MELBOURNE Football Club has long been a pioneer of the code’s international expansion, playing the first off-shore games, developing talent from Ireland and now supporting the AFL’s push into China.
In 2005, in partnership with the City of Melbourne, the Melbourne Football Club took tentative steps to create links with our Chinese Sister City, Tianjin, which have now led to the building of an AFL oval and the establishment of the Tianjin Demons in China’s growing national AFL competition.
Over the past six years, the club has supported the Chinese National AFL Team (Red Demons) in the AFL International Cups in 2008 and 2011, hosted two Chinese players in a pre-season scholarship program in 2008 and visited China eleven times including a player development trip in 2007 and the first AFL exhibition match as part of the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
In the lead-up to last year’s China exhibition match, Melbourne was able to position its main sponsor Kaspersky with China’s Vice President Xi Jinping during his visit to an AFL game in Melbourne, hosted by then Premier of Victoria The Hon John Brumby.
Next year, the club is aiming to further engage Melbourne’s Chinese community with a range of programs that aim to develop our fan base and provide commercial outcomes.
These programs will provide training to children to enable them to participate in AFL and promote better social inclusion and public harmony.
Melbourne is eager to be a key player in the AFL’s football diplomacy that will broaden the base of the country’s bilateral relationship with China and one day produce a bigger market for Australia’s biggest sport.
Specifically, Melbourne is looking to become the first club to play for AFL premiership points in China by 2016.
Melbourne chief executive Cameron Schwab is passionate about Melbourne being one of the first two clubs to play a match for premiership points in China.
“The AFL is the keepers of the code, but we’re the inventors of the code,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“The other thing is that Australian footy has never been played for points overseas.
“If that’s to be played at any time, then for all the right reasons, it should be played by the club that wrote the rules and still plays it and represents it in a way that it should be.”
Melbourne is also supportive of the development of an AFL talent academy in China.
The aim is to identify talented 15-16 year olds in basketball programs. From there, players will be provided education and training opportunities in Australia, which will put them on the pathway of becoming professional AFL footballers.
Melbourne will work in partnership with the AFL and it follows comments made at last year’s AFL Industry Conference on the Gold Coast by chief executive Andrew Demetriou.
He indicated that his executive was challenged by the AFL commission to take a longer view beyond the standard five year plan and “to look to what the game will be like in 2030”.
Demetriou also suggested to the audience to “imagine the scene when one day in the not too distant future we play the first ever match overseas for premiership points? It could be Shanghai. It could be Mumbai. It could be Los Angeles. Wherever it is, when that day comes we’ll know our game has taken yet another great leap forward”.
The future may be closer than we think with preparations for suitable venue identification currently being undertaken across a number of international locations including China.
Why China?
International sporting codes have witnessed China’s dramatic economic development and are keen to leverage China’s size, scope and potential fan base.
English Premier League clubs have bilingual websites, have sent touring teams for exhibition matches, opened merchandise shops and even drafted Chinese players to build brand awareness.
Most sporting franchises and individual clubs want to discover and develop their own Yao Ming, who transferred from the Shanghai Sharks to the Houston Rockets in 2002 to become the most influential player National Basketball League (NBA) player since Michael Jordon.
The Yao Ming factor has made basketball the most popular sport in the world’s most populous country.
Finding a “Yao” assists clubs and codes with willing commercial partners driven by higher Chinese TV audience numbers.
In 2007, an estimated 200 million Chinese fans watched Houston Rockets take on the Milwaukee Bucks to see Yao Ming do battle with his fellow countryman and rookie NBA star Yi Jianlian.
By contrast, only 69 million tennis fans tuned into CCTV to watch Li Na play Kim Clijsters in the 2011 Australian Open final.
The biggest achievement the AFL has made through its recent China strategy was to reach an agreement with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and Australia Network to broadcast the 2010 AFL finals matches live into Shanghai.
This year SMG through their English language International Channel Shanghai has shown one game per week during the 2011 Toyota Premiership Season.
The ability to have the game shown live in China, a first for an Australian sport, along with continued coverage throughout the season means that the game will create demand for further development in the future.
Melbourne and the AFL are aware of the Yao Ming factor, but believe that bringing a new sport into a new market requires patience and a different approach.
But the recent drafting of Taiwanese/East Timorese Lin Jong to the Western Bulldogs highlights the potential opportunities for talent identification in non-traditional markets for the AFL.
Jong only started playing AFL after making the switch from basketball at age 16.
Melbourne’s international innovation brought Jim Stynes to the Demons, who played 264 games, won a Brownlow Medal and returned to the club as president, overseeing our much needed regeneration.
