From the moment Stephen Curry landed at Xi’an Airport, things went sideways. He was stuck there for two hours, totally swamped by a wave of fans. As China Sports Vision 2050 put it, “Due to overcrowding, Xi’an local government provisionally [sic] cancelled Steven [sic] Curry’s visit to the city. After being stuck in the airport for two hours, the flight went northward to Shenyang, their next stop.” It’s crazy to think that Curry’s fan frenzy was so out of control that the local government had to cancel the whole city visit.
China was losing its mind over the Chef’s arrival. Officials even had to scratch out city names from posters, just to keep things under control! The chaos didn’t end when Curry reached Chengdu. His hotel was packed to the brim, both inside and out, and the city’s traffic went completely haywire. This level of madness wasn’t seen when Klay Thompson or Kevon Looney rolled through, but Curry’s star power turned everything into a full-on spectacle.
The Warriors star was scheduled to visit Chengdu, Xi’an, Shenyang, and Shanghai. Curry was especially stoked about Xi’an since he hadn’t been there before. Unfortunately, they had to cancel Xi’an because of the crazy overcrowding. How bad could it have been to scrap a whole city from the tour?
Why Xi’an was completely removed from the tour list?
Cutting out an entire city from the tour is a big deal, especially when Curry was excited to visit the place. So what really went down in Xi’an? The main issue was overcrowding. The officials and organizers totally underestimated the fan frenzy. On top of that, there was still bad buzz from last year’s TFBOYS concert in Xi’an, which got slammed with criticism.
With the Xi’an Olympic Sports Center being empty for ages and no recent events, the authorities weren’t about to risk another mess. As per reports, they figured canceling the visit was the safest move to dodge more problems. The hotel’s spot was another major headache. It was in Ganjiazhai on Metro Line 6—super busy with crazy foot and vehicle traffic, especially after work. With loads of companies and schools nearby, managing the crowd turned into a total nightmare.
Even the highlight 3-point contest had to be canceled in Chengdu
The official canceled the highly anticipated three-point contest at the city wall in Chengdu that morning because the crowds were just too wild. This event was supposed to be one of the big highlights of Curry and Fox’s China tour, so it’s a major letdown that it didn’t go as planned. Kobe Bryant had a similar event at the North Gate City Wall back in 2014 and called it the coolest stadium he’d ever seen—so you know Curry was pumped for it.
After wrapping up in Chengdu, Curry’s flight was set to head to Xianyang Airport around 6 p.m. that day. There was hope that he’d still make it to Xi’an, but with the public events being canceled, fans flocked to the Ritz-Carlton and other nearby spots, only to find out that the visit was officially off.
It’s a huge bummer for everyone who was hyped about the tour. Curry then had to fly straight to Shenyang from Xianyang Airport, leaving a lot of fans disappointed and missing out on what could’ve been an epic experience. But there is nothing that he could do about it. What are your thoughts on this?
