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Updated: 2004-09-09 09:53
 Shanghai spruces up arena for NBA preseason game

赛场、灯光、大屏幕、休息室一切准备就绪。美国职业篮球联盟在中国的第一场季前赛即将在上海开锣。火箭队和国王队在10月14、17日,将在上海和北京展开两场比赛。

 

A TV cameraman films participants during a press conference near a poster of Houston Rockets Yao Ming Thrsday Sept. 9, 2004 in Shanghai. (Agencies)

The parquet is polished. The jumbotrons are up. The dressing rooms are getting that homey touch.

Built in the days of Mao Zedong's 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, Shanghai's rundown city gymnasium is getting the full NBA treatment ahead of next month's preseason game between the Sacramento Kings and the Houston Rockets.

The Oct. 14 matchup is the first ever between two NBA teams in China, 25 years after Wes Unseld and the former Washington Bullets visited Shanghai to play a friendly against the Chinese national team. The Kings and Rockets will also meet for a second game in Beijing on Oct. 17.

The games are the NBA's latest attempts to harness basketball's surging popularity in China, boosted by the presence of Shanghai native Yao Ming in the Rockets lineup.

Fourteen Chinese broadcasters already show up to six of regular season NBA games per week. NBA stars such as Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant have visited to promote the league.

The result? While soccer remains widely popular among all sectors of Chinese society, basketball has become the sport of choice among teenage boys and men in their 20s. Some 75 percent of males 15-24 consider themselves NBA fans, according to a 2003 survey.

Along with Yao, four other Chinese are either playing or training with NBA teams. The latest, Shanghai Sharks star Liu Wei, was invited join the Kings for training in July and is expected to appear on the floor in Shanghai and Beijing.

With the relationship growing ever-closer, NBA officials have proposed the possibility of holding regular season games in China. Next month's preseason games will offer a chance to assess the facilities and reactions among players and fans.

"This is much more than a basketball game. This is a large cultural and athletic exchange," Michael Denzel, the league's managing director for Asia, said Thursday.

Before the players can hit the boards, though, major work needs to be done to the gym.

That means new lights and video boards, called jumbotrons, refurbished dressing rooms and offices, a smoother playing surface and a host of other improvements.

"It's 30-years-old, so we had to import a lot of special materials to fix it up. We're making good progress though and should be ready," said Qiu Weichang, deputy head of the city's athletic commission.

Tickets pose another challenge. The gymnasium seats about 10,000, but with only about 3,000 tickets available for fans to buy, a major crush is expected when they go on sale Sunday.

And because counterfeit tickets are as so common in China, the actual tickets are being printed in the United States, with fans given a reservation voucher to cash in later. Prices run from 100 yuan to 1,980 yuan.

Despite those challenges, Denzel said there really wasn't any question that the NBA would pick Shanghai. "Given the NBA's relationship with Shanghai," he said, "there was really only one place to hold the first game in China."

(Agencies)

Vocabulary:
 

parquet : a floor made of parquetry(木地板, 正厅,文中指赛场)

jumbotron: (超大屏幕)

preseason: the period immediately before the start of a new season, in which athletes undergo intensive training and participate in exhibition games(赛季前的)

refurbish: to make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate(再磨光, 刷新)




 
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