Event-led Urban Revitalization: Value Co-creation Mechanisms and Optimization Pathways for Urban Development Empowered by Urban Football Leagues

The flourishing of urban football leagues has provided a novel practical vehicle for event-led urban revitalization. Drawing on value co-creation theory, this paper elucidates the value co-creation mechanisms through which urban football leagues empower urban development across four dimensions: economy, governance, culture, and space. The study suggests that urban football leagues, grounded in multi-stakeholder participation, follow a progressive trajectory of “value consensus−value symbiosis−value win-win”, thereby converting event foot traffic into expanded urban consumption, elevating event support systems to deliver synergistic service efficiency, shaping event communication into cohesive urban identity, and turning event venues into vibrant public spaces. Drawing on the operational practices of provincial and municipal urban football leagues in recent years, the four dimensions of value co-creation effects have taken initial shape. Nevertheless,there are still shortcomings, which is reflected in an incomplete economic transformation system, an immature governance coordination mechanism, superficial cultivation of urban cultural identity, and an unsound spatial utilization network. From a forward-looking standpoint, anchored in the sustainable operation of urban football leagues, this study proposes advancing economic embeddedness, interactive governance, mutual cultural promotion, and spatial complementarity. These pathways facilitate the in-depth integration of event resources and urban development, transforming the short-term popularity of these leagues into sustained momentum for long-term urban growth.