After nearly a year of reconstruction and upgrading, Changzhou Olympic Youth Center was officially opened on the morning of January 17^th. Yan Li, Party Secretary of Changzhou, Liu Tong, Deputy Director of Jiangsu Provincial Sports Administration, and Fang Guoqiang, Vice Mayor of Changzhou, attended the event and inaugurated the center.

Changzhou Olympic Youth Center is located in the original site of Changzhou Higher Vocational School, covering nearly 200 mu (about 13.3 hectares). There are facilities of outdoor basketball court with lighting system, 11-player football field, 7-player football field, cage football field, gym and swimming pool. The center is a complex of physical fitness, sports events, training services and other functions, creating a new model of intensive use of the vacant space.

After putting into operation, professional coaches of Changzhou Sports School will provide training for schoolchildren. A variety of football or basketball tournaments for teenagers will be carried out to promote young students to actively participate in sports activities. By doing so, the center will become the city's youth sports training base.

On the opening ceremony, Changzhou Sports Industry Group signed an agreement with Sport8 International to establish Sport8 Football Base in the center. The Sport8 National Youth Football 4VS4 Cup was started simultaneously. Sport8’s Dutch professional footballers gave a demonstration lesson on site for Changzhou’s PE teachers.

Sport8 International is co-sponsored by Huang Jianxiang, one of the best-known sports commentators in China, Wesley Sneijder, a Dutch professional footballer who currently plays for the Turkish club Galatasaray and Bai Qiang, an Entrepreneur from China. According to the football reform plan of China, the total number of schools specializing in football will rise from the current figure of around 5,000 to around 20,000 by 2020 and 50,000 by 2025.