CBA team Sichuan Jinqiang Blue Whale Basketball Club has kicked off the construction of a new stadium project, the Sichuan Jinqiang International Sports Events Center, in Wenjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the home city of the club. The new  construction ceremony was held on August 28. 

The size of the building area is reported to be 100,000 square meters. After completion, it is said to include large stadiums, fitness and exhibition facilities and recreational parks. The centerpiece of the project will be the large basketball stadium with a seating capacity of more than 10,000 seats and a 2000-seater training stadium. 

The investor of the project, Sichuan Jinqiang Group, are looking at NBA stadiums as their goals. It is reported that they have invited architect(s) who have designed NBA stadiums to design the new stadium and will include sporting goods and equipment stores in the stadium, making it a meeting place of Sichuan sporting goods brands. The surrounding area is planned to be equipped with hotels, shopping streets and cinemas. The whole project is envisioned to be similar to Madison Square Garden in New York. 

Sichuan Jinqiang Group is said to be going to invest CNY900m in this project. Back in 2016, after Sichuan Blue Whale won the 2015/16 season CBA championship, Zhou Shiqiang, the President of Sichuan Jinqiang Group, had already disclosed the plan to build a new home stadium for the team which would take 2-3 years to complete. 

Sichuan Jinqiang Group bought the original Sichuan Men’s Basketball Team and turned it into the Sichuan Jinqiang Blue Whale Basketball Club in 2009. After playing in the NBL for three consecutive seasons, Sichuan Blue Whale returned to the CBA in the 2013/14 season and won the team’s first CBA championship in the 2015/16, becoming the fifth team in the history of CBA to have won the league championship. 

The team’s current home stadium is the Sichuan Gymnasium which was built in the 1980s. 

Reference: iFeng 

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick