Abstract:

In the context of the construction of a Leading Sport Nation, sports events have become an important means of city marketing and shaping city image because they can trigger a large number of inter-city connections to promote the development of cities and enhance their influence and position. Most of the existing studies focus on large-scale sports events such as the Olympic Games, but do not pay attention to the individual sports touring events which are widely distributed and held more frequently in the host city. This paper takes the Tennis World Tour, which is the most influential tournament, as the research object, combined with the method of social network analysis and chain network model, to analyze the characteristics of city connection based on Tennis World Tour. The results show that: (1) The world city network based on Tennis World Tour has a distinct hierarchy, and most of the high-level city nodes are host cities or cities where the high-level sponsors or broadcasters are located, and the high-level inter-city connections mostly occur between the core city nodes. (2) The inter-city connection caused by Tennis World Tour has event differences and regional differences, showing the core-edge structure of Europe, North America-Asia-Oceania and South America-Africa as a whole. (3) The city network has formed a number of city groups with the headquarters of the three major tennis associations and the host city of the event (especially the Grand Slam tournament) as the main core. This study puts forward an unstable urban network structure which is different from that of the Olympic Games, complements the deficiency of the existing research on the world urban network of sports events, and provides a reference for the planning and decision-making of cities at all levels in China to host international sports events.

Key words: Tennis World Tours, inter-city connections, world city network, social network analysis

摘要：

在体育强国建设背景下，体育赛事由于能引发大量城市间联系从而推动城市发展、提升城市影响力和地位，已成为城市营销和城市形象塑造的重要手段。现有研究大多针对奥运会等大型体育赛事开展研究，而未关注到主办城市分布更广、举办更为频繁的单项体育巡回赛事。本文以世界影响力最大的巡回赛事——国际网球巡回赛为研究对象，结合社会网络分析及链锁网络模型方法，对基于国际网球巡回赛的城市联系特征进行分析。研究结果发现：①基于国际网球巡回赛的世界城市网络具有鲜明的等级层次性，高等级的城市节点多为赛事主办城市或高级别赞助商转播商所在城市，且高等级的城市间联系大多发生在核心城市节点之间。②国际网球巡回赛引发城市联系具有事件差异性和区域差异性，整体来看，呈现欧洲、北美洲-亚洲-大洋洲、南美洲-非洲的“核心-边缘”结构。③城市网络形成了以三大网球协会总部所在城市、赛事主办城市（尤其是大满贯赛事）为主要核心的多个城市联系组团。该研究提出了一种与奥运会不同的不稳定的城市网络结构，补充了现有体育赛事型世界城市网络研究的不足，为我国各级城市承办国际体育赛事的规划与决策提供了参考。

关键词: 国际网球巡回赛, 城市间联系, 世界城市网络, 社会网络分析, 体育赛事