This post is really a response to a post that Grant posted which touched on the NBA marketing in China. While surfing through Sports Illustrated's website, I saw this "SI China" link. Of course unless you understand the language, you will not understand a word of the information, but it is an example of what I mentioned in my post on Grant's wall...that I am not surprised the world of sports is expanding to other countries to market their businesses. But why China? Is this all due to the arrival of Yao Ming? Why isn't there an "SI Germany" or "SI (insert country here)?
Certain "American" sports are no longer just American (i.e. basketball). Champions in various leagues such as the NBA or MLB are considered "World Champions" upon winning league championships, so it is no surpise to me that the world want to know what is going on in the sporting world in the United States. I am just curious as to why China seems to be an important marketplace for sports marketers.
http://www.sichina.com/
2 comments:
Well China is a desired market because they cram about 500 trillion people in a country the size of Rhode Island. Thats obviously a little drastic, but still, they havge tons of people over there! :)
I really wanted to touch on the topic of the "World Champion" label. I dont think our sports should be able to claim this. The World Baseball Classic is up and going, but even that is comprised of All-Star teams. The only sport that does it right is soccer. They have a World Cup, where nations make all-star teams to see who is the best. They also have a Champions league, where actual teams from tons of countries compete to win the overall title. These are not all-star teams. They are just their normal club team. Until then, my Miami Heat will only be the defending American champs, and my Florida Marlins have only won 2 American titles in the last 9 years.
As of an estimate in July of 2006, China has 1,313,973,713 people. It's also, contrary to what Pick may have you believe, the 4th largest country on the planet.
I once read an article in Sports Illustrated (the American edition) about basketball in China where one scout hypothesized that there were 1 million 7-footers in China. My first thought was that that couldn't be accurate, but then I did the math. That's only 0.076% of the population. That's nothing, I'll bet it's more.
Because China is the largest of the truly developed and advanced countries, there's this feeling in the sporting world that the untapped athletic potential is nearly unfathomable. Why do you think that every Olympics, China has a new crop of awesome gymnasts and divers? It's simply because they decided to focuson and get good at those sports. The prevailing feeling (and I completely agree) is that if China ever decided to focus on every sport in EITHER the summer or winter olympics, they would win the most medals.
Sports marketers must pray every night for the chance to truly gain a foothold in China. 1.3 billion people that all seem to like sports. They must be licking their chops.
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