Just went to a news conference in Beijing, so it seems to me that China wants Houston Rockets to play the preseason here, but NBA wants to promote its other teams. Here is the story: NFL and NBA teams will play in Beijing this August and October respectively, said Sun Kanglin, Director of the Beijing Sports Bureau in a news conference Wednesday. The NFL will feature its debut around August 8 this year, marking the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. As the No. 1 sport in the US, American-style football has yet to become popular in the Middle Kingdom. "The game is to help more Chinese to understand and enjoy football, especially young people," said Sun. The exact date has not been finalized, but the venue will be the Beijing Workers' Stadium. The NBA has already become tremendously popular in China, partly because the league held two preseason games between the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings in Shanghai and Beijing in 2004. Two NBA teams will return to Beijing this October. "The NBA pre-season game will be played in the Olympic Basketball Stadium if the project can be finished on time. Otherwise it can be played in the Workers' Stadium," said Sun. When asked which teams will play in Beijing, Sun said both the NFL and the NBA will send their best. According the Houston Chronicle, the NBA will likely send Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers to China, instead of the Houston Rockets, where Yao Ming plays as the starting center.
Makes sense. I guess the NBA wants to see the reaction with exciting American players (DHoward, LeBron James) before sending T-Mac and Yao to China.
the NBA shoulda sent the Miami-Knicks 90's playoffs games to Beijing, the Chinese woulda loved those (no sarcasm).
American style football has failed to expand outside North America, it's not just the middle kingdom that doesn't get it, NFL europe is consolidating. Now they're going to mess up NE and SEA's entire preseason by sending them to China, nice, why couldn't they send OAK and DET instead.
and this isn't entirely accurate either: the nba had a presence in china long before these preseason games, even before yao. this season is the 20th anniversary of the nba on cctv. but yao is a big factor in that popularity, more so than those pre-season games. also the chinese have been playing basketball for a very long time, one of the few "foreign" things that survived the cultural revolution. if they think staging a couple pre-season games is the trick then they will be in for a big surprise.
Dude, there's been a conspiracy to get the NBA into China because of the $$$ potential. Do you know what's the official HDTV of the NBA?? Not Sony, Not Samsung Its Haier A CHINESE COMPANY oh, what about the computer of the NBA?? Dell??? No LENOUVO A CHINESE COMPANY Don't F## with David Stern, he's knows how to make money.
Nobody cares about the NFL outside of North America. What's the point of the NFL coming to China. Asians only care about Football (soccer), and Basketball, with baseball popular in some Northeast Asian countries.
There's nothing that teh Chinese love more than watching people compete really hard against each other to the point of fighting. You would have heard "Jia-Yu" for the whole game. People like Charlie Ward or PJ Brown would be worshipped over there.
Entirely accurate. In my life in Hong Kong, I don't think I've ever seen an American football pitch, and the one pitch that I've seen that is utterly unique is a rugby pitch.
thats awesome because there's no such thing as a pitch in "american football". well there is a pitch but it's used maybe once a game and only if your name is Favre or Manning. The correct term is "thrown".
