Dusting off Beijing's Olympic venues
Tuesday, 13th October 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
It's rare that venues built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics actually host events—but in the past week, three of these white elephants were actually in use. The China Open tennis tournament came to the Olympic Green Tennis Center from October 2-11; the Bird's Nest played host to a Zhang Yimou production of the Italian opera Turandot on Oct. 6 and 7; and the NBA brought a preseason game to Wukesong Basketball Arena—a facility that the league designed and now operates.Here's a quick look at each of the events:
Wukesong Arena, October 11, 2009
NBA Games at Wukesong Basketball Arena
The Denver Nuggets played the Indiana Pacers in the second NBA preseason game played here. As expected, the NBA put on a good show—Carmelo Anthony poured in 45 points; breakdancers, cheerleaders and mascots kept the crowd in their seats during breaks; and hoops activities (sponsored, of course) and a small NBA retail outlet continued the action in the arena's outer ring.
Wukesong is decades ahead of any arena used by the Chinese Basketball Association—the seats are comfortable, the jumbotron is jumbo, it actually has built in concession stands, and I doubt that "benchwarmer" will be a literal term here in the winter.
A common sight outside Beijing sports venues, scalpers were hard at work.
Its 18,000 seats were nearly all taken Sunday, but the event still seemed to suffer from some of the ticketing woes faced by other sporting events in China. In a country full of NBA fans, and a city of 17.4 million people, there should be no empty seats for the only NBA game that will happen here this year. Face values on tickets being sold on the street right before the game ranged from 600 to 2,800 yuan, but scalpers offered steep discounts. Asking prices (before any haggling) for those two ticket prices were 200 and 1,000 yuan.
I'll save an examination of the problem with getting butts in seats in China for another post, but it's safe to say that any money that the NBA is making in China does not come from ticket sales. But they do entertainment with a flair and on a scale rarely seen in China, and an event like this is primarily for branding and sponsor exposure.
On another note, what was Mike Dunleavy Jr. thinking? Does Beijing have a secret Silk Market for Blind People where he had this suit made?
China Open at Olympic Tennis Center
The China Open came to Beijing for the sixth year in a row (its history reaches back to 1993, and includes events in Shanghai). Being on the post-season Asia circuit keeps it pretty low-profile, but big purses for both the men and the women this year attracted some big names. Novak Djokovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova cruising to the men's and women's titles. Djokovic took home $500,000 for his win, and Kuznetsova $775,500. The event lacked marquee matchups in its late stages, a common problem at the Asian tournaments where the biggest stars tend to lack motivation.
Taking advantage of some of that laziness was Zhang Shuai, who beat world No. 1 Dinara Safina in the second round before losing to Marion Bartoli. Overall, China's women had a strong showing, with the best performance coming from Peng Shuai and Taiwan's Su-Wei Hseih, who took the women's doubles crown.
In singles, Peng Shuai beat Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova to make it to the quarterfinals, where she lost to Nadia Petrova. Li Na went out in the third round to Elena Dementieva, and Zheng Jie lost to eventual champ Kuznetsova in the first round. Full results are available at ChinaOpen.com.
As noted in this earlier post on the event, the matches were pretty poorly attended but the 30-yuan grounds tickets attracted crowds that enjoyed concessions and interactive entertainment provided by the sponsors. The tournament was heavily promoted through ads on CCTV-5 (China's sports channel) and in various sports publications, as well as billboards all over Beijing. Despite this, and the fact that it kicked off on a holiday weekend with great weather, Beijingers stayed away in droves.
Curiously, event organizers seem to think that a brand new stadium will somehow spike attendance. "The existing facilities cannot meet the needs of a commercial event," said China Open senior organizer Zhang Yabin, according to a recent piece in the Washington Post (New court shows ambitions of revamped China Open). The piece quotes another event organizer as saying that sponsorship (from the likes of Mercedes, Kappa and Sony Ericcson) accounted for 70 percent of revenue, whereas 50 or 60 percent would be a healthier target.
