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November 18, 2018

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Alisports launches ambitious plan to revolutionize Chinese college basketball

BROADCAST live to millions, two teams packed with future basketball stars battle it out on court, watched by a near-capacity Chinese crowd, enthralled by the seductive razzmatazz of US sports culture.

This exciting spectacle is exactly what was seen at Shanghai’s Baoshan Stadium last Saturday, where Pacific-12 (Pac-12) conference side Cal-Berkeley lost 76-59 to Ivy League team Yale in their first game of the season. In the fourth edition of the annual Pac-12 China Game, which brings a regular NCAA season match to China, presentation was slick. The crowd was a lively mix of local basketball fans and American supporters, some of whom had traveled from the United States especially for the game.

Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming was courtside to take in the action, and fans and even journalists clamored to take selfies with the 2.26-meter former Houston Rockets star.

In short, the occasion was as authentic a representation of college basketball as China has seen. And for Alisports, showcasing the US college sports model in front of a live Chinese audience is their latest step in an ambitious plan to revolutionize the China University Basketball Association league competition and elevate it to the same level as its US counterpart.

Alisports, a division of e-commerce giant Alibaba, recently announced a seven-year cooperation deal worth almost US$100 million with the Federation of University Sports of China, a body which supervises inter-collegiate competitions in the country. The cooperation deal spans a wide range of areas from marketing and sponsorships, to broadcast rights and social media projects.

Yao Ming was also present at the China-US University Sports & Education Summit in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. As an outspoken supporter of creating greater connections between CUBA and the Chinese Basketball Association, Yao’s presence alongside senior officials from the FUSC and the Ministry of Education was a sincere demonstration of the determination of all parties involved to improve college basketball in China.

At the summit, Zhang Dazhong, CEO of Alisports, spoke in support of Yao’s efforts to create more linkage between China’s basketball organizations. “I think Yao Ming has the right idea of opening the door of the CBA to talented student athletes,” he said, adding, “Right now, CUBA only plays a very small role in sending talented players to the CBA — very few players from CUBA get to play in the CBA.”

In recent years the Chinese government has invested heavily in improving its sports, both to improve the performances of its professional clubs and national teams, and also from a social perspective, to improve the well-being of the population by encouraging them to be more active and enjoy sport as a shared activity. However the process has not been smooth with pressures such as excess homework for school children leading many parents to be reluctant to let their kids spend free time on sports such as basketball. This in turn has led to a renewed push from the authorities to introduce more sports into schools.

Zhang Dazhong said supporting such grassroots development was also something that Alisports was dedicated to, but said structural changes in the way sports are organized and run were necessary. “The Chinese Basketball Association has opened the door to student athletes, the next step is for schools to figure out how to better connect with the CBA. I think raising the overall competitive level of campus sport is the key challenge for the Ministry of Education.”

Zhang Dazhong said he believed the sport industry had a lot of potential on campus, but would have to overcome some misunderstandings when it came to the relationship between industry and education. He also said that Chinese college game formats were not so interesting for sponsors and this was holding back campus sport in the country. He held up the example of the NCAA as something Alisports were looking to learn from.

A common theme in Chinese sports are problems concerning how they are managed and regulated, particularly from the point of view of commercial exploitation. Zhang emphasized that opening up the management of college sports beyond local educational departments was an important step in bringing the sports closer to society and making it easier for parents of students, and anyone else, to get involved in college sports and to follow it closely.

He offered a glimpse into Alisports vision for Chinese University Basketball. “Gathering all resources from society and putting them into campus sport will help to create a general understanding and respect for operating it in a commercial way, and I believe this is where campus sport in China is going.”

The game between Cal-Berkley and Yale was the climax of a week of US-China basketball events which included a range of cultural exchange visits involving the visiting US student players, a basketball summit and a match between a joint Beijing-Suzhou University side and Yale Bulldogs which resulted in a 93-84 win for the Americans.

Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai — who has recently acquired a 49 percent stake in NBA side Brooklyn Nets — finds himself standing squarely at a bustling crossroads of US-China relations and collegiate basketball. Tsai’s personal role became all the more relevant as it was revealed at a press conference before the match that around 30 delegates were in attendance at the Cal-Berkeley vs Yale match. Speaking before the game, Tsai spoke with conviction about the wider benefits of collegiate basketball to contribute to improving international relations in the region. “I think it’s important to have this kind of cultural exchange, particularly for sports and education,” Tsai said.

Tsai emphasized that Alisports was committed to bringing more exchanges on a wide range of educational, sporting and business levels, via its support for Chinese University Basketball.

Adding to Tsai’s comments, basketball has a vital role to play in improving US-China relations in general, FUSC president Xue Yanqing said, speaking at the same press event. Xue explained the importance of sport in breaking down barriers between different peoples, with the US and China’s shared love of Basketball making it an ideal channel for cultural exchange.

“Student sports exchange programs such as the China Pac-12 is the best method of improving mutual understanding on both sides,” said Xue.

Xue went on to make the connection between sport and the history of international relations, referring to ping pong diplomacy of the 1970s. “Since the establishment of the China-US relationship, ping pong has played a role, well, now I think it is basketball’s turn.”

Another central figure in the action packed US-Chinese basketball agenda was Cal guard James Zhao. The Shandong native played a translator role and was the focus of much local and US media attention as he led his teammates on a series of sightseeing tours around Shanghai. The players, most of whom well over 1.80 meters tall, were a conspicuous and very friendly group as they made their way around the city as cultural ambassadors for the US.

“A lot of my teammates have not even left the USA before, so for me to be able to bring them back to China and show them the place and my culture has been something really special and worthwhile,” he said.

Pac-12 deputy commissioner Jamie Zaninovic said the US basketball delegation had enjoyed a “phenomenal week of activities in China for Pac-12.”

Zaninovic explained that as part of Pac-12’s cooperation with Alisports, some 175 Pac-12 games would be shown live online in China via partner Youkou, which was “incredibly exciting for our future growth here.” He also announced that the next stage of cooperation with the FUSC and Alisports would come in the shape of a 2019 Pac-12 China Game between Arizona State University and the University of Colorado.




 

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