Eyeing extra yardage

By Li Ying Source:Global Times Published: 2013-11-6 19:08:02

Students play a game of flag football on November 3 at Beihang University, Haidian district. Photo: Li Hao/GT


 

Just days out from the debut American football exhibition game to be held in China, Ganlan Media International (GMI) chairman Wu Hua has been frantic in his 10th-story CBD office. On November 10, the Philadelphia East and Arizona West will clash at the Beijing Capital Gymnasium to give Chinese fans a taste of the Arena Football League (AFL), a professional indoor American football league.

Wu, 61, is the main promoter of the match on the Chinese side. He hopes Sunday's game will generate interest in a sport that has struggled to find traction in China.

Aside from exciting sports enthusiasts, Wu hopes the match will also convince China's business sector to see the benefits of sponsoring the AFL. "Sports in China used to be exclusively sponsored by the government. Before the country's opening up, the government had to invest limited funds into several sports. Now many sports are being commercialized, companies can sponsor their development," said Wu, a former sports journalist at the People's Daily.

Founded in May 2012, GMI is the sole Chinese sports marketing and media company accredited with the AFL. The National Football League (NFL), the world's richest professional sports league, opened its Beijing office in 2007 in a bid to expand its reach in a country beckoning with a potentially massive fan base and TV ratings.  

But unlike soccer and basketball, American football has found it harder to win a place in Chinese sporting fans' hearts. Despite its late arrival, American football is now starting to make up for lost time by staging what the AFL hopes will be a sold-out blockbuster game on Sunday.  

National amateur league

Mexican industrial designer Alex Yuasa, 34, and his wife Ren Yuqian form an unlikely pair of American football pioneers in China. Both helped found the country's first national amateur American football league, the American Football League of China, in 2013. The full-contact league, which kicked off its inaugural season last month, has eight teams divided into two divisions.

Ren recalled it was disheartening the first time she and Yuasa attempted to organize their team, the Tianjin Pirates. But they didn't give up, joining groups on online chat service QQ to connect with Chinese fans of American football and share their thoughts on NFL games.

"Only several people showed up on the field after we posted our ad [recruiting players] at a gym," Ren said. "Foreigners have played an important role in establishing the league. While Chinese like me thought too much about building a business model, [foreigners] just took direct action and founded the league for fun."

The Tianjin Pirates currently has 30 players, most of whom are Chinese and aged around 30. They train once a week for four hours and have "developed rather slowly" compared to other teams, said Ren.

Aside from teams in the league based in the metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tianjin, there are also teams representing inland cities including Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

"It's interesting to play with Chinese people, although China doesn't have an American football culture. In the US, football is an event for the whole family. But here there isn't such a reputation," said Yuasa, who began following the NFL as a teenager.

A player receives attention for an injury during a match at Beihang University. Photo: Li Hao/GT


 

Charging into the red zone

Richard Young, NFL China managing director, said American football has undergone a "dramatic" rise in China over the past two years.

"There are more than 9 million people in China's first-tier cities that have some interest in the NFL and approximately 3 million true NFL fans [nationwide]. Fan growth in China is averaging more than 35 percent year-on-year," he said.

Despite these encouraging figures, Young conceded that the 1.4 million people involved in playing American football in China are still massively dwarfed by comparative figures in basketball and soccer.  

The NFL planned to hold the exhibition game "China Bowl" in 2007 and 2009, but both were eventually canceled.

The match, between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, was slated for Beijing, only to be canceled after the NFL instead chose to host the game in London.

"We do not just want to have a game here [in China]," Young said. "We have a long-term view, and want to take [the sport's development] at a good pace. What the NFL is doing in China is focused on the grass-roots level. We want people can have the chance to kick a ball, throw a ball, catch a ball and understand the different parts of the NFL."

One reason American football has had sluggish development in China is that it isn't an Olympic sport. Under the State-sponsored system, Olympic sports receive greater financial and logistical support in development. With no governing body or government investment at home, American football has largely been left to fend for itself in China.

Young admitted that the NFL has been "slowed down" in its international growth as a homogenous game, but Wu said lucrative opportunities for emerging sports could fast track its popularity among Chinese. 

Although the AFL currently lacks any Chinese sponsors, Wu insists it's only a matter of time before businesses see it as a sound investment. "There is generous space for American-style football to grow," he noted.

Students participate in an AFL training program earlier this year. Photo: Courtesy of GMI


 

 

Wu Hua (right) poses with a colleague from GMI. Photo: Courtesy of GMI


 

Nurturing future stars

Currently, the most popular form of American football in China is flag football, a limited contact version that can be played by unisex teams. Since flag football was introduced to Chinese high school and university students around 2003, it has surged in popularity.

This year's NFL University Flag Football League attracted more than 1,000 students playing for 36 teams from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

The fifth annual China University Bowl, or national flag football championship, will be held on November 17 at NFL Home Field in Guangzhou.

The NFL views flag football as an effective way to popularize American football in China. Homegrown enthusiasts of the game agree, saying it helps soften the brutish reputation of a sport wracked by concussion-related controversies.

"For many Chinese, American football is considered barbaric. But flag football is less violent and parents are more comfortable letting their kids play," said Wang Yan, who was introduced to American football as a student at Beijing Sports University in 2003.

Wang, who was among the first group of university students recruited by NFL China to be trained in a development program, views the growth of the NFL as another sign that Chinese athletes can muscle up in any contact sport.

"Traditionally, Chinese have been good at playing sports with a net, such as table tennis and badminton. But now more people are willing to accept the involvement of full-body contact," said Wang. "Even when you watch games of basketball [in China], you can see referees are allowing a bit more physicality than before."

Long-term goals

Just as Jeremy Lin created "Linsanity" in the NBA as the first American of Chinese descent to play in the NBA, the NFL has a similar star in the form of Ed Wang - a 143-kilogram offensive tackle Chinese-American who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Wu said American football was the perfect arena for Chinese to show they can rumble with the best. "I like what Mao Zedong once said: 'Young people should be civilized spiritually and savage physically.' It's the perfect slogan to promote American football in China," he said.

Despite its rapid development, Young is under no illusions that American football will always be a minnow in China's sporting world.

"I think that we will be a small sport for a long time. Just like coffee is not going to overtake tea, we are not going to overtake basketball, soccer, or even swimming or volleyball [in China]."

Young reiterated the NFL's mission was based on the "quality of the product."

"I first came to China 23 years ago, and when I was a student I took out a friend to enjoy a cup of coffee. Back then, there were not many cafés in China. I was told that Chinese people will never embrace coffee because 'our tastes are totally different from you guys,'" Young recalled. In any case, China will have a clearer idea about whether American football can become sports fans' "cup of tea" after Sunday's AFL game.



Posted in: Metro Beijing

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