NBA’s Market Expansion Strategy in China
In 1989, then NBA Commissioner David Stern started a global marketing campaign to bring more international players into the league. Following the initiative, many multinational players joined the company, and interest in basketball and the NBA grew in other countries. Some countries hosted NBA games on their soil, while others formed deals with companies, such as Tencent, to bring digital content of fun to their viewers.
China splashed in the NBA when the Dallas Mavericks drafted the first Chinese-born player, Wang Zhizhi, in 1999. He played in the NBA for six years with three different teams. While Zhizhi was not a superstar in the NBA, he opened the door for Chinese players, and three years after Zhizhi was drafted, in 2002, Yao Ming was drafted by the Houston Rockets.
Ming had an illustrious career in the NBA, popularizing the NBA in China. The NBA took it and ran with it. “When you look at China, India and Africa, you’ve got about 60 percent of the world’s population in those three places,” NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum told USA TODAY. “So we’re putting a lot of time and energy in how we become the No. 1 sport in those countries and those continents.” (Tuesday, 2020) The NBA is using the logic that popularizing basketball in the most prominent countries with the most significant populations will help them become number one in those countries.
Reference
Tuesday, B. K. |. (2020, October 19). NBA is seeing a payoff from Investment Overseas. Global Sport Matters. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://globalsportmatters.com/business/2019/03/05/nba-realizing-the-power-of-new-markets-for-talent-and-revenue/
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Question 
NBA’s Market Expansion Strategy in China
In 200-250 words with references, answer the following:
Discuss how the NBA identifies new markets and why you believe the NBA has chosen China as an area in which to expand.