was founded in 2022 as the "District ba" - Nansha District Men's Basketball League, aiming to provide a platform for basketball enthusiasts to display their skills, compete and communicate. Now it has the largest number of participants, the widest coverage and the longest season in Nansha District. The longest and most influential district-level mass sports event. There will be more than 2,900 players participating in the 2023 season, covering nearly 100 villages in 10 towns and streets in the region. This year’s competition format remains unchanged and continues to be divided into two stages: qualifying and finals. Dagang Town, which won the title of "Best Division" last year, is the first to start the town and street group qualifiers, and then the qualifiers for each town and street will start one after another.
competition scene. Photographed by Liu Wei
Sports celebrities help out
The joyful atmosphere explodes
The whistle blows, the ball kicks off, and the game begins!
As Le Guangyi, president of the Guangzhou Basketball Association, jumped the ball for the event, the game officially began. Fighting, passing, layups, blocking shots... On the field, the players cooperated tacitly and showed superb basketball skills. The scores of the two sides came and went, with climaxes coming one after another. Every time a score was scored, the audience cheered and applauded.
While the two teams were fighting fiercely, Zhu Fangyu, vice president of the Guangdong Basketball Association and general manager of the Hongyuan Basketball Club, and Li Qun, the principal of the Dongguan Basketball School, temporarily took over as the head coaches of the two teams; while Zhang Wenyi and Li Yizhen of the Hongyuan Basketball Team were two professional coaches. Players join two teams to participate in fierce battles between the two sides. In addition, during the midfield break of the game, Chu Liang, a famous football star, played the "Pitch to the Basket" game with fans at the scene; Li Qun and Zhu Fangyu also participated in the "Three-Point King PK Game" on site, getting up close and personal with big stars. The interaction made the audience shout "It's a blast!"
The Longgu Village team of Dagang Town and the Donglong Village team staged a wonderful showdown. Photo by Liu Wei
Big names help out. Photo by Liu Wei
It is worth mentioning that the opening of the Nansha District Men’s Basketball League in 2024 will be held at the Tanzhou Stadium. This is a careful arrangement by the organizers to explore the history of Nansha basketball and promote sports events into the community. It is reported that the Tanzhou Stadium was built in the 1990s. It is a sports venue for Dagang basketball fans to sweat and practice skills. It carries the fond memories of local residents.
The Tanzhou Stadium carries the memories of local residents. Picture provided by Dagang Party and Mass Service Center
The renovated Tanzhou Stadium. Photo by Liu Wei
In early July this year, Tanzhou Stadium completed its upgrade. Not only did the number of seats increase from the original 600 to 1,200, but various functional facilities were also improved and the seats were painted in bright colors. The Nansha District Men's Basketball League chose to open at the important moment of its upgrade and opening, which revitalized this "old partner" full of basketball history and made this popular mass event more popular. The stadium has transformed, but the feelings remain the same. In the future, Tanzhou Stadium will have a new look and continue to provide sports services to the surrounding people. The
Dagang Division will last from July to September and will be held at Tanzhou Stadium. A total of 37 teams and about 550 players will participate. The finals competition will be held from November to December 2024. The top 8 seed teams from last season plus the 24 teams determined in the preliminaries will be divided into 8 groups for a round-robin competition. The top 2 teams in each group will advance to the top 16. The championship, second place, and third place will be determined through 4 rounds of knockout rounds. Who will be the new king of basketball in Nansha District? Who will win the title of "Three-Point King" this year? let us wait and see!
The basketball love affair in Dagang spans a century
The choice of Nansha District Men’s Basketball League to open in Dagang in 2024 is also inseparable from the strong local basketball atmosphere. According to relevant documents such as "Panyu County Chronicles" and "Dagang Town Chronicles", Dagang Town's association with basketball can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty and has existed for more than a hundred years.
