incog
Years ago

China

200 Million kids play basketball in China according to NBA.COM. Australia's entire, total population is around 20 Million!

Topic #945 | Report this topic

OZBBallDream
Years ago

wow, that's alot, which is so important that Australia takes adavantage of the Asian market(which it's starting to do) to help promote and import players from China into the NBL.

Here is an email someone had sent to Rick Burton and his response...

"Why are you and the NBL placing so much emphasis on the Asian market when there are plenty of issues within Australia for you to deal with?"

Rick Burton: I've been pretty upfront about my hopes of expanding the NBL's profile in Asia and my support of initiatives like the Melbourne Tigers tours of China and the Perth Wildcats 'Summer Jam' being uplinked via satellite into Asia. I think that as a business and that's what the NBL is, a sports entertainment business we can't afford to ignore the fact that Australia is part of the larger Oceania and Asia region. The Tigers historic signing of Asian company Haier as naming rights sponsor is a terrific example of the benefits that can flow to Australian basketball from involvement and exposure in Asia.

Now that doesn't mean that we are looking to expand into Asia at the expense of Australian basketball. Rather, we see that the ability to expose our brand to the billions of people that are now following basketball in Asia as the chance to enhance the NBL brand for our players, coaches, owners and partners. Just as the addition of a team in New Zealand has proven beneficial for the league, we think that a regular season NBL game in an Asian city might be a terrific way to get our game seen by a large, untapped market. But the health of our existing participant clubs and the interests of our Australian and New Zealand fans will always be my highest priority.

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