Historic game set for next year
MIKE SANDO; The News Tribune
Published: August 27th, 2006 01:00 AM
SAN DIEGO – The Seattle Seahawks are heading to Beijing for an exhibition game next summer as the National Football League moves to capitalize on the world’s largest television market.
The Seahawks and the New England Patriots will become the first NFL teams to play in China.
League officials have discussed an arrangement whereby the Patriots would spend a week in Seattle, possibly playing an exhibition game at Qwest Field. The teams then would travel to China for several days of practices and public appearances, followed by another game.
While league sources confirmed the plans, the Seahawks declined to discuss specifics or even confirm them, pending a formal announcement by the league.
“If presented with the opportunity, we would be happy to participate,” team president Tim Ruskell said in a statement Saturday.
The Seahawks have strived for a higher league profile. CEO Tod Leiweke, hired in June 2003, and Ruskell, hired last year, foresee a day when the organization carries more weight in league matters.
Leiweke once described the team’s goals thusly: “That we’re respected by the league; that we’re smart in how we run the team side and the business side; that our expertise is coveted at committee levels and our opinion is sought overall.”
Carrying the league’s banner abroad certainly would help.
China an official priority
Outgoing NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, speaking at the league’s March meetings, targeted China as a priority.
“Our own international people have been to China a number of times,” Tagliabue said. “I was there last May and met with representatives of the City of Beijing, their Olympic Committee and the mayor of Beijing.
“We and NBC have been having those discussions. I think there’s an increasing prospect that we could have a game there in August 2007, which would be the beginning of the one-year countdown to the following year’s Olympics.”
The National Basketball Association already has experienced success in China and elsewhere around the world.
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming plays for China’s national team, giving the NBA a built-in marketing tool.
The league’s economic growth in China is expanding by 30 percent annually, commissioner David Stern recently told The Associated Press.
“My guess is we’ll double it in size by the Beijing Olympics,” Stern said. “The China market is our most important and largest market outside the United States.”
NFL reaches worldwide on TV
The NBA has three offices and about 50 employees in China.
NBA rosters are filled with players from outside the United States. NFL teams do not come close to that level of international flavor, but the league does claim a worldwide TV audience.
The Super Bowl reaches perhaps a billion people each year, according to unofficial estimates. League programming aired in 234 countries and territories last season, the NFL said.
Since 1986, NFL teams have played 39 games outside the United States. Venues have included Tokyo; London; Berlin; Montreal, Barcelona, Spain; Mexico City; Monterrey, Mexico; Toronto; Dublin, Ireland; Vancouver, B.C.; Sydney, Australia; and Osaka, Japan.
Attendance for those games has averaged nearly 60,000 per game, the league said.
San Francisco and Arizona played a 2005 exhibition game in Mexico City. China, with its more than 1.3 billion citizens, presents another level of opportunity.
Mike Sando: 425-822-9504
http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/seahawks
I remember when the Colts played in Japan a few years ago and hearing quotes from players and coaches on how it screwed up their whole training camp with the amount of travel time and having to adjust to the time changes. Seems like I heard some similar remarks when the Yankees opened the regular season in Japan a few years ago.
