June 26: As reported by Beijing Business Today (BBT), Palm Eco-Town Development Company, revealed on p5w.com that they plan to construct 5 or 6 sports (soccer) towns called “West Bromwich Albion Sports (Soccer) Towns”. Intelligent integrated landscape environments and the youth training academy of the Premier League club will be key features of these soccer towns. 

Palm stated that they are now directing their strategy towards to sports-based towns. Having recently purchased the Premier League side, which is regarded as one of Palm’s key core resources, Palm is going to leverage their ownership of this club to develop the domestic sports market and establish sports towns in China. According to BBT, Palm has signed a deal with the local governing body of the New Area between Guiyang and Anshun, Guizhou Province. This deal will see Palm’s first sports town, which is currently under planning in this new area. Apart from this sports town, Palm also plans to establish 5 or 6 West Bromwich Albion soccer towns allowing Palm to increase their commercial returns and support Chinese football.

Founded in 1984 and listed on the Small and Medium Enterprise Board (“SME Board”) of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Palm Eco-Town Development Co., LTD. is a leading landscape architecture firm in China. Through merging with Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development Limited,  the owner of West Bromwich Albion, Palm indirectly completed the £175m ($222.6m) takeover of West Brom in August, 2016.

Source: Beijing Business Today

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick