Photo by Tsutomu Takasu (tpower1978) used under Creative Commons 2.0

FC Barcelona, the club who plays the most beautiful football in the world, is building its success in China, and they’re approaching the market in a way that no other club has done before.

Last month, Sandro Rosell, Barça’s new president, was traveling in China with his colleagues. Unlike others, their trip was not about friendly games or cooperation with local clubs, but laying down guanxi with Chinese politicians and clenching a business deal with a giant Internet firm.

Few other club is doing what Barça’s doing, which may help them working with the Chinese government rather than merely a local club, and reaching out to Chinese fans like they owe them.

Their fierce rival, Read Madrid, is the only club who plans to provide help to a football academy soon to be launched by a local club. Among all the elites, only Liverpool FC is officially engaging the fans here on Chinese micro-blogging platform on their own, a strategy only began this July, as most clubs accounts are still managed by Chinese media and fan groups.

During their stay, Mr.Rosell met the heads of the Ministry of Education in Beijing, municipal officials in Shanghai, who are in need of their help in developing its local football structure.

If one stop could best highlight their China visit, the Barça delegation spent a night at a fundraiser hosted by China Foundation for Disabled Persons, which run under the leadership of Deng Pufang, the first son of Deng Xiaoping, the former paramount leader of China. And Liu Yandong, China’s State Councilor and the only female Politburo member, serves as an honorary director of the foundation.

Yet there’s something more than fundraising to both parties, as Ms.Liu is officially the woman behind the reshuffle of Chinese football and for several times declared her interest in building up the football structure at ground-level through education, which they may seek Barça’s assistance with their La Masia model, the club’s famed football academy.

Since Xi Jinping, China’s hair-apparent, declared his high hopes for Chinese football in 2009, Liu assumed the governing role in the State Council’s ‘football investigation and research group’ to solve the puzzle of the sport.

But football further tumbled in the country. This June, the Chinese national men’s U-23 team failed to get a ticket to the London Olympics and, as if it’s not enough, the national team was disqualified from the 2014 World Cup in October.

The situation is very likely to continue. According to the Chinese Football Association, there’s only about 3,000 registered players nationwide under the age of 19. The number of football academies has been dwindling. Liaoning province, once a football powerhouse that had 21 academies ten years ago, now has none.

“If we have to do something with China, it’s better to do with the authorities,” said Laurent Colette, Barça’s chief marketing officer, in their meeting with the heads of Ministry of Education, adding it’s possible that the clubs may open academies in China, like they did in Japan and Korea.

“I think it’s a positive message coming from the central government,” said Xia Haifeng, chairman of Inter Sports, a state-owned firm founded by the Beijing government, and the exact company who arranged Barça’s China visit. “It’s good to talk about education rather than gold medals.”

Inter Sports was founded in 2005 under the mission of “importing major International competitions to the ‘Bird’s Nest’ and ‘Water Cube’”, architectural emblems of the Beijing Olympics invested by the Beijing government.

“When you talk with Inter Sports, you talk with authorities in Beijing and Shanghai. For us it’s perfect,” said Laurent.

Barça’s revenue last year hit 460 mln euros, in which only less than one percent come from the Chinese market, despite the country holds 30 percent of its fans worldwide, according to the club’s own market research numbers.

These 30 percent are nowhere to be found on Facebook or Twitter, as the two social-networking services are still blocked by the Chinese authorities.

But fans here have their own ways to follow their football heroes. On Tencent Weibo, a popular micro-blogging platform, Lionel Messi has over 14 million followers, seven times the size of Barça’s official account on Twitter.

The club signed an agreement with Tencent, which makes available the company’s 900 millon QQ users within reach, a deal that was “very satisfied” by Didac Lee, Barça’s director of new technology, who noted that the club plans to sell smart-phone apps to its Chinese fans in the future, a move that no other club ventured.

“The Internet is the best way for us to be 24-7 in China. Summer tours make a lot of money on a few days, but it’s not the best way to make loyal supporters,” said Didac.

