Lanxiong Sports NHL

NHL China Games: No shortage of sponsors but fans yet to be won over

October 2, 2017

The end of September saw two NHL China Games in Beijing and Shanghai between Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks, which indicated that the NHL is attempting to break into the Chinese market for the first time in the sport’s history.

In March, Yahoo Sports described the confirmation of NHL China Events as “a really, really big deal”, because “NHL never starts a game in an emerging country with a poor audience”.

The number of spectators in the Beijing Cadillac Arena and Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Arena for the two fixtures stood at 12,759 and 10,088, equating to an attendance rate of 71% and 56% respectively.

It is true that the NHL had tried its best to appeal to the Chinese audience, considering that almost all the players came from another hemisphere for an unimportant pre-season game.

Besides the players, the NHL also assembled a staff team with over 80 people from different departments to take care of every little detail. Before the opening of the two games, the high-pitched music, five-minute performance and light projections put the fans in the mood.

The untraditional, cool visual effects triggered lots of ‘WOWs’ in audience. The NHL columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika believed that this performance caught up “with the level of the NHL playoff”.

The NHL hoped that these elements could build an authentic atmosphere in a game for Chinese fans, even thought there was little at stake.

The NHL also made efforts to welcome the fans with little understanding of ice hockey. Before the opening, the audience learned rules about the game through a five-minute introduction, including score, overtime, fouls and fighting. They even taught the audience how to cheer for the teams with guidance from the mascot and a screen presentation.

David Proper, EVP of Media and International Strategy for the NHL, said that “all the NHL needs to do is help people enjoy this game and engage in it”.

Proper also admitted that the NHL learned from the NBA, which is the most successfully-run international professional sports league in China. In order to help fans feel closer to the game, the NHL invited Song Andong, the first Chinese player who made into the NHL draft, Yao Ming, former NBA player and current chairman of China Basketball Association, and Ning Zetao, world champion swimmer.

But minor experience of hosting ice hockey games did bring some trouble. When the two teams were in their first training session in Shanghai on 20th September, fog rose on the surface of ice. Fortunately, organisers borrowed a dehumidifier in time to clear up the problem so the official game next day was not affected.

Despite all the trivia, the NHL still found a good time to visit China. The upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games requires China to popularise ice hockey with the help of the NHL. While the NHL is facing trouble in the North America, it also needs to seek global opportunity. As a result, the two have common interests on the market. NHL vice-president Bill Daly previously said that the decision to hold NHL China Events is “in line with the long-term development of the Union”.

NHL’s the sponsorship income in during the 2014-15 season was £335 million ($447 million), ranking the last place in the four major North American sports leagues. According to the report of US sports business media, the median of NHL’s TV audience age has increased to 49 since 2000, which indicates the NHL’s failure to attract a young audience. However, the NHL could enjoy a huge market boom if 1% or even 0.1% of 1.3 billion Chinese people are turned into regular fans.

“The NHL has come to a bottleneck period and the further development relies on globalisation,” said Li Longmou, vice president of Kunlun Hongxing ice hockey club.

“The NHL had its pre-season games in Europe before but it didn’t do a great job engaging new fans. Further exploration in Europe will only attract a small number of fans. It is the Asian market that can provide NHL with chances for advancement and better brand value and income.”

The potential of the Chinese market cannot be ignored. The Chinese men’s ice hockey team is ranked the 37th in the world and the goal for this team in 2022 is set; the men should qualify and perform well. Meanwhile, the women’s team is expected to win a medal and also compete for the gold medal.

There is no doubt that in the march of Chinese ice hockey, the top men’s ice hockey league could offer experience to China. To some degree, it is the NHL’s global influence that secured assistance from the officials.

Besides the NHL, the co-hosts of the China Games also include Beijing Sports Bureau and the China Hockey Association. The sponsors include Bloomage international，Beijing Sports Competition Management Center and Beijing Winter Sports Management Center. The logo of the Chinese Ice Hockey Association was also shown on the billboards of sidelines. Matthew Schneider, the formal special assistant of the chairman of NHL player union, said that “with the co-operation between different offices of Chinese government and the NHL, we are both confident and enthusiastic to promote the sports.”

