Basket exports

The ongoing financial crisis may be dampening US demand for Chinese exports. Fewer Chinese-made toys and shoes will be wrapped and placed under American Christmas trees this year. But one export is growing: two-meter tall, talented basketball players.

The 2.06-meter Sun Yue joins 2.29-meter Houston Rockets sensation Yao Ming and the New Jersey Nets 2.13-meter Yi Jianlian on the National Basketball Association's (NBA) courts this season.

Yao's popularity (and the NBA's) soared in China when he joined the Rockets six years ago. China is the league's biggest foreign market with an estimated 300 million basketball fans. The league hopes Sun, a former Beijing Aoshen Olympians point guard who joined the Los Angeles Lakers this season, and Yi, who dazzled as an NBA rookie last year, will help it continue to tap this next frontier of basketball.

The NBA, like any other business, has been affected by the looming global economic recession (it has laid off 9 percent of its US workforce and cut some preseason games in Europe), but the league's expanding Chinese interests could buoy it through tough financial times.

The NBA's marketing campaign in China started about 20 years ago. Expansionist commissioner David Stern brought a tape of the league's All Star games to China Central Television (CCTV), letting them broadcast it free. The boss of one of the world's most successful sports leagues waited for hours in the lobby of the CCTV building in Beijing, hoping to promote the NBA in the world's most populous country and the fastest-growing economy.

Today the NBA's operation in China has blossomed into a lucrative business generating about $50 million in revenue a year and the league is just scratching the surface.

Sports to Chinese people have traditionally meant two things: physical fitness and national pride. So when the NBA games first appeared on the TV in late 1980s, it was mind-blowing to many Chinese basketball fans.

"It wasn't just a game but a spectacle with eye-dazzling dunks, dramatic climax and spectacular entertaining effects," says Xu Jicheng, a senior basketball commentator and sportswriter for the Xinhua News Agency. "The way the NBA combines sports with entertainment was eye-widening to the Chinese audience at that time."

The league entered the Chinese market at a time when China was opening up and its citizens were showing a thirst for new things and the NBA's success mirrored the explosive growth of the Chinese economy.

"The economic reforms in late 1970s have remarkably improved people's living standard, which has led to a growing appetite for high-end and world-class sports and entertainment," Xu says.

"People longed to be entertained and the NBA-style basketball is well suited to that desire," he adds.

The NBA is successfully expanding its appeal to young people in China, who get to know the league in primary school and later go hoops crazy in high school and college.

"Kids adore these NBA stars and want to be like them on the basketball court," Xu says. "They simply admire their raw skills and sheer athleticism."

Although China adopted a market economy 30 years ago, it was only over the past decade that China began to see sports as a business. But once the country did, everything began to change quickly and the NBA reaped the benefits.

NBA games were broadcasted live in China for the first time in 1994 and the league boosted its popularity in the country through high-profile events and grassroots programs ever since.

In 2004 it became the first American sports entity to stage games on Chinese soil. The NBA established its China subsidiary in January this year, with the Walt Disney Company, ESPN, and China Merchants Bank among those who combined to invest an 11 percent stake in the company for $253 million.

The league also carefully chose Tim Chen, the former boss of Microsoft China who has strong contacts with the Chinese government, to head its operations in China.

Now the NBA has an established relationship with 51 networks in China and boasts a lucrative marketing partnership with 20 leading global multinationals. Nearly a third of the online traffic to NBA.com comes from its Mandarin Chinese website and the league's merchandise sells at more than 50,000 retailers across China, including two official NBA Stores.

The league and its partners built the iconic Wukesong Indoor Stadium in Beijing and plan to construct 12 similar world-class arenas across China.

Forming a joint cooperative league with the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) is on top of the NBA's agenda in China and an NBA-managed Chinese domestic league is likely the league's ultimate ambition in the country.

"It would be good if there was a league that was a cooperative effort between the NBA and the CBA Definitely that is our plan, it would be our desire," Stern has told reporters.

Developing basketball within China is the only path for the league if it wants to further boost its business in China, says Xu, who has recently discussed the issue with the strategy makers of NBA China.

"The cooperation between the NBA and CBA has to be launched in the form of a joint venture that will bring about a win-win situation," he says.

"The NBA has show its sincerity to help China develop its sports industry, to cultivate China as an important market, not as a place for quick cash and to treat the Chinese side as partners, not just as consumers," he says.

(China Daily 12/15/2008 page7)