Textile Enterprise Revitalizes Idle Assets for Sports Infrastructure: Dali Silk’s Badminton Center Signals Cross-Industry Logic

A traditional silk manufacturer converted its idle factory basketball court into a professional badminton and tennis center, linking it with a food street on opening day. This is not an urban renewal project but Dali Silk (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd.'s specific response to the '15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Sports Power.' Opened on July 28, the Dali·Jinli Badminton & Tennis Center offers a case study for the textile industry: when surplus land meets policy incentives, 'marginal' factory spaces can become new asset appreciation gateways.

Policy Dividend and Industrial Asset Repricing

The '15th Five-Year Plan' explicitly encourages cities to tap 'gold corners and silver edges' (idle urban pockets) and to create small, refined, and convenient sports venues. This policy lowers the institutional threshold for enterprises to convert industrial land into public sports facilities. Dali Silk's move is not isolated—in textile clusters like Shengze and Keqiao, many firms built employee sports courts during initial construction, later idled due to capacity expansion. Under traditional industrial land valuation, such plots have low value; but with a sports function, they may unlock government subsidies, tax benefits, and community goodwill.

According to public information, Dali Silk Chairman Lin Ping noted that the company built sports courts at its founding, which were later suspended due to expansion. The reconstruction used special funds, and the venue remains public-interest oriented—open internally to employees and externally to the surrounding community. This 'internal welfare + external service' dual-track model transforms idle assets into employee retention tools and community relationship lubricants. For a textile industry struggling with labor shortages and high turnover, the marginal benefit of such 'soft welfare' may exceed that of hard salary increases.

Industrial Cluster Sample: From Single Production to Mixed-Use Space Operator

Dali Silk's case is essentially a 'factory + sports + commerce' overlay. The Dali·Jinli center is not isolated but linked with the Jinli Food Street, forming an integrated 'professional sports + street life' leisure scene. This breaks the traditional textile enterprise mindset of 'walls only for production,' converting part of the factory into a public urban node. For textile exporters, there is another implication: during overseas client factory audits, a facility with professional sports amenities, a clean environment, and good community integration often conveys a more responsible corporate image, indirectly strengthening order negotiation soft power.

From a regional cluster perspective, Dali Silk is based in Zhejiang, a province with dense private textile firms and tight land supply. In the past, expansion meant new buildings or relocation, but now industrial land approval is stricter and relocation costs are rising. Repurposing idle space becomes more realistic. Similar models can be replicated: Nantong home-textile firms could convert warehouse roofs into basketball courts; Keqiao printing and dyeing plants could turn abandoned stockyards into badminton halls. The key is for firms to step out of the 'textile only does textile' mindset and treat land as a multi-use asset portfolio.

Practical Recommendations

For Textile Enterprises - Audit factory premises for idle or underused sports courts, vacant lots, or rooftops; assess feasibility of converting them into simple sports venues, prioritizing areas near employee dormitories or factory perimeters. - Proactively contact local sports bureaus and housing authorities to learn about subsidy policies and land-use conversion procedures under the '15th Five-Year Plan,' aiming to include the project in the local public fitness facility gap-filling database. - Consider a 'sports + commerce' mixed model: introduce light dining, convenience stores, or employee maker spaces around the venue, using sports traffic to drive consumption and offset maintenance costs.

For Export Businesses - Use factory sports facilities as a plus factor during customer factory audits; highlight corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee care in marketing materials, especially for European and Japanese buyers who emphasize labor rights. - Host industry exchange tournaments or client networking events at the renovated venue, turning the sports scene into an informal negotiation catalyst to reduce cultural friction in order discussions.