This year's Beijing Municipal Government Work Report called for the deep integration of culture, commerce, tourism, sports, and exhibitions, aiming to extend the supply chain of consumption driven by large-scale events. Sporting events are seen as a powerful engine for enhancing urban functions and upgrading industries, as they efficiently connect diverse needs including cultural experiences, commercial consumption, tourism, and sports participation. The Beijing Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association believes that Beijing possesses a solid foundation for developing a sports event economy, with significant potential in event operations, seasonal systems, public participation, and regional coordination. It recommends elevating the strategic role of the event economy within Beijing's new development framework, particularly by establishing mass-participation events as the cornerstone of the capital's event supply. The proposal includes creating a five-tier league system spanning "municipal-district-street-community-campus" levels, transforming events from occasional occurrences into accessible, consumable daily activities.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Beijing has achieved notable success in deeply integrating mass sports, competitive sports, and sports consumption, resulting in a stable foundation and enhanced momentum for the sports event economy. Following the Winter Olympics, Yanqing and Shijingshan districts have recorded over 3 million participations in new ice and snow sports activities, boosting the development of the winter sports economy. In 2024, the scale of Beijing's sports industry surpassed 220 billion yuan, with sectors such as events, fitness, and training leading the growth rate. In 2025, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Unleashing Sports Consumption Potential and Further Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Sports Industry," providing Beijing—the world's only "Dual Olympic City"—with valuable opportunities and broader space for development.
The Beijing Committee of the China National Democratic Construction Association suggests using venues as hubs, extending industrial chains, promoting the introduction of top-tier events while cultivating homegrown brands, optimizing spatial layouts, enhancing community involvement, and improving support systems. These pathways are intended to guide the capital's event economy during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, transitioning from a "resource-based" to an "institution-based" model and from a "single-point" to a "systematic" approach. It recommends leveraging the ripple effects of premier events by attracting world-class competitions that can be permanently hosted in Beijing, while simultaneously developing self-owned flagship events. A unified plan should be created to generate synergistic effects among events, tourism, and exhibitions.
By establishing uniform rules and a seasonal system, a matrix of city event IPs can be built, including the creation of a Beijing Event IP repository to incubate key branded events. Mass-participation events should form the foundation of the capital's event supply, with the establishment of a five-tier league system covering municipal, district, street, community, and campus levels. At the municipal level, brands such as mass football and community basketball should be developed; districts and streets should implement points-based systems with promotion and relegation; communities should promote regular weekend competitions; and campus events should be incorporated into the sports season. Adhering to an all-ages-friendly approach, events like the "Silver Cup" for seniors, parent-child sports days, and night runs and cycling events should be introduced, and linked with health stations and community hospitals.
Exploring mechanisms such as event consumption vouchers, family sports packages, and public welfare funds can guide social forces to participate, expanding coverage and enhancing the public's sense of benefit. Additionally, efforts should be made to enhance the regional carrying capacity and spillover effects of the event economy. Differentiated layouts should be implemented based on regional functions: for example, Yanqing can leverage its Winter Olympics legacy to develop ice, snow, and outdoor events; Tongzhou can utilize its role as a sub-administrative center and the Beijing-Tianjin corridor to host road running and cycling events; Mentougou and Shijingshan can focus on developing mountain events like越野, rock climbing, and cycling; and Daxing and Fangshan, capitalizing on Beijing-Xiong'an coordination, can arrange comprehensive and family-oriented events.
Leveraging the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports and Culture Belt to host international events, and advancing the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei event corridor to connect city leagues with long-distance road running, can integrate the Beijing-Xiong'an twin cities into cultural and tourism routes. Establishing a dedicated task force for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei event coordination to unify mechanisms for event calendars, ticketing, transportation, and security would foster a complementary and symbiotic regional event landscape.