly misses.
聲明：文中觀點僅代表作者本人觀點，不代表懶熊體育。
