Can Half a Billion Chinese Be Wrong? The NBA Hopes Not
As the Chinese national team recovered from three straight losses to squeak into the second round of the World Basketball Championships in Japan this week, U.S. basketball officials might be forgiven for having a certain rooting interest in Yao Ming and his teammates against the likes of Senegal and Slovenia.
The reason has to do with a couple of nice, round numbers: 500 million Chinese fans who bought 400 million "branded pieces" of National Basketball Association products, from jerseys to basketballs, last year.
As in many businesses, the most populous country in the world is already an important NBA market and a tantalizing area for growth. In addition to 25 merchandise partners, the league counts 15 marketing partners there, from the American (Coca-Cola and McDonald's) to the European (Nokia) to the Chinese (China Mobile). When NBA Commissioner David Stern visited China recently -- he's been there three times in the past two years -- he even met with a company that produces Inner Mongolian milk about possibly sponsoring the league.
Mr. Stern said sponsors outside of China always bring up the country before he does. "Very little of the discussion we have with our international sponsors doesn't move very quickly to opportunities in China," he said. He adds wryly that he is pleased that the Chinese government labels his sport "important for fitness, exercise and harmony."
Slovenia's Radoslav Nesterovic goes up for a shot over, from left, Wang Zhizhi, Yao Ming and Zhu Fangyu of China in a first-round game in Sapporo, northern Japan, Thursday.
While basketball as a business is definitely on the rise in China, the pace would be hastened if the on-court part of the equation would catch up. When China lost successive games to Italy, the U.S. and Puerto Rico to start the championship, it risked dispersing the audience those companies want so much to reach. Sports journalists and experts in China estimated that about half of the tournament audiences would have turned away. But with a game-ending three-point shot to beat Slovenia yesterday, the Chinese fulfilled a guarantee from Mr, Yao, their first NBA all-star, and made it to the final 16. Expectations had run high after China's upset of international stalwart Serbia-Montenegro during the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
While attention to the tournament in the U.S. has been scant in the early rounds (the games are being shown live after midnight), it has been big news in China. Updated news about China's play dominates newspapers' sports pages. China's CCTV broadcasts every important game. News portals such as Sina.com and Yahoo China are full of chatter. Before the team's turnaround, China's sports bloggers continued to back Mr. Yao. Instead, criticism focused on the rest of the team, ranging from poor strategies to lack of cooperation among players.
There is strong pressure on the Chinese team to do better when it hosts the Olympic tournament two summers from now, says Kevin Adler, a sponsorship consultant and founder of Engage Marketing.
"There's such a degree of nationalism associated with that, much more so than in U.S. basketball," he said. Chinese fans, he added, consider it "almost a foregone conclusion that they will be contenders at the Beijing Olympics in '08."
Sponsors are watching carefully. Anheuser-Busch Cos., smitten with China's passion for beer drinking, is an NBA marketing partner as well as a sponsor of the Chinese Olympic team and the 2008 Summer Games.
Basketball's penetration into China is only 10% to 15% of what it might be, says Tony Ponturo, the brewer's vice president of global media and sports marketing. He adds that basketball may be taking a back seat to soccer in China, especially after a World Cup that fans there followed religiously even without their national team competing.
Mr. Ponturo is curious to see how the two-year build-up to Beijing's spot in the international sports spotlight might affect basketball's rising popularity there.
"The upside is still to be determined," he said. "That's the case with a lot of brand-building in China. You like what you see. You like the foundation. You like the trends."
And indeed, Hu Jiashi, vice president of the China Basketball Association, recently told reporters that while basketball has trailed soccer, he believes it is pulling level. Pegged at 500 million by league surveys, China has the largest number of NBA fans in the world, said Mark Fischer, head of NBA China.
The NBA claims more than one billion viewers sampled its 290-plus games televised in the more-wired sections of the country last season. The league has about 50 employees in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing offices -- a number Mr. Stern said would double soon -- and NBA officials in the U.S. travel to China for business on a weekly basis.
One recent NBA grass-roots effort is the Jam Van, which recently toured 17 Chinese cities, including some in areas where huge swaths of the population don't own televisions. The NBA took a big step in 2004 with a pair of exhibition games between Houston and Sacramento. A basketball floor was brought in, there were mascots, dancers, and Shanghai's stadium was specially renovated for the event.
