It's no revelation that big business makes the sports world go
round.
The athletes we cheer for are just pieces in an economic chess
game played by the suits behind the scenes, and the performances of
our favorite players on and off the court translate into dollars
and cents for the people in charge.
Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian were nothing short of economic godsends
for their respective teams, the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee
Bucks.
Yao's economic influence was felt almost immediately after he
burst into the NBA in 2002, snagging endorsement deals with
companies as diverse as Reebok, Apple and Visa. By the end of his
rookie season, Yao was making an estimated $10 million in
endorsements.
Yao's marketing power has indeed reverberated throughout the
Rockets' organization.
Several Rockets players have signed endorsement deals with
Chinese companies, including Shane Battier, who last year signed a
deal with Chinese shoemaker Peak, and Steve Francis and Argentine
rookie Luis Scola, both of whom recently signed endorsement deals
with Anta, another Chinese shoemaker.
But it's not only the players who are receiving endorsement
deals in Yao's gigantic wake.
Earlier this month the Toyota Center, the Rockets' home stadium,
signed a sponsorship agreement with Chinese info-tech conglomerate
Founder Group, which took effect on the eve of the much-hyped
showdown between Yao and Yi, an event watched by some 200 million
people worldwide.
It was the fifth Chinese company to sponsor the Rockets, but
certainly not the last.
According to the Houston Business Journal, Bucks officials have
said they are pursuing similar endorsement contracts with Chinese
companies.
Like Yi's basketball game, his marketing potential is enormous
but remains largely untapped. At the very least, Yi has put
Milwaukee - a geographical blip at best prior to the summer's NBA
draft - on the map for Chinese investors.
For a business world stumbling over itself to get a piece of
China's extraordinary growth, Yao and Yi are priceless
commodities.
(China Daily November 22, 2007)