Turandot at the Bird's Nest
The most expensive and most celebrated of all of the Olympic venue constructions, the Bird's Nest is also the games' most embarrassingly dormant showpiece. Talk of bringing Chinese Soccer League games there broke down because, well, the league is famously mediocre. "We don't want to put any shame on the Bird's Nest," said Luo Ning, vice president of the company that owns Beijing Guo'an of the CSL, according to this translation in a Reuters story.
Since the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, the Bird's Nest has hosted a Jackie Chan and Friends concert last May (apparently, shame was not an issue anymore), and the Italian Super Cup Final, a soccer match between Inter Milan and Lazio on the one-year anniversary of the 2008 opening ceremony.
The latest event to hit this 91,000-seat stadium was a production of the Italian opera Turandot, directed by Zhang Yimou, who was also responsible for the opening ceremony. Blogging for The Beijinger, Anthony Tao sounded pretty underwhelmed (Turandot Turn-off). Opera, it seems, is not best enjoyed in a stadium with a red Olympic track between the audience and the stage.
Tags: Bird's Nest, China Open, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, NBA, tennis, Wukesong
Chinese sports biz news: Xinhua, AEG, Isinbayeva
Friday, 6th March 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
While the world economy reels, it looks like the business of Chinese sports is one area that's moving full-steam ahead. True, the Bird's Nest sits empty without a regular tenant or a decent lineup of future events, but there's plenty of other wheeling and dealing going on. The realization of the money-making potential of sports in China is relatively new among both domestic and international businesses, and there seems to be a bit of a scramble to gain an early foothold in this developing market. Here are some of the most recent stories in China's sports business world:Isinbayeva signs Li-Ning deal
Two-time Olympic gold medal winner and world record-holding pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva signed a multi-million dollar deal with Li-Ning, China's biggest sports apparel maker. Contrary to the seemingly widely held impression that Chinese fans only cared about hometown athletes during the Beijing Olympics, locals actually jumped right on the bandwagon with the biggest stars of the games. Isinbayeva was definitely one of them. Her agent says the deal is not only about Li-Ning, but about opening the door to deals with other Chinese companies. She joins swimmer Michael Phelps (Mazda China) and tennis player Yelena Jankovic (Anta sportswear) in signing big sponsorship deals for the Chinese market this year.
Xinhua Finance rebrands itself Xinhua Sports & Entertainment
Xinhua Finance rebranded itself as Xinhua Sports and Entertainment, effective March 2, a strong signal of the coming growth of the business of sports in China (Brand Republic). Despite its former name, Xinhua Finance is not new to the world of sports. It holds exclusive rights to the All Sports Network, giving it access to an array of big American sports brands: the NFL, NCAA March Madness, Big 10 college sports and the NHL. It also purchased the distribution of the UEFA Europa League's 2009 to 2012 seasons. Its Nasdaq trading code will change from XFML to XSEL.
AEG China names new CEO
AEG China recently named John Cappo its CEO (Ticket News). Cappo was formerly managing director of ImG China. Cappo's biggest responsibilities for now will be management of three new facilities: Wukesong Basketball Arena in Beijing; the 18,000-seat Shanghai World Expo Performing Arts Center, set to open in may of 2010; and a new sports arena in Guangzhou, being built for the 2010 Asian Games. AEG created a joint venture with NBA China last fall, which will build, market and manage 10 to 12 arenas in Greater China, to be built by over the next 11 years.
New track and field series to include China stop
The IAAF—the international organization for track and field (or athletics)—has announced a new series of one-day meets, the IAAF Diamond League, that it hopes will rejuvenate interest in the sport globally. Among the 12 events scheduled for its inaugural year in 2010, will be the China Golden Grand Prix in Shanghai (more from Reuters UK).
Tags: AEG, athletics, China Golden Grand Prix, Isinbayeva, NBA China, Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, sports marketing, track and field, Wukesong, Xinhua Sports and Entertainment
Real estate slump a ray of hope for baseball in China?
Monday, 29th December 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
But the AP story ends with an interesting observation. Real estate has been slumping in Beijing (this story cites a forecast from Jones Lang LaSalle that demand for office rentals in Beijing will dip by 10 to 15 percent next year), making 2009 a less than ideal year for the site's majority owner, ACRE, to find a new tenant for this piece of land.
