Ideas for promoting baseball/White Sox in China

[caulfield12]

I'm going to be moving to China for at least one year to teach.

 

I was just curious what ideas you guys had for promoting baseball, and, specifically, the White Sox?

 

When I lived in Colombia last year, I met with Renteria's brother and his agent, but it seems that only a few teams have a presence on the Caribbean coast, and I taught in Armenia, which is in the Andes Mountains between Cali and Medellin, where soccer (futbol) is King.

 

Has anyone here been to China? Obviously, baseball's future vision is for more exhibition games and even a franchise (or division) in Japan/Korea/Taiwan/China.

 

Although I'm a teacher, I also spent two years working for the Augusta GreenJackets and have an MS in Sports Administration (I also worked for an NFL football player as director of his non-profit organization), so I understand the basics of sports marketing and promotions (of course, we had one of Bill Veeck's books in my sports marketing class and I met his son while he was running the St. Paul Saints).

 

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

The biggest cities in China are Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. I will be living in Wuhan, which is about 9 million people and known as the "Chicago of China." Except no White Sox there, :-(

[Steve9347]

I have read a lot of China's recent interest in baseball, and the fact that it is growing. I know the Yankees have a great presence over there, but I am unsure about the White Sox.

 

Excerpted from this article

Making Sox-Yanks hit home in Japan

 

Japan, the world's second-largest economy after the United States, is the league's biggest and fastest-growing international market. Since MLB opened an office in Tokyo several years ago, revenues have doubled to more than $100 million annually from sponsorships and other deals, according to industry estimates. It's a fraction of US revenues, but Japan is viewed as a gateway to large untapped Asian markets, such as China, where MLB is planning to introduce academies and school baseball programs.

[southsider2k5]

Teach the game to as many people as possible. The only way to enjoy it, is to understand it.

[WilliamTell]

That'll be cool to teach the kids about baseball. I'm sure you won't enforce them to be White Sox fans but encouraging isn't all that bad, haha. The most important thing is that if you make an impact on their lives whether it's in life or baseball. If they end up loving baseball, but liking a different team than the White Sox, you still did a great job.

[Controlled Chaos]

http://www.zensuke.com/313325.html

 

http://www.zensuke.com/313275.html

[Steve9347]

http://www.zensuke.com/313325.html

 

http://www.zensuke.com/313275.html

 

There you go, it's already a part of culture.

[caulfield12]

There you go, it's already a part of culture.

 

Thanks for all the comments so far, much appreciated.

 

I will read the websites/links when I get an opportunity, after soccer practice and before Soxytime/"Sexytime." (copyright, Borat)