Chinese Fans Get Ready For Some 'Olive Ball'
Shan Qiang doesn't know much about the intricacies of American football, but the computer consultant in Shanghai says he can't wait to go to a local bar with friends to watch the Philadelphia Eagles take on the New England Patriots in Sunday's Super Bowl XXXIX.
"I like the sport because it's full of wildness and excitement and all the players are such individuals," says Mr. Shan, 20 years old and a Patriots fan, "I'd like to imitate the way they dress, the tattoos, the wrist protection, wearing a towel like a dress smock."
Like Mr. Shan, a growing number of Western-influenced Chinese are discovering American football. The Oakland Raiders' new Chinese-language "Just Win Baby" shirts are hot sellers in 14 California stores and on the team's official Web site, which became available in Mandarin last November. Reebok International Ltd., the National Football League's global licensing partner, is testing NFL merchandise in China.
The NFL is the first to admit that these victories might be more of a testament to Chinese youth's taste for Western style than to American football. But showing the seriousness of its intentions toward China, the league is expected to announce today that it has signed a five-year deal with Shanghai Media Group to air live broadcasts of the Super Bowl on China's Dragon TV and 12 provincial networks. While the league wouldn't disclose financial details of the deal, which includes this Sunday's game, it says the agreement will bring the Super Bowl to an estimated 300 million households.
Chinese youths playing flag football, a junior-high program developed by NFL International.
The deal follows the success of last year's broadcast, when Eagles tight end Chad Lewis , who learned Chinese while living in Taiwan as a Mormon missionary, provided color analysis of the first-ever live Super Bowl broadcast, aired on China Central Television, the country's national network. This Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast in China will be sponsored exclusively by General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac.
In penetrating the immense Chinese market, the game (called "Olive Ball" in Mandarin because of the shape of the ball) faces serious handicaps: an absence of Asian-born players in the NFL; the sport's lack of Olympic status; and the preconceived notion that football is violent. Unlike Japan with its sumo wresting, China has little history of contact sports. But even with these obstacles, China has too much potential to ignore.
"When the Chinese sink their teeth into something, they really do it right," says Gordon Smeaton, vice president of NFL International, the league's world-wide marketing arm. "We can't underestimate that they could become a major force very quickly."
NFL International began collaborating with China's Department of Education in 2003 to initiate flag football -- its noncontact program for youths -- in junior high schools and to train local coaches.
There are 80 middle schools in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou participating in the flag-football program, and over 300 coaches and referees are helping to expand the game. The Chinese national flag-football team competed for the first time at the 2004 NFL Reebok Flag Football World Championship in Vancouver, British Columbia, last August, finishing ninth out of 10 teams. The NFL plans to hold this year's flag championship in China. The idea, explains the NFL's Mr. Smeaton, is to introduce the game's basics to China's youth and then, after they are older and have had proper training, to introduce tackle.
"It's baby steps right now," says Tor Petersen, managing director of Zou Marketing, a Shanghai-based sports-marketing firm that Nike Inc. and the NFL have hired to help them with on-the-ground development. Mr. Petersen thinks it will take 10 to 20 years for the sport to establish a loyal following. "There's the presumption that football isn't agreeable with Chinese culture," he says.
Football-theme videogames are a key ingredient in educating Chinese youth. Jeff Brown, a vice president at Electronic Arts Inc., says bringing its NFL football videogames to China is appealing because "Western sports and videogames are both huge there right now."
Last December, the California game maker signed a $300 million deal with the NFL granting it exclusive use of NFL logos, players, stadiums and other assets in its NFL Madden videogames. The company plans to capture as much as $1 billion in sales in Asia by 2010.
Football also spreads through cross-cultural pollination: Chinese citizens living in the U.S. begin to follow the game and take it back home. Eleven Chinese students and professionals living in the U.S. have formed an organization called China 11, designed to teach China about American football.
The group contributes articles and commentary to the NFL's official Chinese-language Web site. The 11 members, three of whom the NFL has invited to attend the Super Bowl, have co-authored a 20-page primer on U.S. football in Mandarin to be published by the NFL and released in China before the game this Sunday.
Some sports marketers think a homegrown hero could speed up the process. "All the NFL needs is one Yao Ming," says Robert Tuchman, president of TSE Sports & Entertainment, a New York-based marketing firm, referring to the Houston Rockets' Shanghai-born star center Yao Ming. For decades, the National Basketball Association had tried to infiltrate China, but only when Mr. Yao joined the Rockets in 2002, did basketball take off with Chinese viewers.
Hopes run high that Timmy Chang, a football star at the University of Hawaii, might become the first quarterback of Chinese descent in the NFL. But the prospect of a Chinese-born star player is at least a decade away, estimates the NFL's Mr. Smeaton. "The NFL is an American cultural institution," he says, "This helps make the games compelling, but the flip side is Americans dominate."
Andrew Yang, a self-declared "fanatic football fan" who moved to the U.S. from Shanghai in 1998, is hoping football will catch on in China. A graduate student at DePaul University in Chicago, Mr. Yang, 26, says he couldn't wait to tell his family back home that he scored tickets for this Sunday's Super Bowl. "My mom was so happy for me," he says. "But then she asked me, 'What's the Super Bowl?' "
美式橄榄球逐步俘获中国球迷
单强（音译）对美式橄榄球了解得并不多，但这位上海的电脑咨询师说，他现在迫不及待地想到酒吧和朋友们一起观看本年度超级碗(Super Bowl)大赛中费城鹰队(Philadelphia Eagles)与新英格兰爱国者队(New England Patriots)之间的比赛。
“我喜欢橄榄球，因为它狂野十足、让人血脉沸腾。每个球员都是那么个性十足。”刚刚20岁的单强说道。他是新英格兰爱国者队的球迷，他说自己很喜欢模仿这些球员的衣著和纹身，在他眼里球员们搭在身上的毛巾都像是别致的披风。
和单强一样，很多深受西方观念影响的中国年轻人开始慢慢发现了美式橄榄球的魅力。奥克兰突击者队(Oakland Raiders)的新款恤衫印上了汉字“必胜”，成为加州14家专卖店和该队官方网站的畅销商品。奥克兰突击者队的官方网站去年11月推出了中文版。美国全国橄榄球联盟(National Football League, 简称NFL)的全球合作伙伴锐步公司(Reebok International Ltd.)也正在中国试销NFL商品。
