Too lazy to translate the whole thing, but a few pts: Yao signed a "framework agreement" with Sharks. Yao will own 100% of the club. Yao's thankful for the opportunity to replay his "mother" club. Sharks been losing $ ever since Yao departed. The goal is to make Sharks an international brand. Full story (in Chinese of course) http://sports.sina.com.cn/cba/2009-07-15/21454483383.shtml
This is what happens when fantasy league isn't enough, you are injured for the season and you have millions of dollars while warcraft subscription is only $15 a month.
I hope Yao didn't blow too much cash. I don't think he will be one of those broke athletes, but spending money on minor league teams can prove to be damaging.
HAHAHA, he must have maxed out his character in Warcraft. Or better yet, he "beat" the game. You think Yao plays a gnome in the game and lives vicariously through it? Like, he sleeps in a normal bed, rides a tinier steed than the rest of his online buddies, everything he wishes he could do in reality.
to the post above.. i think i read somewhere, that china blocked world of warcarft lol. like the server the game uses is prohibited in china. I could be wrong though lol. man china blocks everything, hotmail(for a week i think),youtube, p*rn, google (for a couple of days). i feel bad for them lol
China blocks Wow because of the thousands or even millions of kids having internet addiction. I mean imagine Yao being addicted to his lvl 80 tauren hunter and won't leave the house for one of his NBA games. That would be hillarious.
That Chinese article never mentioned that Yao will own 100% of the shares. It only talked about the transferring of shares, not how many shares.
Great long term investment for Yao. China has gone from the 11th largest economy to the 3rd in a matter of 5 years. It is projected that they will pass Japan as the 2nd biggest economy in a few years. China will have a pro league as big as the NBA someday and Yao will be known as the Les Alexander of China.
it's not sociology it's business just like you have different distributors for movies and books in different countries, Blizzard franchises the game in different markets. US players are blocked from China and vice versa not because of politics but because a different company "owns" your characters. whoever runs the servers owns the characters and everything in the game, technically you're renting access to your own characters when you play wow. this is why they can ban you, prevent you from selling gold, ebaying your characters etc. if you had rights to ownership they couldn't do **** like that also because chinese are so poor they have a different pricing plan than americans just like with windows. in the US you pay 15 bucks a month, in china it's pennies an hour. even if Blizzard ran the servers in both coutries, you wouldn't be able to play on the same servers due to this basic price discrimination. back on topic, this is a great move for Yao. the man has been playing ball since he was prepubescent. what else does he know? it's not like he's opening a coffee house Yao understands the business of running a ballclub on the highest level. i think yao will have much success with this endeavor
He bought it willingly. However the sina report says Yao's bid wasn't the highest among all suitors. He got a discount for being the hometown hero, but OTOH this is a reflection of how unregulated the Chinese sports market is and this investment could prove to be risky, IMHO.
