Village BA Finals: Ezhou’s Basketball Boom

Hubei Daily (Reporter Wang Chu, Correspondent Yin Jin, Ding Yuanzhong) On the evening of September 4, the 2025 “Wuchang Fish Cup” 2025 Hubei Province 3rd Hemei Rural Basketball Competition (Village BA) Finals and Six Provinces and City Invitational Tournament opened at Dingao Village Sports Center in Tingzu Town, Echeng District, Ezhou City. 22 teams and 360 athletes from inside and outside the province participated in the competition, and the number of online and offline viewers exceeded 1.5 million.

The opening ceremony was launched with the national anthem, and each team entered the venue one by one. The literary and artistic exhibition combines traditional intangible cultural heritage and modern technology. 400 drones form the pattern of “Wuchang Fish Leaping on the Yangtze River”. The humanoid robot “E Xiaoyu” interacts with the audience. The scene singing and dancing “Wuchang Fish·The Taste of Home” shows the local cultural characteristics and won warm applause from the audience.

The main venue of this competition was converted from an abandoned ore dressing plant. Dingao Village Sports Center covers an area of ​​about 23,700 square meters, integrating an open-air basketball court, a stadium and a sports park, becoming a new local landmark. Li Congbi, director of the Dingao Village Committee, said that the renovation of the abandoned factory is intended to allow villagers to enjoy high-level events at their doorstep and show the new look of the beautiful countryside.

The event has set up a 1,000-square-meter “One Village, One Product” exhibition and sales area, focusing on promoting more than 20 agricultural and sideline products such as Echeng Wuchang fish, Tingzu grapes, and Jasper pears, as well as intangible cultural and creative products such as Xishan dough plastic and Zelin fish balls. It is estimated that during the event, more than 300 jobs such as catering, cleaning, retail and other positions can be provided to surrounding villagers, and the labor income is expected to increase by more than 500,000 yuan. The exhibition area will be retained as a “rural revitalization market” after the competition and will continue to promote agricultural product sales.

Xu Baolin, head of Hubei Village BA referee, said that the event is a grand event for farmers’ sports, showing the booming development of rural sports. This competition is themed “Wuchang Fish Leap and Beautiful Nostalgia”. Teams from six provinces and cities including Jiangsu and Shanxi are invited to participate for the competition for the first time, promote cross-provincial rural cultural exchanges, and explore new models of “sports” empowering rural revitalization.