"We weren't going to start construction in the next couple of weeks," Stern said at a joint news conference with AEG president and CEO Timothy J. Leiweke. "We anticipate that in a relatively short order we will have laid out a road map of a dozen buildings or so throughout China."Leiweke said it could take decades to complete the project.
"We think of this over the next 20 years, not the next year or two," he said, adding some would be new arenas and others would be created by renovating existing facilities.
One likely site for an arena is Guangzhou, a city of over 7.5 million, which has recently hosted its first NBA preseason game in a beautiful, though relatively small (sits up to 13,000), gymnasium.
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Besides Guangzhou, the NBA has also played on the mainland in Shanghai, Beijing, Macao, and Hong Kong since it the Washington Wizards played the Chinese National Team in 1979. The NBA returned with two teams in 2004 and two in 2007.
It semi-astounded me to learn that some Chinese paid upwards to $550 to watch last year's Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers preseason game.
But, then again, with 2007 statistics like the below testifying to the NBA's popularity in his nation, what well-moneyed Chinese basketball fanatic wouldn't give a unequivocal thumbs-up to finally see his heroes in vivo?
NBA merchandise is available in 50,000 retail outlets, and Spalding sold more than 1 million NBA basketballs last year. NBA games are carried by 51 networks and television stations (up from 32 last season), reaching an average of 36 million viewers.
After all, as David Stern and the O2 builders well know, sometimes TV exposure just doesn't do it: when it comes to reaping in revenue, nothing beats good ol-fashioned vis-a-vis marketing.
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