On July 4 the General Administration of Sport of China published on its website the sports venues nationwide which will receive financial support from the central government in 2019. 

The list of 1323 sports venues covers 36 provinces/autonomous regions/cities across China. and stadiums, arenas and swimming venues are covered. Each of the three types of venues are further classified into different levels according to criteria that was not disclosed in the website release. 

Provinces have very different results regarding the number of sports venues on this list. For example, there are only three Beijing venues, but 18 in Shanghai, 64 in Inner Mongolia, 75 in Jiangsu, 77 in Hunan, 80 in Guangdong and 84 in Sichuan. 

These qualified venues that will receive financial support are required to fulfil a number of demands moving forward, regarding the services they provide to the public. The announcement expressly explains and lists six demands in this respect with the main essence of the requirements being their opening to the public for free or for a discounted fee for a certain period of time in a year. 

For example, one of the requirements is that public sports fields or facilities belonging to the venues should open to the public without charge or at a very low fee, for over 35 hours each week  and over 330 days a year. 

The document did not disclose how much and in what forms these subsidies would take. 

The final list was made after evaluating program applications from sports and financial departments of those provinces/cities/regions. 

Reference: GASC website 

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick