This article discusses the enormous growth potential for the Chinese Sports industry. While many sectors of the Chinese economy have taken off, growth in the sports industry has been relatively underwhelming. This article indicates that this is about to change. The government is working draw in more foreign and domestic private investment. Increasing disposable incomes and living standards metropolitan cities are fostering the growth of a new market of young, excited sports fans. Many believe growth was being held back by government focus on Olympic success, placing an emphasis on smaller market sports like diving and gymnastics because they had the most promising chance of immediate Olympic success. This strategy left large market sports like baseball, soccer, and basketball behind. While this may have temporarily stifled growth, I believe that China’s current efforts to increase investment will be successful and ultimately the sports industry will grow; first through foreign investors and then through domestic fans who “hop on the bandwagon.”
As the number of Super Bowl viewers in the US has been increasing, the increase is definitely declining at a very rapid rate. However, once NFL started broadcasting the game in China, more and more people have started watching it, at least in China itself. They are interested in the game. Thus, NFL has been planning to involve China in “American” Football, or “Olive Ball”, as what the Chinese call it.
Also, plans were been made to have a “China Bowl” in 2007, which was postponed to 2009, and then later cancelled. We have seen China’s interest in basketball with Yao Ming. Maybe “Olive Ball” could be the next big game in China?
What is the PE curriculum in Chinese schools? In the US, Europe and Japan – I know nothing of the Caribbean or South America – team sports are built in. That provides a natural fan base, both among players and their friends & family. (In Japan, the high school baseball championship gets better the followership than the World Series in the US.) Anyway, answer the former and you get insights into the potential for interest in team sports, which (unlike gymnastics or track and field) don’t necessarily make sense to the uninitiated.
But why talk of the NFL – I’d think basketball is the game. Sure, if NFL viewership is stagnant, every little bit helps. But if you are talking about a Chinese sports industry, I can’t imagine US (or Canadian) football ever being popular
The only way for football to become popular in China is if the NFL gets a Chinese-born star player, similar to the Yao Ming and the NBA. However, developing a Chinese-born football star would be much more difficult than developing a basketball star. In order to develop football in China, it will cost a lot of money. In order to play, players will need their own personal pads, which makes football difficult to promote especially when competing against the cheaper and more popular sport of basketball. Even if FDI from the NFL fixes the money issue, the NFL will still have trouble promoting the sport. The NFL has experienced problems with promoting the sport in other countries and now deals with health problems that have cause domestic participation rates to drop. These problems make me believe football is not the right sport for China, and that China should look to increase popularity in other team sports.