Executive Director of Shanghai Juss: development is in Shanghai’s genes

“When you look at the time frame, twenty years is actually a very short time. And to see from 1995 to 2018 what has been accomplished is miraculous,” said Michael Luevano, Vice President & Executive Director of Shanghai Juss Event Management Co., Ltd.

Michael Luevano, Vice President & Executive Director of Shanghai Juss Event Management Co., Ltd.

From nothing special for Shanghai in international sporting events to being well known for the Shanghai Rolex Masters, Michael has witnessed Shanghai’s international sporting events development. At present, Shanghai is building its “four bands”, and boosting its capability in international sports events is a key task in building its service brand.

Michael is full of confidence that Shanghai will continue to make miracles. In his opinion, development is a kind of gene of this city.

An interesting metaphor

Smiling in a bright orange T-shirt, Michael leaves an impression of being full of energy. His non-standard Chinese pronunciation makes me mistakenly think that he can hardly understand the language. Actually he can understand daily Chinese conversation.“I have been to China for more than 20 years and my listening has improved a lot but my spoken Chinese still needs to be improved.”

Michael works at the Shanghai Rolex Masters

Since Michael came to work in Shanghai in 1995, he has spent 23 years here. From falling in love to getting married and having children, he has spent many beautiful moments of life in this city and regards here as his own hometown. In his eyes, not only the city is experiencing changes every day, the people living here are also transforming.

Michael said that when he came to Shanghai for the first time in 1995, there was no overhead roads and bicycles were everywhere. There was only one expat bar on Tongren Road.

He described the scene of the city where so many buildings were under construction at that time,“When you look out over the buildings, it looks like a red crane bird across the city.”

At present, Shanghai is totally different from that with skyscrapers everywhere, thus “amazement” is what Michael feels for the city.

A gene for development

From the Heineken Open to the Shanghai Rolex Masters, and also the ATP World Tour Masters 1000, Michael has witnessed the ups and downs of the city’s sporting development and has been deeply touched.

“The changes in the sports events are as impressive as the growth of the city. Shanghai’s development is undoubtedly the fastest. It is a kind of gene that is deeply rooted in the city.” Michael further said that the most impressive thing for him is more and more people becoming interested in international sports event. Taking tennis as an example, initially there were over 3,000 spectators in the Heineken Open, but in the finals of the Masters Cup, the number rose to more than 14,200. Tickets are often hard to get. In the stadium and the square, there are hard-core fans who are carefully dressed up. Michael explained one detail that made him impressed—once, at a fan event, a well-dressed Shanghainese old lady hurried all the way to see Nadal practicing with a full set of Nadal decorations. The old lady stated that it was through the Masters Cup that she got to love Nadal.“I think the event has become as much a lifestyle event as opposed to just a sporting one or a week of sport,” said Michael.

For many years, the Shanghai Rolex Masters has been voted the “Best Masters of the season” and recognized even by the Association of Tennis Professional (ATP). It is hoped that from 2019, it will be upgraded as a super masters following Grand Slam Tennis. Today’s Shanghai Rolex Masters is undoubtedly one of the most successful international events in China’s professional sporting calendar. It not only demonstrates Shanghai's ability to host top international professional sports events, but is also the pride of Shanghai sports lovers.

In terms of the expansion of the Shanghai Rolex Masters, Michael thinks it depends on the government’s openness policy.“When you run an international sports event, it's very different than running a local event, and the standards that are required are stricter. The government’s opening up policy and the attitude have enabled us to create and maintain a very high level sports event of international excellence.”

Enthusiasm and devotion

In September 2005, Michael won the Magnolia Award issued by the Shanghai government, which is presented to those foreigners who have made great contributions to the city’s development. Michael was the only winner in the sports industry.“I am very honored. The photos and medals have been kept in my office as a treasure,” said Michael excitedly.

As more and more top international sports event are held in Shanghai, Michael has become much busier, but he is still very happy. In his words, this shows that Shanghai has become the most important market in the international sports industry. As a sports advocate, he is very proud.“We are showing what we can do, and then visitors and players will spread word to their own countries.”

Michael’s wishes for China to deepen its reform and opening up

Michael said that before he came to China, he was based in Hawaii in the United States. As a result his favourite sport is surfing. He compares the development of Shanghai to a wave,“You know a wave eventually ends, it crashes and it ends. But this wave never seems to end.” He frankly stated his wish,“We'll have a Chinese champion at the Rolex Shanghai Masters, that's my wish.”

Regarding more and more foreigners settling in Shanghai, Michael said that the city is for people that are willing to sacrifice, people who are willing to work hard and who have something to give back to the society.

Story by Wang Jiani

Translated by Zheng Qian

Photographer: Liu Hui

Cameraman: Yu Lin