Xinhua News Agency, Guiyang, August 7th Issue: watch the road of “marketization” of rural basketball matches from a small mountain village

Xinhua News Agency reporter Luo Yu

The total bonus exceeds 200000 yuan; The participating players include CBA, NBL retired and active athletes; The highest number of offline and online players is more than 5,000 and more than 50000 respectively…… This is a portrayal of a rural Basketball match held independently in a small mountain village called Datun in central Guizhou province recently.

Along with this summer, there are also country basketball in Guizhou. This year, Datun village has embarked on a differentiated and market-oriented road through measures such as increasing the bonus quota, setting up a “foreign aid” system, implementing offline ticket sales and online paid viewing, A “basketball storm” was set off “.

The Village “basketball storm”

“The competition has set up one to six prizes, with the total bonus exceeding 200000 yuan, among which the winning, Asian and third place prizes are 100000 yuan, 60000 yuan and 30000 yuan.” In 2022, Zhu Qinsong, chairman of the organizing committee of the national fitness “rural revitalization” Cup basketball game in Datun village, introduced that this was the highest prize in the history of Datun village basketball game.

Datun, a small mountain village located in Leping town, Pingba district, Anshun city, Guizhou province, has 625 villagers and 2136 people. In recent years, Datun village has been on the Internet due to the continuous holding of high-level Country basketball matches.

Zhu Qinsong introduced that Datun village implemented the system of “3+2 (3 players in the province and 2 foreign aid outside the province) under the condition of increasing the bonus quota this year, it attracted 28 participating teams from Guizhou cities and states, including retired and active athletes from CBA, NBL, CUBA and other leagues.

Dong Jian, a player of NBL Shaanxi Xinda team, is one of the “foreign aid” of the participating teams in “three points”. His team won the runner-up by 3 points in the finals on August 5. “I played six games before and after, and I felt that the competition level of the basketball game in Datun village was quite high.” He said that the audience was also very enthusiastic, especially at the final site, where the venue was full. More than 5,000 spectators cheered at the same time and the atmosphere was warm.

“In the past, when it was still an open-air stadium, the number of people watching the game was the highest.” Zhu Qinsong said that after Datun village transformed the stadium into a closed stadium this year, the average number of people watching the game every night has been about 3,000 since the start of the game on July 18. Xue Guoqiang, a villager who was nearly 80 years old, hardly fell in every game. “The game is played at 8 o’clock every night, and I come to occupy the seat at about 7 o’clock every night.” He said, “the player has a high level and the game is very good.”

Behind the “cultural tradition”

“basketball match is an important content of rural activities in Guizhou and has become a cultural tradition.” Zhu Yuchang, a 63-year-old villager, introduced that taking Datun village as an example, basketball matches began to be held in the local area as early as the 1950 s. In the 1980 s, the matches were changed to be held every four years in the Spring Festival, called “championships”; in recent years, it has been held in summer and autumn every year.

“The prize has been increasing from the earliest sportswear, bicycles, televisions, motorcycles to the current cash.” Zhu Yuchang said.

Zhu Yuchang introduced that the village has rebuilt, transformed and upgraded the basketball field many times. “The wooden backboard used to play in the mud was very enthusiastic although the conditions were poor.” He said that today’s basketball hall has been built and perfected successively through village fund raising, Eastern and Western cooperative fund support, and has installed specialized system equipment such as lighting, cooling system, timer and scoring display screen, “The constantly improving hardware level has laid a solid foundation for the development of basketball matches”.

Jing Qiwei, the group director of Guizhou Sports Bureau, said that it was the same as the semi-final of Guizhou beautiful country basketball league in southeast Guizhou, which ended in Taiwan Town, Taijiang county Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture a few days ago, whether it was the government setting up the stage, the masses singing, or the masses setting up the stage, behind the fire of self-singing and country basketball matches is the unremitting pursuit of a better life by the masses.

Behind this, we cannot do without the unremitting efforts of governments at all levels.

It is reported that in 2006, the peasant sports fitness project officially launched by the State General Administration of Sports and other departments took the administrative village as the main implementation object, and the basic construction included a concrete standard basketball court. At the end of 2020, Guizhou achieved full coverage of 15168 administrative villages in the province, creating conditions for the rural competition.

Professional + market to promote the sustainable development of the competition

with hardware support, strong software support is also needed.

Liu Zhenzheng, the first secretary of Datun village in the village, said that holding a rural basketball game is a test of the organization ability, economic ability and professional level of a place. “only by applying for government funds or raising funds in the village, it is difficult to maintain the competition for a long time; Lack of organization and coordination ability, and the operation of the competition is prone to internal and external problems; Without professional level, it is impossible to deal with the disputes that may occur in the competition……”

In order to solve these problems, since this year, Datun village has tried to take a market-oriented basketball game Operation path: set up a basketball operation company to be responsible for offline ticket sales and online paid viewing; Hire professional security, referee, medical and other teams; The organizing committee and logistics team will be set up to build a professional management and organizational structure for the operation of rural basketball matches.

“The implementation of offline tickets and online paid viewing is to balance the cost of the event.” Zhu Qinli, executive director of village-level cooperatives in Datun village, introduced that the annual cost of the Datun basketball game is as high as 100,000 yuan, all of which are funded by the village, and the pressure is not small. After the market-oriented reform, offline tickets and online payment revenue have achieved cost coverage, resulting in some benefits and promoting the sustainable development of the event.

At the same time, professional referees and other teams ensure the fairness and justice of the competition. “Today’s country basketball game is not only an entertainment event, but also a competitive one. Only when a professional team takes a seat can the event dispute be resolved.” Zhu Qisong said, “only when the game is fair and just can it have long-term vitality.”