The 2026 National Two Sessions are being held. Ma Dan, a representative of the National People's Congress and a teacher at Wuhan Tourism School, told Jiupai News that Wuhan, as the central city of the country, has a booming sports industry. Represented by the Wuhan China Chegujiang University Women's Football Club, it has won the "five consecutive championships" of the Women's Super League and the first AFC Women's Champions League championship. The main players of the national team such as Wang Shuang, Wu Haiyan, and Yao Wei have significant influence. "Women's football" has become Wuhan's shining city card.
The 2024-2025 AFC Women's Champions League attracted 26,081 spectators in a single game, demonstrating the strong market appeal and consumption-driving potential of women's football matches.
Ma Dan suggested that Wuhan be supported in hosting international and national-level women’s football events. This can transform sports advantages into development momentum and serve high-quality regional development.
Ma Dan, deputy to the National People's Congress. Picture/Wuhan Education TV Official Account
Currently, Wuhan has a solid foundation and excellent capabilities to host top-level women’s football events. In terms of hardware, the city has built more than 45,000 sports venues of various types, with a total area exceeding 44 million square meters, and a per capita sports venue area of 3.32 square meters. Among them, a number of venues such as Wuhan Sports Center, Wuhuan Sports Center, and Hongshan Stadium have reached international first-class standards.
In terms of software, the successful holding of the 7th Military World Games in 2019 has accumulated valuable comprehensive operation experience for top international events for Wuhan, and created a professional and efficient event team and a "one-stop" service mechanism. As the "thorough of nine provinces", Wuhan has a three-dimensional transportation network radiating across the country and complete supporting support capabilities, which can provide solid support for large-scale events.
Wuhan has achieved remarkable economic results in developing events, and the women's football event has huge potential for transformation. Wuhan has built a city brand event system with "Han horses in spring, river crossing in summer, Wuhan tennis in autumn, and ice and snow in winter", and has innovatively promoted the integrated development of "sports, culture, tourism, business and leisure".
Data shows that the economic benefits of the Wuhan Marathon in 2025 will reach 975 million yuan, the total economic benefits of the Wuhan Tennis Open will be approximately 705 million yuan, and the total annual sports consumption is expected to reach 57 billion yuan. Compared with famous international competition cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Wuhan urgently needs to further improve the level of competition. Incorporating women's football, which has a broad mass base and huge attention, into the high-end event system will effectively amplify the "event+" integration effect and effectively transform viewing traffic into increased consumption and industrial momentum.
Supporting Wuhan in hosting high-end women's football events has important national strategic and regional development significance. This move is a concrete action to implement the country's strategic deployment of "supporting local bids to host top international events" and promoting the rise of the central region. It is also highly consistent with the key tasks of actively developing the event economy in the "15th Five-Year Plan" of Hubei Province and Wuhan City.
By hosting international women's football events, it can not only strengthen Wuhan's function as an international exchange center, but also use the event as a link to link the city clusters in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to deepen collaboration in the fields of industry, transportation, public services, etc., enhance the overall regional competitiveness, create an important growth pole for high-quality development across the country, and help Wuhan achieve a leap from "a national event city" to an "international event highland" and even "a rising leader in central China".
Ma Dan suggested that, first, we urge the State Sports General Administration and the Chinese Football Association to clearly list Wuhan as a key city in the layout of major international and national women's football events, and give priority guidance and policy preferences in event planning and bidding.
The second is to sincerely request support and coordination and guidance for Wuhan City’s specific bid to host the 2028 East Asian Cup Women’s Football Tournament, and actively consider settling high-level women’s football events in Wuhan such as the Olympic Qualifiers, Club World Cup, and Asian Club Cup.
The third is to implore Wuhan to be given greater policy innovation space and pilot support in terms of event approval and filing, foreign affairs procedures, and event commercial development, and to encourage the exploration of new models and new paths for the integrated development of "sports +".
Jiupai News reporter Huang Jialiang Zhou Yuhe
Editor Wang Jiaqing Wu Feifei
