Han Lifeng exclusive: Wukesong’s secrets in venue operations

Venue operation issues concern many decision makers in China where sports industry is still in its infancy but on the verge to impress the world in the near future.

We’ve seen the great success of Bird Nest or the Water Cube in gaining worldwide fame to rank among global top sports venues since Beijing 2008 Olympics Games. But in terms of venue operations, the MasterCard Center, originally Beijing Wukesong Culture & Sports Center where the 2008 Olympic basketball tournament was hosted, appears to be a stronger performer in the efforts to repeat the achievements, for example, reached by Staples Center in the US.

In an exclusive interview, Mr. Han Lifeng, the directing manager of Wukesong Sports Center Operation Management Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Bloomage International Investment Group Inc, recently shared his secrets of running the MasterCard Center with Yutang Sports.

With profitability increasing by 40% annually, Mr. Han revealed their operational achievements can be measured on a range of indicators, which include financial performance, market share, number of high-quality events and usage rate.

Wukesong Sports Center, title sponsored by credit card giants MasterCard, is not only a venue for event organizers, but also an event organizer itself, Mr. Han argued. And the number and quality of events are key to the daily opeartions of Wukesong as sponsorships rather than the audience play a major role in making revenues for Wukesong Sports Center.

Despite with the impressive experience of hosting 300+ events annually, the brand still faces the challenge led by lack of related personnel.

Mr. Han said they have a group of young teammates with average age of 25 and they believed in establishing expertise by cultivating trainee and starters. In his eyes, true professionals ought to be good at bring quality events into the venues. Accordingly, the marketers at MasterCard Center would make every endeavor to connect with their clients.

With the previous efforts to improve seats and lights etc, Wukesong are now focusing on introducing more high tech in order to turn into a brand of smart and technology-accompany venues. Wukesong has offered WIFI services to their users and is set to add in more technology to build an “intelligent venue”in the near future.

Bloomage International has introduced its venue management to the southeastern Chinese city, Chengdu and Chongqing. And there are more to come as the brand is planning to build at least ten MasterCard centers in provincial capital cities.