China is most popular destination for sports events

[Pakchina]

China is the number one venue for major sporting events but Russia is set to overtake it in 2013, sports analysts said yesterday.

Taking into account nearly 700 world championships and global sports events between 2007 and 2018 and weighing up their impact for host nations, researchers Sportcal found that China was far and away the most attractive home nation in 2012.

But that is to change from 2013 as Russia prepares to play host to no less than six global sports festivals in the next six years, Sportcal said, citing the Winter Olympics in 2014 and the FIFA World Cup in 2018.

China's golden period for sport dates back to 2008, when it hosted the Olympic Games in Beijing. But since then it also attracted other premier events including the Asian Games in 2010 and the Summer Universiade in 2011.

Looking ahead, China is to host the Youth Olympic Games in 2014 and the World Athletic Championships in 2015, and it will have hosted the highest number of individual world championships between 2007 and 2018, Sportcal said.

In second place - but almost 20,000 points behind China in the first Global Sports Impact index - Britain got a boost from hosting the 2012 Olympics in London, scoring 39,393 points.


China is most popular destination for events - China.org.cn

 

[Solomon2]

While I lean towards being pro-China, I won't go to China for sports events. I recall that back in the 1980s Saudi Arabia beat China in an important soccer match and the Chinese rioted, attacking foreigners in their cars in the streets. Western news reports made it clear that the Chinese police joined in on the side of the rioters.

Russia has its faults but at least its police don't beat foreigners when the Russian team loses.

 

[jhungary]

DO NOT PUT SPORT AS A CHIP FOR NATIONAL BICKERING, THANKS

 

[Fsjal]

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was one of, if not, the best.