China's Service Sector Will Reign, Part XIX -- NBA In Full Court Press
Since this is number 19 of this series, it should be pretty obvious by now that I am strongly of the view that China is ripe for foreign service businesses. Yesterday's New York Times has an interesting story, entitled, "N.B.A. and Partner to Help Build 12 Arenas in China," on how National Basketball Association (NBA) and AEG Worldwide are teaming up to design and build "at least a dozen arenas in China.
The NBA's explanation for doing this makes complete sense and it holds true for virtually any service business:
Stern said the league was looking to capitalize on a growing urban Chinese middle class with increasing disposal income.“China is an enormous market with enormous potential, not only for basketball but for entertainment venues,” he said in an interview.
If only 1% of China's 1.3 billion attend an NBA game....
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Comments
Interesting story, 12 arenas (I'd guess they would be in 12 different cities) seems pushing things a bit much, not sure which 12 would be worthwhile for such stadiums. They already own the Wukesong complex and will bring their China Series game there, unfortunately this year it's going to be a real crappy game and it will be interesting to see how good ticket sales are. I could definitely see how a venue like this would work in Shanghai and Shenzhen, both desperately in need of indoor multipurpose complexes in the city center, but elsewhere I could see a lot of these stadiums sitting empty...
Posted by: b. cheng | October 13, 2008 1:29 AM