February 8 marks the first day of the lunar new year, but for twenty-year-old Han Wenxin, one of the growing number of American football enthusiasts in China, Super Bowl 50 is definitely more thrilling and invigorating than watching the annual Spring Festival Gala on TV.

"I might be too excited to fall asleep on the eve of game day," said Han, a college student in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. "As it approaches, I have been having a lot of dreams about all the possible outcomes of the championship." It is his fifth Super Bowl since he fell for the game in 2012.

The Super Bowl, the biggest game of the National Football League (NFL), this year features The Denver Broncos rivaling Carolina Panthers. The game will kick off at the Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California at 7:30 am Beijing time and will be streamed on eight Chinese digital media platforms including PPTV, LeSports and Alisports, and nine television channels across China, including Beijing Sports and Guangdong Sports.

"We have averaged over 12 million viewers [annually] in the past five years, and this is growing every year, so we should definitely see more than 15 million viewers in China for Super Bowl 50," said Richard Young, the managing director of NFL China. Since entering the Chinese market, where the "three big balls" - soccer, basketball and volleyball - prevail, the Chinese division of the league has been trying to cultivate a stable fan base for the American sport.

Digital media platforms are the primary access point for China's American football fans who want to watch Super Bowl and NFL games. Photo: Li Hao/GT

 

The social media push

A search on Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter, yields various posts talking about the upcoming Super Bowl, ranging from game guides to updates on this year's performers, Beyonce, Coldplay and Lady Gaga. The hashtag #Super Bowl 50#, initiated by NFL China, has over 2 million reads.

It is not the first attempt by Young's team to launch social media promotion campaigns to drive fan engagement. In 2015, hashtag #Super Bowl 49# drew fan attention not only to the game but also its advertising, and singing sensation Katy Perry, who was given the nickname "fruit sister" by her Chinese fans.

"Social media is the hub of everything we do, considering the fans to our on-ground events as well as our on-air games and highlights," Young said of the league's key strategy in China.

In January, the NFL China official Weibo account, which boasts over 400,000 followers, was ranked the sixth most influential sports league account on Weibo, according to the Weibo Yearly Review. It is the third highest Weibo ranked international sports league, behind the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Premier League in the UK.

In China, the NBA is still the most popular foreign sports league given the sports' strong fan base. The NBA successfully tapped into the Chinese market in the 1990s thanks to television technology which brought high-quality basketball matches to the country. Hoping to gain a similar foothold in the market, the NFL's strategy is to use social networks and video streaming platforms to reach targeted Chinese audiences.

"I believe American football is the fastest growing sport among young males in first- and second-tier cities," said Young. They are also among the active users of social networking websites. 

Retired NFL star Ryan Clark coaches a Chinese middle school student at the Beijing Bayi School during his visit to the city in November 2015. Photo: CFP

Development on the ground

One of the challenges facing American football in China is encouraging participation. It is quite common to see Chinese students and adults playing football or basketball nowadays, but an ordinary Chinese playing American football for fun is still quite rare.

And for avid fans, like Han, who want to play, finding a team and the space to play can be challenging. In 2014, after being only a spectator for two years, Han joined a flag football team. "Due to a shortage of facilities, the team consisted of a mixed bag of students from different universities and company employees," he said.

There are two Chinese/expat American football teams in Beijing. But, even as the popularity of the sport grows, there are still fans that think it is not enough. On Reddit, some American users were complaining in its China column that they were disappointed that their beloved game was largely ignored by the Chinese population. 

"I was so excited to be in China for the planned Pats-Seahawks preseason game back in '07," commented "ShreddyZ" one year ago. "Except there was literally no advertising and no push of any kind for months leading up to it. And then, of course, it was canceled. You can't establish a presence in a country with no understanding of football."

Han Xiancheng, an American football enthusiast who works as an NFL commentator for digital media LeSports, said that one of the obstacles to developing the game in China is its high threshold that includes proper sports facilities and fields. Its rules and complex playing strategies can also be a challenge to learn.

Although China still has no professional football league, Han Xiancheng said the number of American football clubs formed by China's amateur players has grown rapidly in the last two years. For example, a total of 13 American football teams in cities including Beijing, Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province jointly launched a City Bowl League in 2015.  "A better way is to promote the game to middle school and college students," he said.

NFL China has been promoting to college students for years, including creating a flag football league at universities and holding "NFL Home Field" fan events.

Chinese parents in Beijing are increasingly interested in sending their children to play American football, a 2014 South China Morning Post report said. Shen Yu, the marketing director for Great Stone Gridiron, a Beijing-based American football club that offers football training to children, said by encouraging participation in the sport, Chinese parents hope their boys will develop their character. "Many parents come here seeking a way to make their boys more self-assertive or manly," he was quoted as saying in the report.

Growth opportunities

According to figures from NFL China, there are over 17 million NFL fans in China, approximately 1 million of whom are avid NFL fans. The fan base in China has grown tenfold over the past four years. 

Zhao Zhiyuan, an American football promoter who manages a We-media account Ryan_NFL_Sports Vision on Weibo, attributes the increase of American football fans in China to young people's changing attitude toward the world. "In the past, there were two main types of people in China. One is made up of people who refuse to accept foreign things, and the other are fans who worship everything from foreign countries," said Zhao.

He said American football promoters used to focus on the latter group but soon realized that they would say "they have watched the game" regardless of whether they actually watched it or not. "It is impossible for these two types of people to truly appreciate a Super Bowl game," Zhao said. 

But China's younger generation is leading the change in social perceptions of the sport. The return of a large number of students who studied overseas and brought back their own impression of foreign countries is helping Chinese people view the Super Bowl, a big event for ordinary Americans, in a more favorable light.

"People are no longer engaged in discussing the pros and cons of the Super Bowl and American football. [Instead,] they watch and appreciate the good parts," he said.

In Zhao's opinion, American football can appeal to people from all walks of life. He said the more scholarly fans are interested in researching the field strategies because American football is one of the most complex sports in the world. The more athletic fans, who actually would play American football, are keen on learning from the actions and movements of the superstars, while the fitness and bodybuilding fans pay attention to the workout routine.

Whenever the date of the Super Bowl coincides with Spring Festival, the audience rating rises, said Han Xiancheng. "Even if some viewers would go for the entertainment shows, it still helps let more Chinese people know about the sport," he said.

Han Wenxin's love for the game has rubbed off on some of his friends. He said he and a group of his schoolmates will watch the game this year. He said, for him, American football represents the spirit of teamwork. "The splendid passing, clear roles and tacit cooperation of each player, all these combined make a team win the game," he said.  

Newspaper headline: On to the Super Bowl