In addition, local companies’ participation has also given the NHL faith in China. Providing metal packaging services for Red Bull, Want Want, Tsingtao Brewery and other brands, O. R. G is not only the founding partner of NHL in China, but also the title sponsor for 2017 NHL China Games.

In addition, the joint partners of the China games also include Adidas, SAP and Upper Deck.

Inside the arena all big screen videos for player introduction, timeouts and game highlights were used to advertise Tsingtao Beer, Want Want Group and War Horse beverages. There were also advertisement tables of O. R. G and Want Want Group in the NHL China Events Carnival outside the venue, which attracted plenty of young children.

Although the event’s support came from the government and other enterprises, no-one can deny the fact that ice hockey is still an unpopular sport in China.

The NHL Carnival was held in Beijing for three days. On-site staff told Lanxiong Sports that there were few people on Thursday while Friday’s attendance was also relatively low.

The scalpers, to a certain extent, is the reflection of the real market. An hour before the China Events in Beijing, Lanxiong Sports randomly asked a scalper and found the most expensive tickets in value of £212 ($282) were sold at £45 ($59) and retrieved at £22 ($29), the cheapest tickets in value of £18 ($24) were sold at £2 ($2.66). The tickets at the highest price of £144 ($191) slumped below £11 ($14) before the beginning of China Games in Shanghai.

In the broadcast, Tencent Sports showed that the numbers of people who watched the China Games in Shanghai and Beijing were respectively only a little more than 8,000 and 65,000, which was even behind the number of people who watched Iran and Astana’s basketball group match of AFC Champions League at the same period.

The data, however, showed rarely great concern in China about ice-hockey-related events. Moreover, there were some spectators leaving at the middle of every quarter during the game. For example, before the China Events in Beijing ended, only 40% of the audience remained.

The problem did not lie with the NHL. Kunlun Hongxing, China’s first professional men’s hockey club also faced the above embarrassment while playing in KHL (Continental Hockey League).

In contrast, the tickets of NBA China Games with the participation of defending champion Warriors were sold out within half an hour once billing this year. The Event has been receiving high attendance and attention in the past few years.

Of course, it is not fair enough to compare NBA China Events with a large number of basketball fans with the first year’s NHL China Events. According to the International Hockey Federation statistics, there are 1,101 registered ice hockey players in China while 55.6 million and 61.1 million players are in the United States and Canada respectively.

The NHL is clearly aware of its current situation in China. Before the Beijing station Daly said, “we have a long-term plan and we will attract more Chinese people to watch NHL games and dig out their interests in ice hockey games. Maybe this process will be slow and a long journey.”

The NHL’s ice hockey education could contribute to ice hockey growing in China. One week before the China Events, the NHL held a small-sized activity “ice hockey night” in the American Embassy. About one third of 150 participants were parents with their children, and they invited two Chinese and foreign adults who have studied ice hockey since children period to introduce hockey game rules and their growing stories.

This summer, the NHL has opened youth training camps in Hangzhou, Chongqing, Shenyang and Beijing, and almost 250 teenagers participated in these camps. According to Lanxiong’s reports, NHL officials also met a number of Chinese federations during this event and they are going to actively strive for co-operation with schools in Beijing.

In March, NHL’s commissioner Gary Bettman said that NHL will invest several million dollars in China to try and facilitate Chinese ice hockey’s development.

As for the results, Daly said that the project is still in its infancy: “it’s too early to talk about the future outcomes.”

At all events, in the following five years, ice hockey fans from two cities every year in China will have the chance to enjoy NHL games. In regards to the possibility of holding NHL regular season games in China, Proper said, “we have discussed it, but we still plan to hold pre-season games and then see what will happens.”

Everything is just beginning. When he was asked whether the NHL wants to succeed in China like the NBA, Proper laughed and said, “actually, we want more.”

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