Foshan s "La Liga": Exploring mass sports to help the "Hundred and Tens of Millions of Projects"

Yangcheng Evening News reporter Li Tingting

In July this year, a top football event for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area - the 19th Foshan "La Liga" will be held at Yunxiushan Stadium. It is expected that 40 teams will participate, and the last 100 events will attract more than 2 million people to watch the game.

When talking about Foshan's "La Liga", the cheers of thousands of spectators were still in their ears. This grassroots football league, which originated in the southwest street of Sanshui District, Foshan, has been continuously making efforts in recent years, promoting the vigorous development of local mass sports, bringing more "retention" of cultural and tourism consumption, and has grown into a phenomenal sports IP in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, becoming an innovative practice sample of Foshan Sanshui's use of mass sports to help the "Hundred and Tens of Millions of Projects".

"Small football" turns "big industry"

In 2002, the first Sanshui District Football League was held. It is called "La Liga" because it was held in the southwest street. In recent years, Foshan's "La Liga" has become more and more popular. Every final can cause a craze of people. It has been selected into the first batch of high-quality competition cases for the "three major balls" of the masses in the country, forming a brand effect of "Guizhou has 'village super' and Guangdong has 'La Liga'".

From July to August 2024, the holding of Foshan's "La Liga" attracted 32 teams and invitational teams in the Greater Bay Area, with a total of more than 1.46 million viewers and a total media traffic of more than 4.3 billion. Foshan's "La Liga" has become a phenomenal sports IP in the Greater Bay Area and continues to advance to the "top stream" of national grassroots football events.

Trade changes to "retaining volume" and attracting popularity to "wealth". Foshan's "La Liga" is not only a sports event in the Greater Bay Area, but also brings a large number of people to the local area, leverages the growth of cultural and tourism consumption, and makes the "La Liga" beer square and Jiangbiancang around the stadium both have a good harvest of popularity and wealth.

According to statistics, during the 2024 event, the turnover of the catering industry around the stadium increased by about 20% year-on-year; the turnover of the accommodation industry in the central urban area increased by about 15% year-on-year, and the number of tourists received in major scenic spots increased by 25% month-on-month.

What is noticeable is that Foshan's "La Liga" has gradually grown into a heavyweight brand event and has become a "golden business card" for industrial investment. Companies such as Besen Coconut Milk and Zhejiang Chuanhua Group "build their nests" in Sanshui due to the competition, of which Besen's project is expected to produce 1 billion yuan.

The district sports parks are fully covered, and there are events every week and events every month. At present, Foshan's "La Liga" has built a second-level league in town competitions, village competitions, and enterprise competitions, as well as a third-level league covering the youth group, adult group, and year group, achieving uninterrupted "La Liga" competitions throughout the year and fully stimulating the vitality of grassroots.

In the in-depth implementation of the "Hundred and Tens of Millions Project", Sanshui relies on Foshan's "La Liga" mass sports events, taking the extension and sinking of the event as an opportunity to add comprehensive sports venues, various venues and fitness equipment to accelerate the improvement of the public service system for national fitness. At present, Sanshui District has built 159 football fields, with per capita football fields reaching 18 yuan per 10,000 people, far exceeding the national average. In addition, 72 community sports parks in the district have achieved full coverage and promoted the equalization of urban and rural public sports services.

Sanshui also actively promotes urban and rural infrastructure construction and style improvement with the competition, supports the completion of the renovation of Yunxiushan Stadium and surrounding supporting facilities projects, connects Yunxiushan Stadium, Beijiang Dike, Caulis Street Cultural District, Beer Square, and Jiangbian Warehouse, and creates a "La Liga" pedestrian street to form a continuous comprehensive consumption area for cultural, tourism and sports.

At present, Sanshui will focus on implementing the three-year action plan for high-quality football development, deepen the development and reform of Sanshui football, build a standardized football venue system of "one center and three areas", continue to polish Foshan's "La Liga" football event brand, prosper the sports and cultural industry, and continue to explore the Sanshui path and sample experience that helps the "Hundred and Tens of Millions of Projects" with the high-quality development of football.