China Factor: The Globalization of the NCAA

I thought the article about UCLA representing Pac-12 in its tour of China was especially interesting because of my most recent trip to China this summer. The sports culture of China is very interesting, and as Katz mentioned, it seemed like basketball really is the most popular sport in China (Katz, 2012). While I was visiting Hong Kong, the only free outside sports facilities were basketball courts and maybe one or two concrete soccer "fields." China seems like a good expansion site because not only is basketball the most popular sport, but American basketball specifically already has a wide fan base. During my stay in Hong Kong, I met many university students who knew a lot about the NBA. They had Miami Heat wristbands and Lakers jerseys. This phenomenon is something we don't really experience in America (we only occasionally see people with merchandise of athletes outside of the US, with maybe the World Cup athletes being an exception). The NCAA's interest to expand to China may be because China has one of the "largest and fastest growing markets in the world, with a large potential fan base" (Kaplan, 2012). 

The Bruins felt that the trip to China would benefit them because they had just come off a not-so-great season, and other big name universities had also made a trip to China and seemed to be inspired by it. It would be an opportunity to showcase American collegiate basketball, as well as publicity and promotion of Pac-12. The main purpose of the trip would be to "plant a flag" for the conference, making it an annual trip and therefore a standing relationship with the Chinese national team (Katz, 2012). While all of this sounds really great, I feel like there are other factors that UCLA isn't considering. While this trip to China may be great for bonding and cultural immersion, they expect it to "catapult" them into a successful season. This seems like they are going in with the assumption that it will be a confidence booster, when the truth is the Chinese national team also has a chance at destroying them and starting a bad season. 

A barrier the NCAA might face in China is getting a solid fan base. A survey of Chinese fans showed that while most sports fans in China are fans of American sports, they tend to follow individual athletes instead of teams. This might be because fans in China do not have ties to the location or city a team is from, because geographically China is far from America. For example, a Lakers fan in China would be a Lakers fan because he loves Kobe, but if Kobe ever moved, the fan might become a fan of Kobe's new team. If the basketball fans in China do not find one player who they feel attached to, this whole Pac-12 exchange event might not have as great of a following as expected. 

A possible benefit of doing this would be to boost relations with China through sports, which seems to be a unifying power (eg. the Olympics). However, one consequence of this expansion is that the UCLA team may come to represent the entirety of the United States, especially if they are the only team scheduled to go to China annually to play with the national team. When playing in the Pac-12, the athletes represent their university, but when playing against the Chinese national team, it would be almost divisive, with the "American" team against the Chinese team, even though the team is from one university in one state in America. What was supposed to foster better relations might result in more division. Also, this puts more pressure on the athletes who do travel to China. Most athletes on the UCLA team are probably around 20 years old, but their behavior would be observed by China, including its government and people. The behavior of the athletes would come to reflect Americans in general, especially if they are the only team annually representing the Pac-12. 

References
Kaplan, S., & Langdon, S. (2012). Chinese fandom and potential marketing strategies for expanding the market for American professional sports into China. International Journal Of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 14(1), 7-21.

Katz, Andy. (2012). Trip to China Will Jump-start UCLA's Season. ESPN. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/7885804/pac-12-begins-asia-initiative-ucla-bruins-trip-china-college-basketball