When the 2.26m Chinese basketball sensation Yao Ming was chosen as the top draft pick by the Houston Rockets last June, the National Basketball Association gained a marquee attraction on an overseas frontier.
Yao's debut against the Indiana Pacers two weeks ago was broadcast in China to 287 million households. And traffic on the Rockets' Web site spiked higher than a half-court jump shot.
Yao may be off to a slow start on the court, but the league is moving fast to accommodate Ming mania with an official NBA Web site written in Chinese characters (www.nba.com/china).
The site, which is currently accepting votes for this season's All-Star game, will expand in mid-December with audio and video game coverage, statistics, chats, merchandise sales, player profiles and other features.
No bull
The league's bullishness on the Web as a way to extend its appeal is not limited to China.
No other professional sports league has been as adept at integrating its Web sites, which include NBA.com and all 29 team sites, into a larger marketing strategy that encompasses everything from television contracts to shoe sponsorships and advertising.
China is merely the latest in a series of foreign territories that the NBA has added to its expanding global empire, aided in no small part by the growing presence of international players in the league.
Yao is the third Chinese player (along with Wang Zhizhi and Mengke Bateer) to enter the NBA over the last few years, and the 67th international player overall, a twofold increase since the 1996 to 1997 season.
In June 1999, the NBA became the first professional sports league to provide an international site when it launched NBA.com/japan, a spinoff of its successful English-language NBA.com site.
Since then, it has added sites for the United Kingdom (nba.com/uk), Canada (nba.com/canada), and Spanish-speaking countries (nba.com/espanol). All of these sites receive heavy traffic.
Business success
"Whenever we have chat sessions on NBA.com, many of the questions are coming from other countries," said David Stern, the NBA commissioner. "In fact, we tend to get more questions from other countries than domestically."
The foreign Web sites have performed well for the league. Since launching on NBA.com/china will be split between the league and its Chinese partner.
In addition to Chinese companies, the NBAs seven global partners, including Coca-Cola, Nike and Anheuser-Busch, will advertise on the China site, as well. Most of the league's global partners sell products in China. Online orders from China for NBA merchandise will be filled in Virginia. Like its other foreign sites, NBA.com/china will function as both a wire service and an educational tool.
For broadcasters and journalists, a password-protected media section provides information on players, press releases and tips on the fundamentals of the game.
Job well done
"NBA.com has done a great job of building a community," said Jon Belmonte, chief executive of the Active Network, a San Diego company that provides sports marketing services for corporate clients.
"The NBA is very personality- and stats-driven and the Web sites do a great job of packaging all of that information and making it accessible to the rabid fan. Building and deepening that core customer relationship is one of the most important things you can do online."
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