NFL不得不承认，它的上述成功更大程度上是因为中国年轻一代对西方风格的喜爱，而不仅仅是他们喜欢美式橄榄球。但是，NFL刚刚与上海文广新闻传媒集团(Shanghai Media Group)签署的一项为期五年的合约就足以表明NFL开拓中国市场的认真态度。上海文广新闻传媒集团获准在此期间通过东方卫视(Dragon TV)和12个省级电视网络直播超级碗比赛，NFL不愿透露协议的财务条款，但表示这项协议将把NFL比赛带给大约3亿户中国家庭。2月6号费城鹰队对决新英格兰爱国者队的比赛就包含在协议范围之内。
早在这项协议签署之前，NFL去年就在中国中央电视台(China Central Television, 简称CCTV)首度播放了一场超级碗比赛，当时鹰队边锋陆高伟(Chad Lewis)进行了精彩的解说，这次节目获得了观众的热烈欢迎。陆高伟曾作为摩门教传教士旅居台湾，在那里学会了中文。上周日超级碗比赛直播由通用汽车(General Motors Corp.)旗下的凯迪拉克(Cadillac)提供独家赞助。
要想渗入中国市场，橄榄球运动还面临许多障碍：NFL没有亚裔球员；橄榄球不是奥运会(Olympic)比赛项目；还有就是它在人们心目中的形象：野蛮。与拥有相扑这项传统体育运动的日本不同，中国人对身体直接接触的运动项目很陌生。但即使障碍重重，中国市场的巨大潜力也足以让商家前来一试身手。
NFL全球营销机构NFL International的副总裁戈登?史米顿(Gordon Smeaton)说，一旦中国人认准什么事，往往都能做好。他说，“我们不能低估中国迅速成为橄榄球运动重要新生力量的可能性。”
NFL International在2003年与中国教育部(Department of Education)合作，在中学校园里发起了禁止身体接触的腰旗橄榄球运动，并著手培养中国本土的教练员。
上海、北京和广州三个城市共有80多家中学参加了腰旗橄榄球项目，有300多名教练和裁判参与了这一运动项目的推广。中国国家腰旗橄榄球队去年8月首次参加了在加拿大温哥华举行的2004 NFL 锐步腰旗橄榄球世界锦标赛，在参赛的10支队伍中名列第九。NFL计划今年在中国举办世界锦标赛，史米顿解释说，这是为了向中国年轻一代介绍这项比赛的一些基本规则，几年之后他们长大成人接受了常规训练后，再向他们介绍各种技巧。
上海体育推广企业前锐公司(Zou Marketing)的董事总经理索尔?彼得森(Tor Petersen)说，这才是刚刚迈出的第一步。前锐承揽了NFL和耐克公司(Nike Inc.)的项目推广工作。彼得森认为，中国形成一批稳定的橄榄球爱好者队伍需耗时10-20年。“我们这么估计是因为橄榄球运动与中国传统文化观念大相径庭。”
橄榄球主题的电子游戏是影响中国青少年的重要途径。电子艺界(Electronic Arts Inc.)副总裁杰夫?布朗(Jeff Brown)说，在中国推出电子艺界橄榄球电子游戏的念头非常诱人，因为西方体育项目和电子游戏在中国已经非常普及。
去年12月，电子艺界和NFL签署了一项价值3亿美元的协议，获得了在NFL Madden游戏中使用NFL标志、球员形象、场馆和其他资产的独家权利。该公司计划在2010年前从亚洲市场收获多达10亿美元的收入。
这项运动也通过文化交流逐步传播：旅美中国公民慢慢熟悉了橄榄球，然后把它带回国内。居住在美国的11位中国学生和专业人士发起了一个名为“China 11”的组织，目的就是在国内传播橄榄球运动。
他们还为NFL中文官方网站撰写文章和评论，联合编写了长达20页的中文美式橄榄球入门指南，NFL计划在上周日的比赛前出版这本指南，并在中国发行。
有些体育推广人士认为，土生土长的球员能加快橄榄球在中国的普及速度。“NFL缺少的只是一个姚明，”纽约营销机构TSE Sports & Entertainment的总裁罗伯特?塔克曼(Robert Tuchman)说。上海人姚明是NBA联盟休斯顿火箭队(Houston Rockets)的明星球员。NBA试图打开中国市场已经历时数十年，但只有在姚明2002年入选火箭队后，中国观众收看NBA比赛的人数才开始迅猛增加。
夏威夷大学(University of Hawaii)的橄榄球明星Timmy Chang很有可能成为NFL第一位华裔四分卫，但史米顿认为，出现一位中国出生的NFL明星至少还需要十年时间。“NFL是一个充满美国文化特色的机构，它让美式橄榄球运动充满活力、魅力无穷，但问题是只有美国人才热衷这项运动。”
Andrew Yang自称是一位“狂热的橄榄球迷”，1998年他从上海移居美国。他说，非常希望这项运动能博得中国人的欢心。Andrew Yang今年26岁，毕业于芝加哥DePaul大学。他说，拿到上周日超级碗比赛的门票后，他激动地马上打电话回家报喜，“我妈妈很替我高兴，但接著就问：什么是超级碗？”