“It’s like working out in a gym here,” Laurent stretches his arms. “First you open your arms to expand your fan base, to be sure that you reach all the possible fans here through TV, Internet, press and so on. Then to monetize, which is to create a financial link to transfer your fans into business.”

“It’s Barça 2.0 in China now”, said Xia Haifeng, who arranged the club’s friendly game in China last year in the ‘Bird’s Nest’. “Football fans here take a lot less interest in friendlies than they did before.”

“We did that in the past and don’t like that,” said Laurent. “Summer tours should be only a part of what we do here. We’ll reach the fans by 360 degree marketing to make sure this snowballing effect cast the football followers with contact and information about us, and little by little they have more reasons to become our fans.”

“Our plan in China is not to come, take the money and run,”said Mr.Rosell to TV3, a Catalan broadcaster,. “It’s, first of all, to know what and how we can offer to them, making as many Barça supporters as possible. In the long term, our goal is to monetize from those supporters.”

Just like the way they behave in the transfer market, the Catalans are clear and patient about what they should do.

“We’re not going to get crazy about China, ”said Xavier Faus, the club’s vice president, when speaking about the broadcasting time in La Liga, as the team usually plays in the early morning around 3am in Beijing time. “We cannot, in order to gain 1m euro here, lose 5m in our own market.”

Barça plans to host its first summer camp next summer in Beijing, but they may not be able to offer remedy as the government intended for the demise of Chinese soccer.

“We’re not here to solve the Chinese problem,” confessed Laurent. “Many people told us the Chinese results are bad. I’m a French and French results are bad as well. Don’t worry, there’re cycles.”

The eternal rivalry comes to Beijing

Inter Milan’s 3-1 victory over Serie A counterpart Palermo has filled the final spot for the other participant in this summer’s Italian Super Cup, which will be returning to Beijing. This year’s curtain-raiser to the 2011/12 Serie A season is going to be a treat for Chinese supporters of Italian football as this season’s champion AC Milan will take on their eternal rivals for the first time on the Asian continent.

The Milan derby has always been one of the most highly charged and most anticipated matches on the Serie A schedule. The history between the two Italian giants reads like a movie with action, drama, comedy and suspense all rolled into one. If Halley’s Comet is only visible from earth every 75 years, then Chinese supporters will be in for a treat this summer for this is one of the rarest events to occur outside of Italy.

While football fans in China maybe foaming at the mouth to see their heroes such as Brazilian international Pato and midfield enforcer Gennaro Gattuso do battle against Dutch international Wesley Sneijder and Cameroonian international Samuel Eto’o, officials at the China Football Association and those with the task of organizing this event have to be very concerned about one thing: how to prevent the rampant scalping of tickets for this match.

Gattuso and Sneijder

When the final whistle blew in Rome, every ticket scalpers dream came true. There probably has not been this much excitement for a sporting event since the 2008 Olympic Games. Nearly three years ago, ticket scalping was at a fever pitch from the opening ceremony and selected events around Beijing.

Being one in the mass of people who went to see the United States in the men’s basketball competition at Wukesong, I was met by throngs of scalpers at the subway entrance just looking to sell me a ticket. Perhaps there were even a few who wanted to buy my ticket in order to sell it for a higher price later.

Now, ticket prices for the Italian Super Cup range from 200RMB up to 4,000RMB. According to the organizers over half of the tickets will be under 1,000RMB. It is needless to say that tickets for this once in a lifetime event will sell out, however, how much will scalpers be able to make off with after re-selling the tickets later? Also, have organizers come up with any measures to make sure that tickets are only being sold to those who want to see the two Italian giants clash?

Just this week a new policy was implemented which requires passengers on China’s high speed trains to show identification in order to purchase a ticket. The objective is to prevent ticket scalping, which has been a serious problem for the railway system, especially during the Spring Festival period when hordes of people make their long treks back home.

Perhaps this could work for major sporting events that come to China. You get the true football fans in the stadium on match day with a ticket with their name on it. Anyone else holding the ticket with hopes of entering gets questioned. It also prevents the scalper from re-selling the ticket for higher than its face value.