As the club embarks on another ambitious international journey, this time with China, who knows by 2030 what fortune and success it will bring.
In 2005, in partnership with the City of Melbourne, the Melbourne Football Club took tentative steps to create links with our Chinese Sister City, Tianjin, which have now led to the building of an AFL oval and the establishment of the Tianjin Demons in China’s growing national AFL competition.
Over the past six years, the club has supported the Chinese National AFL Team (Red Demons) in the AFL International Cups in 2008 and 2011, hosted two Chinese players in a pre-season scholarship program in 2008 and visited China eleven times including a player development trip in 2007 and the first AFL exhibition match as part of the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.
In the lead-up to last year’s China exhibition match, Melbourne was able to position its main sponsor Kaspersky with China’s Vice President Xi Jinping during his visit to an AFL game in Melbourne, hosted by then Premier of Victoria The Hon John Brumby.
Next year, the club is aiming to further engage Melbourne’s Chinese community with a range of programs that aim to develop our fan base and provide commercial outcomes.
These programs will provide training to children to enable them to participate in AFL and promote better social inclusion and public harmony.
Melbourne is eager to be a key player in the AFL’s football diplomacy that will broaden the base of the country’s bilateral relationship with China and one day produce a bigger market for Australia’s biggest sport.
Specifically, Melbourne is looking to become the first club to play for AFL premiership points in China by 2016.
Melbourne chief executive Cameron Schwab is passionate about Melbourne being one of the first two clubs to play a match for premiership points in China.
“The AFL is the keepers of the code, but we’re the inventors of the code,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“The other thing is that Australian footy has never been played for points overseas.
“If that’s to be played at any time, then for all the right reasons, it should be played by the club that wrote the rules and still plays it and represents it in a way that it should be.”
Melbourne is also supportive of the development of an AFL talent academy in China.
The aim is to identify talented 15-16 year olds in basketball programs. From there, players will be provided education and training opportunities in Australia, which will put them on the pathway of becoming professional AFL footballers.
Melbourne will work in partnership with the AFL and it follows comments made at last year’s AFL Industry Conference on the Gold Coast by chief executive Andrew Demetriou.
He indicated that his executive was challenged by the AFL commission to take a longer view beyond the standard five year plan and “to look to what the game will be like in 2030”.
Demetriou also suggested to the audience to “imagine the scene when one day in the not too distant future we play the first ever match overseas for premiership points? It could be Shanghai. It could be Mumbai. It could be Los Angeles. Wherever it is, when that day comes we’ll know our game has taken yet another great leap forward”.
The future may be closer than we think with preparations for suitable venue identification currently being undertaken across a number of international locations including China.
Why China?
International sporting codes have witnessed China’s dramatic economic development and are keen to leverage China’s size, scope and potential fan base.
English Premier League clubs have bilingual websites, have sent touring teams for exhibition matches, opened merchandise shops and even drafted Chinese players to build brand awareness.
Most sporting franchises and individual clubs want to discover and develop their own Yao Ming, who transferred from the Shanghai Sharks to the Houston Rockets in 2002 to become the most influential player National Basketball League (NBA) player since Michael Jordon.
The Yao Ming factor has made basketball the most popular sport in the world’s most populous country.
Finding a “Yao” assists clubs and codes with willing commercial partners driven by higher Chinese TV audience numbers.
In 2007, an estimated 200 million Chinese fans watched Houston Rockets take on the Milwaukee Bucks to see Yao Ming do battle with his fellow countryman and rookie NBA star Yi Jianlian.
By contrast, only 69 million tennis fans tuned into CCTV to watch Li Na play Kim Clijsters in the 2011 Australian Open final.
The biggest achievement the AFL has made through its recent China strategy was to reach an agreement with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and Australia Network to broadcast the 2010 AFL finals matches live into Shanghai.
This year SMG through their English language International Channel Shanghai has shown one game per week during the 2011 Toyota Premiership Season.
The ability to have the game shown live in China, a first for an Australian sport, along with continued coverage throughout the season means that the game will create demand for further development in the future.
Melbourne and the AFL are aware of the Yao Ming factor, but believe that bringing a new sport into a new market requires patience and a different approach.
But the recent drafting of Taiwanese/East Timorese Lin Jong to the Western Bulldogs highlights the potential opportunities for talent identification in non-traditional markets for the AFL.
Jong only started playing AFL after making the switch from basketball at age 16.
Melbourne’s international innovation brought Jim Stynes to the Demons, who played 264 games, won a Brownlow Medal and returned to the club as president, overseeing our much needed regeneration.
As the club embarks on another ambitious international journey, this time with China, who knows by 2030 what fortune and success it will bring.