"We have been on the air since 1987 but never done anything this big. This raised the bar, made us sort of real to the Chinese fans and kind of set the standard for sports events in China," said Mr. Fischer. More exhibitions are planned for 2007.
Team USA also drew notice with exhibitions in China last month. The 12,000-seat Guangzhou arena nearly sold out despite ticket prices of between $50 and $450, which are steep for China. The games also aired on national television.
Still, marketers are hedging their bets on basketball. Anheuser's Mr. Ponturo says his company has purchased ad signage in Chinese characters at Manchester United's Old Trafford Stadium to try to reach soccer fans tuning in for English Premier league telecasts back in China.
NBA结盟中国篮球
随着中国国家男子篮球队上周结束三连败、挺进世界男子篮球锦标赛的第二轮比赛，美国篮球界的官员们在姚明和中国队与塞内加尔和斯洛文尼亚等队交锋时坚决站在前者一边似乎也情有可原了。
他们之所以偏向中国队，那是因为从运动衫到篮球，去年在中国出售的NBA品牌产品已达4亿件。NBA在中国的商业合作伙伴也已达到25家。当NBA总裁大卫?斯特恩(David Stern)最近访问中国时(过去两年中他已经三次访华)，他甚至与内蒙古的一家乳品公司进行了接洽。
斯特恩说，早在他来开拓中国市场之前，NBA的各家非中国赞助商就已纷纷涉足这个人口最多的国家了。在中国除了有一批特许产品经销商外，NBA还有15家营销伙伴，其中既有美国企业（可口可乐(Coca-Cola)和麦当劳(McDonald's)），也有欧洲企业（诺基亚(Nokia)）和中国本土企业（中国移动(China Mobile)）。
他说：“与我们的国际赞助商交谈往往是没谈上几句话题就迅速转移到了中国的商业机会上。”斯特恩还语带揶揄地说，他很高兴中国政府认为篮球是一项有益身心的运动。
斯特恩说，中国篮球的崛起“不可避免”。如果中国篮球队的场上表现能够改善，这一崛起的速度还会加快。当中国队在世锦赛上连续输给意大利、美国和波多黎各队后，中国球迷的观赛热情面临着大幅滑落的危险，而这些人恰恰是NBA的赞助商们紧盯的目标。据中国的体育刊物和体育专家们估计，中国队被淘汰将使本次世锦赛的全球观众流失一半。
随着周四以一记压哨三分球击败斯洛文尼亚队，中国首位NBA球星姚明的保证得到了兑现。当中国队在2004年雅典奥运会上击败了实力强大的塞黑队后，人们对中国男篮的期望值升得很高。
虽然美国人并不怎么关心男篮世锦赛(一些比赛被安排在美国清晨时间进行)，但中国人却将其视为一项重要赛事。有关中国队的最新消息充斥着报纸的体育版，中国的中央电视台将转播所有重要的比赛。新浪(Sina.com)和雅虎中国(Yahoo China)等门户网站有关男篮世锦赛的报道铺天盖地。在中国队迎来胜利之前，网上的体育评论员们虽然仍一如既往地支持姚明，但却对中国队的其他人提出了尖锐批评，如指责教练的战术不当，批评球员间缺乏配合等。
网上的一则贴子称：“虽然姚明是中国队进攻的首选，但不应该是唯一的选择。虽然他需要为全队拿下最高得分，但不必包办全部得分的50%。”