However, this could also be a turn off for some people as going through the process of showing their identification to buy a ticket could be an inconvenience. Also, the ticket could be deemed worthless if they are not able to go to the match in the end. Would they be able to refund the ticket?

Organizers can expect to make a profit from this year’s cup tie between AC Milan and Inter. However, if there are no measures taken to prevent ticket scalping, the true winners will be the scalpers themselves.

Zheng Jie, left, and Li Na, Chinese female tennis athletes on the verge of stardom. Source: People's Daily

For all of about five seconds, there was discussion about an “all Chinese” final in the Australian Open. The People’s Daily newspaper had already crowned Li Na and Zheng Jie — the Chinese female tennis players who both managed to advance into the final four to play against Serena Williams and Justine Henin, respectively — “two golden flowers.”

And then it was over.

Defending champion Williams stopped 16th seeded Li Na in a two-hour match, winning 6-7 (4), 6-7 (1). If you followed ESPN‘s account of the events, Henin “thrashed a helpless” Zheng Jie, 6-1, 6-0, in a game that took less than 60 minutes to complete.

Losing in the semifinals to Williams and Henin is nothing less than stellar, as both Li Na and Zheng Jie’s march to the semifinal matches is at least commendable, possibly historic given this is the first time two Chinese players have made it this far in an Australian Open. Right now, both Li Na and Zheng Jie should be considered two tennis stars on the verge of overtaking two other records that no other Chinese tennis athlete can yet claim: breaking into the top-10 rankings or winning a Grand Slam. They’re almost there. And while almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, the two are part of a growing sports machine in China that has its athletes on their way toward star status.

It’s no secret, China enjoys its heroic athletes. Each time a Chinese athlete accomplishes another first for the country, the people are right there cheering. Nationalism aside, China is just starting to see its sports mold homegrown athletes into world superstars. In interviews with sports promoters, coaches and athletes, all have constantly repeated the mantra that once a Chinese athlete takes home the top prize in any international event, the popularity of said sport explodes.

Forgetting Yao Ming for a minute, China’s sports stars are coming through the ranks in more non-traditional sports, at least in comparison to the revenue-driven, media-savvy sense of western sports. Forget football, basketball or baseball. China is a country where diver Guo Jingjing is a goddess, snooker prodigy Ding Junhui can dominate the front of sports newspaper pages, and Liu Xiang could fill the stands at the Bird’s Nest if it was announced Beijing was about to hold an international track and field meet, all 76,000+. But you’d be hard-pressed to find the aforementioned names anywhere outside of China — discounting the 2008 Olympic Games, of course.

Bringing Yao Ming back for a moment: One has a better chance of finding a Chinese person that can recall the gold medal-winning lineup of the women’s quadruple sculls at this past Olympic Games than one does of finding someone who knows the starting lineup to Manager Yao Ming’s Shanghai Sharks basketball team. South Korean Y.E. Yang’s victory over Tiger Woods at the 2009 PGA Championship was said to be a positive for golf in China. And given China is sending world half-pipe champion Liu Jiayu to the upcoming Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, there could even be a snowboarding household name in China come March 2010.

So Li Na and Zheng Jie didn’t take home the top prize … this time. Barring a career-ending injury, the two are almost certainly destined for tennis infamy. It might be too early to place them alongside names such as Guo Jingjing, Ding Junhui, or Liu Xiang, but one might as well leave the two slots open for the tennis duo from China.

— Zachary Franklin

Links and Sources:

• People’s Daily: “Serena Williams Stops Li Na’s Fairytale Run to Reach Australian Open Final”
• People’s Daily: “China Celebrates Zheng, Li for Australian Wins”
• ESPN: “Despite Roadblocks, Justine Henin Back in Australian Open Final”

The Italian Super Cup, or Supercoppa Italiana, is a season-opening match between the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. The Cup match has been played three times outside of the country: Washington in 1993, Tripoli in 2002 and New York in 2003.

The CITIC Group consortium, the company that was granted 30-year chartered management right to the National stadium, told media last month that they will develop the Bird’s Nest into an entertainment and shopping center in three to five years and, in the mean time, seek out opportunities to hold more sports games.

