Another random thought, while watching ball.
(That’s a great thing about baseball, isn’t it? How you can do other things while it’s going on and not really miss much?)
Anyway, I have been impressed by the enthusiasm of the Chinese for the sports on the Olympic menu, most of which they can’t possibly have any real familiarity with. Volleyball, team handball, boxing …
And with the economy here booming, and more people accruing disposable income every day … there is going to be a demand for leisure activities of all sorts.
Including sports.
And what sport will be king in China?
I think it’s up for grabs.
Soccer has a head start. Most Chinese seem to understand the basics of the game. (Well, of course, it’s a simple sport.) China has made the World Cup a time or two but disappeared in a hurry.
They seem to love table tennis, but will that ever be a huge TV sport here? Will it fill big stadiums?
They like gymnastics and weightlifting, but will they pay tickets to see a gymnastics league?
I think the sport that has a real chance to be big … is basketball.
Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets center, is key here. Huge. He is the country’s most popular athlete (unless it’s the hurdler, Lei, who hurt himself in his first qualifying heat).
Watching Yao play — and he seems to be on TV here a lot … seems to have conveyed the basics of basketball to a lot of the Chinese.
Hoops isn’t a particularly difficult game to grasp, either.
I can say with assurance, having seen this a dozen times over the past 10 days … that Chinese volunteers and staffers will stop what they are doing to watch a basketball game. Almost any basketball game.
And if China is playing … they’re rapt. I remember the moan that went up in the main work room when the Chinese finished blowing a 15-point lead against Spain and lost in overtime.
Anyway, I assume the NBA is well aware of this foothold it has in the world’s biggest market, and is trying right now to figure out a way to leverage it into money for the league.
China is perhaps the last big untapped sports market. (If we figure India is a cricket and field hockey nation.)
Who will get it? Soccer? Or basketball?
I believe it will be one or the other.
3 responses so far ↓
1 John Zhu // Aug 19, 2008 at 9:26 AM
Just wanted to point out that the Chinese are actually very familiar with volleyball. I grew up in China in the 80s, and one of my strongest memories was following every match of the Chinese women’s volleyball team on TV, and they were definitely very popular in China at that time.
Also, table tennis has been king in China for a long time. My elementary school had five or six ping pong tables in its courtyard/playground, and that’s what everybody did between classes. It’s akin to pick-up basketball in the U.S. But more and more youths are preferring basketball. I think you’re right that basketball can be huge in China. Even before Yao Ming, my relatives and friends in China were following the Bulls on TV during their title years and the rest of the NBA as well. When I went back to China in the mid-90s, I saw kids shooting hoops on the playground, which I didn’t remember seeing when I lived there in the 80s.
2 George Alfano // Aug 19, 2008 at 8:40 PM
In 1980, a volleyball coach told me that volleyball was the second most popular sport in the world after soccer. I don’t know if that is or way true, but the game is played in many places and seems to have an “official” place in most countries.
I have always said that if an immigrant from another country comes to southern California, the team they would be most likely to follow would be the Lakers. Even 10 or 12 years ago, you would hear a wider variety of accents on Lakers’ pre- and post-game radio shows.
3 Gary // Aug 28, 2008 at 12:36 PM
And the Chinese are NOT familiar with Volley Ball? WOW. What happened to heroic welcome for Jenny Lang Ping’s return to China as she led the American women’s team to their best showing since 1984(when they happened to lose to the Chinese?)
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