NANJING: On a recent late night in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, the sound of sizzling skewers and clinking glasses fill a Baoji barbecue restaurant.<\/p>\n
Highlights from the 2026 FIFA World Cup are played on a large screen.<\/p>\n
There is no designated fan zone or special match-night event. The football broadcast has simply become part of the restaurant\u2019s nightly rhythm.<\/p>\n
Li Yuanyuan still remembers when football barely mattered to her business. She started with a single street-side BBQ stall.<\/p>\n
Today, she runs more than 20 Baoji BBQ outlets and employs around 300 people.<\/p>\n
In 2025, her brand sponsored the Nanjing football team in the Jiangsu provincial city league, also known as Suchao.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrior to getting involved with Suchao, I didn\u2019t expect so many fans to come out just for football,\u201d Li said. \u201cFootball brings a unique kind of energy that people want to share.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhou Li, who runs a local football fan group of more than 500 members, was among the diners. He said his summer has revolved around two competitions: the World Cup airing in the early morning hours, and Suchao on weekends.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore, people watched games at home on TV or computers,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it is part of eating out and hanging out.\u201d<\/p>\n
A native of Suqian in Jiangsu, Zhou is now based in Nanjing. Every week, the 27-year-old gathers with his football friends at a BBQ venue.<\/p>\n
The gatherings are informal, but frequent enough that \u201ceating skewers, drinking Coke and watching football\u201d has become part of everyday life rather than a special occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fusion of sports, local retail and catering is unlocking consumption demand,\u201d said Jason Yu, general manager of CTR Market Research.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is translating community vibrancy into domestic consumption growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trend can be seen across China, as more football fans are moving from private viewing at home to shared viewing in restaurants, night markets and neighbourhood stores.<\/p>\n
\u201cTournament matches of the World Cup take place in the early morning,\u201d Yu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat shifts viewing into restaurants, delivery and group settings rather than traditional retail hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Match nights now reshape operations across several of Li\u2019s restaurants. Large screens are installed near dining areas, with colorful decorations when bigger games are on.<\/p>\n
\u201cStores now prepare additional refrigerated inventory before major matches, with beverage demand often peaking around halftime and post-match gatherings,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n
Baoji BBQ has embraced both the World Cup and Suchao craze with support from Jiangsu Swire Coca-Cola, which has worked with its stores on football-themed consumer experiences during major tournaments such as the World Cup.<\/p>\n
The beverage company has supplied the stores with football-themed promotional items \u2013 including football balls, vuvuzelas and themed gifts to help create gathering spaces for fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cA stadium is built for watching football.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere, we adapted the space, so people can enjoy the matches while eating together,\u201d she also pointed out.<\/p>\n
Li spoke highly of Coca-Cola\u2019s willingness to work with small businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoca-Cola is widely recognised, and they still spend time working with small business owners like us,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n
Working with the multinational has also pushed Li to strengthen operational standards as the business expanded from a roadside stall into a regional chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve learnt a great deal about standardised operations and store management through working with Coca-Cola,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her business is part of a wider ecosystem of local stores, restaurants and neighbourhood businesses that connect global brands with Chinese consumers in everyday life, and Li advised other international brands hoping to deepen their presence in the Chinese market to work closely with local businesses and communities.<\/p>\n
Gilles Leclerc, president of The Coca-Cola Co Greater China and Mongolia, said their business in China depends heavily on its local partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese partners in catering and retail sectors are central to how products reach consumers every day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoca-Cola has been operating in China for more than 40 years, and throughout that time we\u2019ve grown alongside local businesses. China is our home ground, and we are committed to growing together with our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as directly benefiting local businesses such as Li\u2019s, such support also helps drive local consumption and creates jobs.<\/p>\n
Behind a single soccer viewing night is a broad network of distributors, delivery workers, restaurant staff, refrigeration services, packaging suppliers and neighborhood retailers operating around the extended late-night demand.<\/p>\n
Within Coca-Cola\u2019s network in China, which spans manufacturing, logistics and retail distribution, the firm estimates that each direct job supports an additional eight related roles across the value chain, forming a total of over 310,000 associated jobs.<\/p>\n
China has more than 127 million individually owned business households, supporting nearly 400 million jobs across the services sector, according to official data.<\/p>\n
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup gets underway in the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer, Coca-Cola China has invited participants from its catering and retail networks, including Li, to attend matches in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people cheer for a goal with a Coke in hand,\u201d said Li, who just returned from Canada, \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a stadium or a small restaurant. It feels like the same passion \u2013 people sharing it together\u201d.<\/p>\n
Back to match nights, Li is among a rising number of restaurant operators who have said that late-night football screenings are bringing longer customer stays, higher drink orders and more group dining occasions during tournaments.<\/p>\n
Data suggest that where people watch matches has become closely linked to what they consume.<\/p>\n
That means that the real battleground for beverage producers has shifted from on-screen advertising to the street. \u2014 China Daily\/ANN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NANJING: On a recent late night in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, the sound of sizzling skewers and clinking glasses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,512,27049,372550,164,596,372549,18601,85,372551,366899],"class_list":["post-790327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-cocacola","tag-consumerspending","tag-economy","tag-football","tag-nighteconomy","tag-restaurants","tag-sports","tag-sportsmarketing","tag-worldcup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}