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Legal Daily (法制日报), a Beijing-based newspaper, published a piece this week looking at the ticket price of China’s National Sports Stadium or the “bird’s nest.” Below are some excerpts:

“We’re very disappointed the National Sports Stadium doesn’t sell half-price tickets to our seniors,”  said grey-haired Wang Huifu, 70. Some senior high and colleague students are, too, not cool with the price. “They don’t offer half-price tickets. Is the ‘bird’s nest’ still a public place?” Located in the Olympic Park, this RMB 3.1 trillion (roughly $ 454.45 million USD) main arena has attracted millions of visitors after the Games, becoming a new tourist attraction and an icon of the capital city.

The Olympic Park received 180,000 visitors in the first day of its opening. One thirds of these visitors went to the National Stadium, making it the most visited venue in the Park. The ticket is priced at RMB 50 (roughly $ 7 USD). Aside from children under 1.2 meter(4 feet), only JGZ (military certificate) and certificate for the physically challenged holders can enter the stadium free of charge.

“Even the Forbidden City offers half-price tickets, why not here? So this is not a tourist attraction?” Mr. Xiang argued with a ticket clerk. “This is almost an imparity clause. Now that it’s open to the public, why they set such high a price without offering high-price tickets?” voiced a tour guide agreeingly.

“The price was set by superiors. We thought about offering half-price tickets to seniors and students. But it wouldn’t pay back our cost if we did, as they accounted for too much of our visitors,” said a ticket clerk, who didn’t explain further how much their cost and who the superiors are.

Generally speaking, stadiums as socially-good facilities are invested by the government. It’s run by competent department while still backed by the government. In this case, ticket price of the National Stadium should be decided by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform and Beijing Tourism Administration. As the biggest stadium in China, the “bird’s nest” was said to adopt a government-led and market-oriented way of operation even before it was built. “This is to hatch a golden egg out of the ‘nest’,” said an employee at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. But the situation here seems to be more complicated.

The owner of the National Stadium is National Stadium Co., Ltd. And the CITIC Group consortium was granted a 30-year chartered management right to the venue. (Note: The National Stadium Co., Ltd. is made up of the Beijing State-Owned Assets Management Co., Ltd. (BSAM), who has a 58% investment interest in the stadium, and the CITIC Group consortium, who has invested 42% in the venue. The CITIC Group consortium is composed of the China International Trust and Investment Company (CITIC), the Beijing Urban Construction Group, CITIC Group affiliate Guan Elstrong from Hong Kong and the Golden State Holding Group from the United States. Follow THIS LINK to find more info.) The BSAM will get back its privilege of management after.

“Looking from this aspect, the company need to get back its high maintenance costs. So it’s not a surprise they set the price this high,” commented an industry analyst.

Though the CITIC Group consortium has gotten 30 years of management right, could they also decide on pricing? Does the stadium belong to the public? Are government departments concerned in control of its pricing? Should we hold public hearings to decide whether the price is good and there’s a need to offer half-price tickets?

“The ‘bird’s nest’ is not like a park. It’s a place for business. Our company is responsible for its maintenance and operation, and we also decide the ticket price,” a lady from the operating department of National Stadium Co., Ltd. said to the reporter, “When did you see the National Opera House offering half-pirce tickets?”

“We talked with the Beijing Tourism Administration (BTA) about this. And the price is set after considering various opinions,” she continued. An employee from the BTA confirmed her words by saying that they can only give some guidance to the company.

“It’s without question that the company setting the ticket price on their own in order to take back its high maintenance costs. But as the national stadium, the ‘bird’s nest’ has already been perceived by citizens as a public sports facility. This is about huge social and public interests. We still need to consider if they can set the ticket price directly themselves without going through public hearings,” said Dai Xuefeng, assistant director of tourism research center at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Every company would pursue profits following the law of market economy. But when public interests is involved, supervision from government cannot be missed.

Sources:

• The Bird’s Nest attracted millions of visitors during the holiday
• Legal Daily‘s article (Chinese)

Photo: Legal Daily

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