The NFL in Chinese characters

Published on February 7, 2010 by brooks | This story has been viewed 425 views

A favorite myth that pops up around this time each year is that the Super Bowl has a global audience of 1 billion people.

But if the National Football League has its way, Chinese football fans could turn that fiction into fact someday.

In a country where American sports imports have had mixed results – basketball being the noticeable exception – the NFL has been quietly trying to build a Chinese fan base over the past few years.

While Major League Baseball is trying to catch up to the National Basketball Association in China by creating a generation of baseball players through large-scale school programs, the NFL has taken a different approach. The league has invested heavily in social media and is reaching out to fans through China’s preferred mediums: television and the Internet.

This comes after some early setbacks.

In 2007, the NFL failed to deliver the proposed “China Bowl,” a pre-season exhibition game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in Beijing. And the league also has struggled to develop the kind of junior flag football program in China that has proven popular in Japan.

That is where people like Zhang Nan come in.

Zhang, a 28-year-old graduate of China’s prestigious Beijing Sports University, was destined for a career in physical education. But after volunteering on a lark to intern at the NFL’s fledgling junior touch football program, Zhang found himself increasingly curious about football and the culture around it.

“We were not nervous at first because we all had a knack for sports,” said Zhang. “The biggest challenge for us was the lack of resources to learn more about the game.”

Football converts
To remedy this, Zhang and others who had fallen in love with the game began to scour foreign language schools and other places where football-savvy foreigners could be found. Overseas students and expatriates working abroad in China soon became instrumental in teaching them not just the NFL game, but the culture that surrounded the game outside the field lines.

Over time, Zhang began to dedicate more time to football and the NFL. Upon graduating from university, Zhang joined a sports marketing firm where he worked on NFL events.

It was during that time that Michael Stokes, managing director for NFL China, saw the energy and potential in Zhang and decided to bring him on as the centerpiece of their key marketing strategy: online streaming of Sunday Night Football on China’s number one Internet portal, Sina.com.

Stokes’ goal is not to try to create a country of football players, but to develop a fan base by educating Chinese, ideally 18-30 year old males, about the game through online media and TV programs tailored for them.

Broadcasting for a Chinese audience
Early signs show that this direction is slowly paying off. Through television deals with Guangdong TV and China media powerhouses, Shanghai Media Group and China Central Television (CCTV), millions of people in China caught an NFL game this season.

Meanwhile, on CCTV, the NFL introduced a new magazine show called “NFL Blitz,” which followed popular Taiwanese rock band, Mayday, as they travelled to different American cities to learn about the game and the culture around the sport – from tailgating to beer pong.

On Sina.com, Zhang’s weekly live broadcasts of NFL games have drawn a steady audience of 20,000 fans. During the games, the NFL maintains an online chat where knowledgeable fans can discuss the games in play and assist NFL moderators in answering questions from newer fans.

While Sina’s numbers pale to those captured by television, the NFL controls the Sina broadcast, allowing their broadcasters to engage the audience differently than the traditionally stodgy CCTV broadcasters.

It’s a critical way to reach a slowly growing fan base that is spread over a large spectrum in terms of football knowledge.

“There is a part of the audience who often don’t understand what is going on and ask for further explanation,” said Zhang, explaining the challenges he has as a commentator. “There exists a big gap between those sophisticated fans and the beginner ones.”

Learning how to say ‘snap’
Further compounding the problem is the issue of translation. Over the years, Zhang and his NFL compatriots in China have translated the dozens of NFL terms that govern the game, generating their own NFL vocabulary.

Take for example the football term, “snap.” While the different snaps (a long snap for a field goal or a short snap between a center and quarterback) in English have their own distinct terms, in Chinese they all go by the translation, “kai qiu.”

Adding to these language issues is the fact that CCTV broadcasters maintain their own Chinese language terminology which at times conflicts with the one used by Zhang during the Sina.com broadcast.

Still, from viewing parties at popular sports bars in Beijing and Shanghai to regularly scheduled broadcasts on China’s most popular media outlets, the NFL has worked harder than probably any other American sport to promote not just the game itself, but the entire NFL entertainment package: the tailgate party beforehand, the cheerleaders on the sideline, the halftime concert and the post-game fireworks.

Whether this path will prove successful compared to the MLB and NBA focus on player development at the grassroots and national level (culminating in the rise of NBA megastar Yao Ming) remains to be seen.

Still, Stokes remained upbeat when asked about the possibility of a Chinese national playing in the NFL.

“Absolutely, if we are doing our job, five or so years down the road we will have much more interest in terms of local Chinese athletes wanting to play American football. And then further down the road, there is no doubt that the Chinese have the skills and the athleticism to play American football.”

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