Engage Marketing的赞助咨询师凯文?阿德勒(Kevin Adler)说，当两年后北京举办夏季奥运会时中国队会感受到要取得好成绩的压力。他说，中国赋予篮球运动的民族主义内涵要远高于美国。阿德勒补充说，中国球迷认为中国队在2008年北京奥运会上取得好成绩几乎是不成问题的。
赞助商们也在仔细观察着局势。正在全力开发中国啤酒市场的安海斯公司(Anheuser-Busch Cos.)既是NBA的合作伙伴，也是中国奥运代表团和2008年北京奥运会的赞助商。
该公司负责全球媒体和运动营销的副总裁托尼?庞托罗(Tony Ponturo)说，他相信篮球在中国的渗透率仅达到了其应有水平的10%至15%。他说，自己在中国各城市亲眼看到、亲耳听到的是，篮球在中国的影响力不及足球，特别是在世界杯足球赛后情况更是如此。虽然中国没能参赛，但中国球迷仍对世界杯表现出了宗教般的狂热。
庞托罗想知道，在备战北京奥运会的两年内中国人的兴趣会在多大程度上转移到篮球运动中来。
他说：“兴趣提升的程度仍有待确定。在中国有许多品牌建设工作要做。目前的状况还可以，基础和趋势也不错。”
中国篮球协会(China Basketball Association)副主席胡加时最近对记者们说，虽然篮球在中国的流行程度不及足球，但他相信篮球的受欢迎程度正在提高。NBA中国区总经理马富生(Mark Fischer)说，中国有最大的NBA球迷群体，估计人数有5亿。
NBA声称，上个赛季中国有10亿多电视观众观看过NBA的球赛。NBA在香港、上海和北京的办事处目前有50名员工，斯特恩说，很快将把这三个地方的员工数增加一倍。他还说，NBA在美国的官员每周都要到中国出差。
NBA最近所做的一项篮球普及工作就是将“篮球大蓬车”(Jam Van)引入了中国，这一活动包括投篮比赛和玩互动式NBA视频游戏，它经停了中国17个城市，一些城市的周边农村甚至还有很多家庭没有电视机。2004年，NBA旗下的休斯顿火箭队和萨克拉门托国王队在中国举行了两场表演赛。两队专门从美国带来了比赛用球场地板，NBA比赛所特有的吉祥物和拉拉队也被搬到了中国。为了这两场比赛，上海的体育馆还专门进行了改建。
NBA中国区总经理马富生说，中国从1987年起就转播NBA的赛事，但“篮球大蓬车”这类大型活动此前还从未在中国举办过。他说：“这提高了活动水平，使我们在中国球迷眼中成了某种真实可及的东西，并为中国的体育赛事确定了标准。”NBA计划2007年在中国举办更多表演赛。
上个月，美国篮球队在男篮世锦赛之前来中国进行的热身赛也引起了关注。
尽管热身赛的票价为每张50至450美元，对中国人而言可谓价格昂贵，但广州体育馆的12,000个座位在比赛当天几乎座无虚席。中国的国家电视台也转播了热身赛。
许多希望打入中国市场的企业显然都在借助篮球明星的影响力。阿迪达斯公司(Adidas AG)的首席执行长赫伯特?海纳(Herbert Hainer)本月表示，他的公司希望姚明在扩大锐步公司(Reebok)在华业务方面发挥重要作用。(阿迪达斯公司今年早些时候收购了锐步公司，后者目前在中国只有50家左右专卖店。)
迈阿密热队的球星奥尼尔(Shaquille O'Neal)本月与中国的运动服生产商李宁公司(Li Ning Co.)签署了一项5年期协议，双方将专门针对中国大陆市场推出一个使用奥尼尔本人签名的运动鞋系列。
但目前的情况是，除姚明外，中国基本上没有货真价实的篮球明星。世锦赛上中国对斯洛文尼亚一役中姚明一人独得36分，而他的队友中没有一人的得分超过11分。中锋王治郅曾经是NBA的板凳球员，不过已有人说中国18岁的中锋易建联有可能继姚明之后进入NBA第一轮选秀大会。
姚明的经纪人比尔?达菲(Bill Duffy)称中国的篮球职业联赛还赶不上欧洲的水平。达菲预测中国男篮职业联赛最终能有七到八支强队脱颍而出，但前提条件是其球员的工资要与巴塞罗纳队(FC Barcelona)、贝内通-特瑞维索队(Benetton Treviso)和莫斯科的CSKA队处于同一水平。
这位经纪人还预测说，当中国的后卫水平能赶上中锋水平时，中国的篮球水平将达到一个转折点。“我不认为现在就有年轻的史蒂夫?纳什(Steve Nashes)在那里，”达菲说。纳什是菲尼克斯太阳队的得分后卫，他曾两度被评为NBA的最有价值球员。
Adam Thompson / Mei Fong
