Alibaba Sports secures 15-year operation and management contract for Hangzhou Asian Games venues

The Alibaba Sports division of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba has secured a 15-year contract to operate and manage the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre/Hangzhou Sports Park.
Set to be the centrepiece of the 2022 Asian Games, the Sports Park’s centrepiece venues are the 80,000-seat ‘Big Lotus’ main stadium and 10,000-seat ‘Small Lotus’ tennis centre.
Announced yesterday (28th October), after winning the bid for the project in November last year, Alibaba Sports will also managed the Sports Park’s supporting buildings, equipment and facilities.
According to Chinese media outlet Lanxiong Sports, Alibaba Sports will now install its self-developed smart management, operations and service system for the digital operations of venues into the Sports Park before the end of the year.
The event service management platform adapted to the two major Asian Games venues will also be launched before the 2022 Asian Games takes place in September next year.
Announcing this development, Alibaba Sports Chief Executive, Mu Yang stated “Alibaba Sports plans to combine the existing infrastructure of the venues.
“We will use 5G, AR/VR, IoT, big data, AI artificial intelligence, digital twins and other new-generation information technologies to connect the data resources of the large and small lotus and surrounding areas to form a low-carbon, efficient, intelligent, and convenient new pattern to provide digital support for venue operations, urban transportation, local services and other dispatches during the event, to ensure the ‘digital wisdom’ Asian Games, and help Hangzhou to host a ‘green, intelligent, thrifty, and civilised’ Asian Games.”
In June, it was announced that next year’s Asian Games will be the testing ground for a new Huawei 5G network that will be piloted at the ‘Big Lotus’ Hangzhou Olympic Sports Park Stadium after it was verified by China Mobile.
Alibaba is already an official partner of Hangzhou 2022.
Image: The Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre/Hangzhou Sports Park.
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