Sports Magnates Go for Gold in China

 By staff reporter JIAO FENG

    Chinese people are showing an unprecedented enthusiasm for sport in this post-Olympic era. Since September 2009, many of the world's top sporting contests were fought on Chinese soil, including the World Snooker Shanghai Masters, the China Open, NBA exhibition games in Beijing, the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000, the Formula One Powerboat World Championship in Shenzhen and the Race of Champions held in the Bird's Nest. These events have succeeded in attracting large audiences while delivering healthy profits for the sport magnates who made them possible.

Real Madrid Leads the Way

    As early as August 2003, Real Madrid FC made its way into China.

    The team earned €700,000 for their training match in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, and €2 million for a friendly game in Beijing. On top of the salaries, the Chinese organizer provided them free training fields as well as cozy accommodations at luxury hotels. The Chairman of Real Madrid FC was instantly captivated by China's new zeal for the sport and its untapped money making potential.

    Obviously, this success strongly influenced sporting professionals and marketers worldwide.

    The next year Formula One held its first race in China. A total sellout (150,000 tickets) transpired over a week before the engines started. F1 teams from around the world enjoyed huge returns during the three-day event. Team Ferrari sold over 1,200 caps and 800 T-shirts despite the relatively high price tag for the goods in China: US $48 and US $96 respectively. But Ferrari had something bigger on its mind for the Chinese market – its car sales, which had climbed to 212 in 2008 over 50 in 2004. The biggest winner in the event is obviously FIA, who, according to its contract with Shanghai for the period from 2004 to 2010, is paid US $ 50 million annually for the races' hosting and broadcasting rights.

NBA's Traveling Carnival

The NBA's Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers matched up in Beijing on October 11, 2009.

    David Stern does not want to be left out. As commissioner of the National Basketball Association, he knows firsthand that basketball fever is racing in China. When the NBA played its first exhibition game in China on October 14, 2004, the tickets were so hot that the sponsor had to limit purchases to a maximum of two per ID card.

    The game was not only an athletic showcase. "Maybe it's a competition, or maybe not. Or in other words, the competition itself seems to be an interlude, while the breaks and timeouts are the highlights," recalled a journalist who was covering the match. During the three-hour game, David Stern brought all the sponsors onto the court, singing, dancing, with a myriad of performances to fill the intermissions. "During the amazing displays of entertainment provided by the advertisers, the arena took on a festive atmosphere. Then the match resumed and tens of thousands of fans caught a second wind, just to resume the party later," narrates a fan's blog, "and what impressed me most was not the athletes' excellent skills, but America's proficiency at superb commercialization."