AP quotes Harvey Schiller, the president of the International Baseball Federation, as saying: "Maybe current economic conditions will work in our favor, hopefully." Schiller and Major League Baseball seem to be hoping that the delay in developing new plans for the stadium site will buy them some time to get some other ducks in a row. Major League Baseball runs a youth development program called "Play Ball," and is reportedly still lobbying to get games aired on CCTV.
The stadium was christened last spring with a pair of exhibition games between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers, which were reported to be played in front of sellout crowds, despite at least a quarter of the seats being empty.
Related: Spring Training in Beijing
Tags: baseball, Beijing, MLB, Wukesong
NBA to build arenas across China
Wednesday, 15th October 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Among the challenges the NBA faces in holding games in China, or otherwise taking advantage of the league's huge popularity here, is a lack of venues equipped to host NBA events. As has been expected, the league is making big moves to remedy that situation, with a joint venture with Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) to develop a dozen arenas in China.Early reports and conventional wisdom suggest that the first site developed will be in Shanghai, with an 18,000-seat arena completed in time for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The second site, Guangzhou, is expected to be announced at Wednesday's NBA preseason game at Guangzhou Gymnasium.
"Our largest market outside the United States is going to be here in China," said Heidi Ueberroth, president of NBA global marketing partnerships and international business operations. Tim Chen, CEO of NBA China, said that the NBA and AEG will have a $28 million stake in the Shanghai project and that the total project cost will be $277 million. By contrast, the Ford Center, a similarly sized arena that will host the Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly the Seattle Supersonics), cost $89 million to build.
NBA commissioner David Stern indicated that construction wouldn't start right away and that the league hadn't chose all of the locations for arenas, which could also be in "Greater China" cities like Taipei, Macao and Hong Kong.. "We weren't going to start construction in the next couple of weeks," he said at a news conference with AEG in London. "We anticipate that in a relatively short order we will have laid out a road map of a dozen buildings or so throughout China." He added that decisions would be made over the next several months about where to put arenas.
AEG president and CEO Timothy J. Leiweke said he considered it a 20-year project, and that most of the new venues will be "built and designed from the ground up."
The arenas will be part of multiuse entertainment complexes, according to a statement from the NBA: "Where feasible, the arenas will be developed in conjunction with surrounding cultural and entertainment districts potentially comprised of restaurants, retail outlets, cinemas, hotels, residential areas, sports training facilities and smaller live entertainment venues."
The announcement comes just days before the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors play a pair of pre-season games in China. They will play at Guangzhou Gymnasium October 15 and on October 18 at Wukesong Arena in Beijing, the Olympic basketball venue developed by the NBA.
Related: Bucks and Warriors to play in China in 2008
Basketball's China Game Plan
Tags: basketball, Beijing, Guangzhou, NBA, Shanghai, Wukesong
Bucks and Warriors to play China in 2008
Thursday, 28th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The NBA keeps doing its best to dominate the post-Olympic China sports news cycle. The latest: the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors will play a pair of preseason games in China in October. The first will be played in Guangzhou Gymnasium October 15; the second will take place at Beijing's Wukesong Arena October 18.The Milwaukee Bucks are featured in this game, despite trading Chinese forward Yi Jianlian (易建联) to the New Jersey Nets on the eve of the NBA draft. The Bucks do have a player with a China connection, rookie Joe Alexander, who spent his middle school and early high school years in Beijing.
As sports marketing consultant Xia Song told CST in June, "Milwaukee has become a popular team in China. Even without Yi, it's still going to be a popular team in China. And if they have a player with a connection to China, that player is going to get attention here."
Related:
How the NBA draft looks from China
Basketball's China game plan
Tags: basketball, Beijing, Golden State Warriors, Guangzhou, Milwaukee Bucks, NBA, Wukesong, Xia Song, Yi Jianlian
Spring Training in Beijing
Sunday, 16th March 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The two-game Beijing spring training series between Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers ended this weekend with a 3-3 tie on Saturday and a 6-3 Padres' win on Sunday. The teams played to a not-quite-full house in Wukesong Stadium, the 12,000-seat venue that will host Olympic baseball in August.
