Over the past decade, China has undertaken extensive governance reforms in public sports venues to enhance operational efficiency and service quality under increasing fiscal pressure. Adopting a policy-evaluation perspective, this study assesses whether these reforms have improved venues’ social and economic performance using a panel dataset covering 874 venues across Chinese provinces. A two-way fixed-effects model, supplemented with instrumental-variable estimation, is employed to identify causal effects and mitigate endogeneity concerns. Complementary case studies and field interviews are further used to uncover the underlying mechanisms. Quantitative results show that governance reforms have significantly improved economic performance. Paid training participation increased by nearly 200 percent, and the number of paid events rose by an average of 7 to 14 per year. However, the reforms slightly reduced social performance, as reflected in the decline in free training programs and non-profit activities. Field investigations attribute these mixed effects to six structural factors: profit-driven marketization, shortage of professional management talent, weak regulatory oversight, inadequate subsidy design, mismatch between public demand and service supply, and limited digital integration. Comparative evidence from Huanglong Sports Center and JW District Fitness Center illustrates the contrasting outcomes between insufficiently professionalized and successfully corporatized cases. This study provides rare large-sample causal evidence on the governance reform of public sports venues in China and contributes to the international discussion on how public organizations can balance efficiency and equity. Policy recommendations highlight the importance of optimizing market pathways, building professional capacity, strengthening evaluation and supervision systems, refining fiscal incentives, and promoting institutional innovation to achieve sustainable dual improvement in economic viability and public welfare.