Barriers in Implementing Sustainable Development concepts for National Stadium Projects in China

Abstract

"This dissertation is aimed to explore the barriers in implementing sustainable development concepts for National Stadium Projects in China, specifically focusing on the Beijing Olympic venues built for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It is known that the after-games sustainable management and operation of the large-scale sports venues built for the mega events are a difficult problem encountered by many places around the world, and there is no exception as far as Beijing’s venues are concerned. In view of this, a literature review is firstly conducted by the author to highlight the successful experiences of the sustainable development of some of the large-scale sports venues worldwide, so that the research in this dissertation may be established on a solid theoretical background and foundation. Then the methodology is designed to combine quantitative and qualitative research methods. From the quantitative research perspective, primary data collection and analysis are made based on a questionnaire survey involving 105 visitors of the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube; as for the qualitative research, it is mainly carried out through secondary data collection and analysis from both Chinese and English sources. The findings showed that the major barriers of the sustainable development of Beijing’s Olympic venues include lacking mega-events and the difficulties in seeking for commercial naming rights sales. In view of such situations, some recommendations are made based on the literature review in Chapter Two, the results of the questionnaire survey, and the successful practices and experiences of some of the sports venues in foreign countries, such as the benign interaction between the venues and the city, the diversification of the functions and facilities, the specialisation of the staff, the humanisation service system, the diversified business model, the industrialised development tendency, and so on. Conclusions are made based on the research findings and the discussion, and the limitations as well as future research directions are briefly discussed. "