The double header had a little bit of everything you'd expect from a preseason major league competition—hot dogs, beer, some sloppy plays and a rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," sung by a few American fans called down to the field during the seventh inning stretch. Beijing even had unseasonably good baseball weather—sunny skies both days and a high temperature Sunday of 17 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit).
Does Baseball Have A Shot?
The series is part of MLB's efforts to create a market for the game in China, and Dodgers manager Joe Torre and MLB commissioner Bud Selig both waxed optimistic about the future of baseball in China.
"I have no doubt in my mind that in a decade, baseball will be big in China," MLB.com quotes Selig as saying. In reality, the game's future here isn't so certain and MLB still has a long way to go to even come close to the success that the NBA has had with basketball. That was evidenced by the below-capacity attendance in an easily accessible stadium in a city of 15 million people.
"I think it would take a while to make baseball work in China," said Jeffrey Cheung, a Beijing resident from Hong Kong. "First you have to have some parks and get kids playing, and get some good players in college, and then maybe put together a decent national team."
Cheung has been a baseball fan since he was first introduced to it as a college student in Pennsylvania. He said that he would like to be involved in growing the game in China, but that any efforts will face big challenges in one key area—getting facilities built. "If you spend the money to build a stadium and no one plays in it, it is very obvious and embarrassing to the government," he said. Unlike a basketball gymnasium, a baseball diamond can't be used for much other than the game it's intended for.
It also it seemed the MLB missed some opportunities this weekend to make the game relatable to an audience that knows little about it. The electronic scoreboard had no Chinese on it (except for the characters Zhongguo Sai – China Competition—on the series logo). The teams' names, the statistics and short tutorials about some baseball terms were all displayed in English. And while everyone received a program and a set of noisemakers on entering, the program lacked rosters and statistics.
And much to the chagrin of some American fans, vendors ran out of hot dogs before the game even started on Sunday, and on Saturday they ran out of both hot dogs and beer before the seventh inning stretch.
A Fan is Born
Beijing resident Li Yipeng
"He's really lucky today," said Li's mother, Xu Jingli, who was at the game with Li and his father. The family of sports fans also attended a softball tournament in Beijing last year. Xu said the family knew the rules of the game, but Li has still never played it. On Sunday, an American fan at the game taught him to swing his new bat, but he won't likely have any pitches to swing at soon.
Worth the Trip
While one new fan was created, a veteran demonstrated the irrational behavior of the extremely dedicated. Native Southern Californian Richard Marcotte flew to Beijing from his home in Kentucky just to see the game. He carried a Dodgers blue foam #1 finger and a homemade sign that read "#1 LA Fan." Marcotte arrived in time for the seventh inning of the Saturday game, and was booked on a flight back home on Monday.
"I've got a really nice wife who let me come out here," he said. "Especially with a four-year-old and a six-year-old at home,"
Ironically, Marcotte came to the Beijing game in part because he couldn't get a ticket to the Dodgers' sold-out pre-season game against the Boston Red Sox in the 90,000-seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Since he works for a subsidiary of Delta Airlines, his flight to Tokyo was free, and his Tokyo-Beijing flight cost him about $200 roundtrip.
Richard Marcotte flew from Kentucky for the game
Marcotte added that his homemade sign caused a small security stir. Event security officials brought an English-speaking interpreter to find out the meaning of "#1 LA Fan from Kentucky," ostensibly to make sure that his sign didn't include any references to sensitive issues. That's one concern that could get interesting when millions of foreigners come to Beijing in August to root for their home teams.
Overall, the games were at least a start for MLB's overtures to China. Maybe next time the league brings a game here, the local kids lining up for the pre-game batting cages will know how to swing a bat.
Links:
Los Angeles Dodgers' China Series 2008 Web site
A Danwei.com story about security shenanigans during Saturday's game.
Tags: baseball, Beijing, Dodgers, MLB, Padres, Wukesong