Spatial distribution characteristics and causes of public sports venues in China

Public sports venues serve as a crucial material medium for human athletic activities. Research on their spatial distribution holds profound implications for optimizing spatial layout and promoting human sports endeavors. This paper takes interest points of sports venues in China as research samples, employing GIS spatial analysis tools, mathematical statistics, and Geo-detector as research methods. It systematically investigates the spatial distribution characteristics and causes of sports venues in China, aiming to provide insights and references for the optimization of spatial arrangement, sustainable development, and relevant policy formulation of sports venues in the country. The results indicate that: (1) In terms of overall distribution characteristics, sports venues in China present a multi-centric agglomeration in geographical space. (2) From a regional distribution perspective, the spatial layout of these venues reveals a pattern of “more in the south, less in the north,” “dense in the southeast, sparse in the northwest,” and a coastal strip distribution. (3) Regarding spatial correlation, the hot and cold spot partitions of sports venues largely align with the “Hu-Line”, with their spatial distribution tending towards a positively correlated pattern of high–high clustering and low–low clustering. (4) There is evident heterogeneity in factors affecting sports venues’ spatial distribution. The distribution results from the interactive coupling of multiple factors, where the interaction between any two factors offers stronger explanatory power for the spatial layout of the venues.