Liang Ximing, the former deputy director of the Dagang Town Cultural Station, recalled that in the early days of Dagang's liberation, large-scale basketball games were held at least twice a year. Zhongshan, Foshan and nearby towns and villages came to hold social games. In the 1990s, each factory, enterprise and village in the town had its own team. There were as many as hundreds of basketball games a year. “People at that time were excited when they heard there was a basketball game. Very excited. Sometimes there are not so many seats at the venue, so everyone takes out their own stools, and the venue is full and the atmosphere is warm. "
Dagang has a strong basketball atmosphere. Dagang Party and Mass Service Center Picture provided by
live audience. Photo by Liu Wei
Today, this love for basketball has been passed down and continued in Dagang. On the day of the game, many basketball enthusiasts and die-hard fans were attracted to the scene to witness this sporting event. Xu, who lives in Dagang Town South Community and is currently a junior in college, is a basketball enthusiast and a loyal follower and supporter of Dagang Basketball. Although the team he supports will play tomorrow, he still went to Tanzhou Stadium to watch the opening game and waited outside the stadium early. "In the first two sessions, I happened to be in school and watched the live broadcast through the Internet. This time it coincides with the summer vacation, and I can finally feel the atmosphere. It is indeed very lively and exciting." Xu said that what will happen next Continue to pay attention to this event, cheer for the Dagang participating teams, and wish them good results in the subsequent district-level competitions.
Also arrived at the scene early to wait was Mr. Liang, a citizen of Dagang. During the game, he held a cheering stick in his hand to cheer for the team on the field. From time to time, he discussed the game situation with his friends sitting next to him. When he encountered exciting moments, he took out his mobile phone to record them in real time. "Now because of work, I have much less time to play basketball." Mr. Liang said with emotion. He was still very excited to see so many people gathering together because of basketball. Especially for the competition venue, it makes more sense to choose the renovated Tanzhou Stadium. I hope that through such basketball events, we can further promote the development of basketball in Dagang.
The Nansha District Men’s Basketball League returns strongly. Photo courtesy of Dagang Party and Mass Service Center
In addition to the love of the masses, the development of basketball in the local area is also inseparable from the support of hardware. According to statistics, there are 31 villages in Dagang, equipped with 39 basketball courts, providing good conditions for the masses to carry out basketball sports. Classmate Xu also felt deeply about this. In recent years, whenever he goes home during holidays, he can often feel the changes in Dagang's stadium hardware. "Before, the court conditions were not that good. Sometimes I had to go to Panyu to play. Now I can play at my doorstep. It is very convenient. And recently, there are several indoor arenas opened in the town to choose from."
Using the ball as a medium
Light up the summer night economy
As night falls, the lanterns come on. A fierce battle is going on on the court, and on the road outside the Tanzhou Stadium, a night market street that gathers delicious food and specialty products is packed with people.
According to reports, combined with the development of the primary and secondary industries in Dagang Town and the demand characteristics of the emerging night economy, this basketball game also set up an area around the stadium that brought together local specialty agricultural products, Dagang light industry brand exhibitions, investment centers, and food The night market street with market and music stage uses sports events as a carrier to build a platform to promote Dagang's characteristic agriculture and famous enterprises, injecting new vitality into Dagang's promotion of the "Hundreds and Thousands of Projects" and empowering rural revitalization.
Guangzhou Jiehua Garment Co., Ltd. is a Dagang light industrial enterprise participating in the exhibition. "During the Luohan Mountain Cherry Blossom Festival this year, I was invited to participate in the exhibition. During the exhibition period of about half a month, I achieved good sales results. Today is my second time participating in the exhibition." Ms. Yang, the person in charge of the company, said that this type of Large-scale cultural and sports activities can bring together people and promote the expansion of corporate visibility and product sales. For this basketball game, she also prepared sufficient supplies in advance, hoping to convert event traffic into product sales.
The night market street outside the stadium. Photo courtesy of Dagang Party and Mass Service Center
At the night market, there was a steady flow of people.Picture courtesy of Dagang Party and Mass Service Center
In addition, this basketball game also set up a special investment office to showcase high-quality investment carriers in the town. It also invited corporate teams from the town and surrounding areas to participate, and through "basketball + investment promotion " model to build a platform for the linkage of enterprises in the town and regional industrial exchanges.
“We look forward to using this basketball league to build a large platform for people-to-people and cultural exchanges, corporate linkage, and industrial display.” According to the relevant person in charge, in the future, Dagang will continue to explore new models of “sports +” integrated development and continue to hold more local and cultural exchanges. Unique sports events and cultural activities promote the in-depth integrated development of culture, business and tourism, inject strong impetus into the development of culture, tourism and sports in Nansha District, promote the "Hundreds and Thousands of Projects" to achieve solid results with practical actions, and fully demonstrate the unique charm and charm of Nansha Dagang Enrich cultural heritage.
Produced by Nandu Guangzhou News Department
Written by: Nandu trainee reporter Wu Wenwei
Correspondent: Wu Suqi
