China Here We Come

[NSWAFL]

Hey don't underestimate the Eagles, TLPG!

We play two games against Northern Conference teams, Labrador and Mount Gravatt. We're also playing Mount Gravatt in the opening round of the Foxtel Cup.

[TLPG]

I forgot about the Foxtel Cup TBH!

But no, the Eagles and indeed Uni would have needed to recruit and strongly to be competitive.

[NSWAFL]

I think we already have.

[cos789]

Surely it would be much smarter putting more money into existing developments such as south africa and possibly nz.

China is a different knid of investment.
AFL games are now on Chinese TV and the rumour is that a big Chinese company will fill the front jumper
sponsorship of Melbourne making it the richest in it's club's history.

[TLPG]

Any negative comments without back up will be burned on sight.

[Dongfootball]

This is a great step the AFL setting up an academy in Guangzhou. At present Tianjin, Beijing and Shanghai have locals playing and set up local constituted teams. Guangzhou is looking at steps in this direction with schools nearby. I have established a team of locals in South China in the city of Dongguan. It has been established at a Technical College with players from 16 years up to 19 years of age as part of a Sports education and english program I came up with a few years ago. The program will see the Dongguan players established and trained as a team along with English tuition and they will undertake a Sports management degree with AFL subjects. This will teach them how run their own club and create others in the region. China has the money and the people to develop this game well. It is a big market for clubs who want to create sister clubs with Chinese teams and have their club's sponsors exposed to this market. Also to gain international Corporate members. If the AFL want to attract talent from this big market it needs to support more on the grassroots level to establish clubs here. Culturally parents here put emphasis on education that will result in something for their children. They will be reluctant to want their children to go to another country to gamble a on a sports degree unless it is something they can see for themselves developing in their own country. I know this fact very well as I have tutored students given advice on them studying overseas with their parents. Also I have worked in schools. We must adapt locally to get the game here.

[pussycat]

Would love to see the game take off in China and India. Great to hear the AFL is finally taking China seriously. Baby steps I know, but a good start.

Last dancer says China ripe for AFL expansion
Jared Lynch
January 12, 2012 Read later

THE Chinese market is ripe for the taking by the AFL, according to former star ballet dancer turned stockbroking whiz, Li Cunxin.

Cunxin, of Mao's Last Dancer fame, said the Chinese were fans of all types of sport, but there was no code in China they could proudly call their own. He said his native land was ''a great potential market'' for Australian football, and could create one billion new fans for the code.

''The basketball game is very weak and the standard is very low. Soccer is also very average,'' said Cunxin, who quickly became an AFL convert after he moved to Melbourne 16 years ago.

''If I'm your average Chinese fan, then I think you could have over a billion people following you. There is no reason why China should not be an incredible future market for AFL.''

The AFL is already taking the first steps of an Asian expansion. It plans to filter Chinese athletes into the annual draft combine in coming years.

AFL international development manager Tony Woods said the league would establish an academy in Guangzhou in the country's south by the end of the year. ''We are realists and realise it is bold and ambitious,'' he said.

''We are taking the first steps into tapping into the Chinese market, and I believe absolutely that we will one day have a Chinese-born athlete running around the MCG.''

The AFL, with the Melbourne Football Club and City of Melbourne, has already invested $1.5 million in China, launching a purpose-built oval in Tianjin, northern China, in October.

Cunxin was speaking at the 15th anniversary dinner of the AIS/AFL Academy.

He told the 60 young academy members, many of whom are expected to go on to play AFL, never to lose the drive and passion needed to reach the sport's highest level - even after their playing careers had ended.

He said in the last 3½ years of his dancing career he studied his investment diploma. ''Even though I was passionate and committed about ballet, I was always interested in other things as well. I was fascinated with discovering the stock market, so I went to do some accounting courses to understand it better.

''By the time I was ready to stop dancing I made a very smooth career transition from dancing to finances. I'm a senior manger at one of the largest stockbroking firms in Australia today, so not only was I able to make that career transition smoothly, but also very successfully.

''It took the same discipline, dedication and work ethic from dance - you can apply that to any field.

''That discipline you have today is going to set you up for life.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/AFL/AFL-news/last ... z1jBlaLZC3

[SportCapital]

Would love to see the game take off in China and India. Great to hear the AFL is finally taking China seriously. Baby steps I know, but a good start.

Last dancer says China ripe for AFL expansion
Jared Lynch
January 12, 2012 Read later

THE Chinese market is ripe for the taking by the AFL, according to former star ballet dancer turned stockbroking whiz, Li Cunxin.

Cunxin, of Mao's Last Dancer fame, said the Chinese were fans of all types of sport, but there was no code in China they could proudly call their own. He said his native land was ''a great potential market'' for Australian football, and could create one billion new fans for the code.

''The basketball game is very weak and the standard is very low. Soccer is also very average,'' said Cunxin, who quickly became an AFL convert after he moved to Melbourne 16 years ago.

''If I'm your average Chinese fan, then I think you could have over a billion people following you. There is no reason why China should not be an incredible future market for AFL.''

The AFL is already taking the first steps of an Asian expansion. It plans to filter Chinese athletes into the annual draft combine in coming years.

AFL international development manager Tony Woods said the league would establish an academy in Guangzhou in the country's south by the end of the year. ''We are realists and realise it is bold and ambitious,'' he said.

''We are taking the first steps into tapping into the Chinese market, and I believe absolutely that we will one day have a Chinese-born athlete running around the MCG.''

The AFL, with the Melbourne Football Club and City of Melbourne, has already invested $1.5 million in China, launching a purpose-built oval in Tianjin, northern China, in October.

Cunxin was speaking at the 15th anniversary dinner of the AIS/AFL Academy.

He told the 60 young academy members, many of whom are expected to go on to play AFL, never to lose the drive and passion needed to reach the sport's highest level - even after their playing careers had ended.

He said in the last 3½ years of his dancing career he studied his investment diploma. ''Even though I was passionate and committed about ballet, I was always interested in other things as well. I was fascinated with discovering the stock market, so I went to do some accounting courses to understand it better.

''By the time I was ready to stop dancing I made a very smooth career transition from dancing to finances. I'm a senior manger at one of the largest stockbroking firms in Australia today, so not only was I able to make that career transition smoothly, but also very successfully.

''It took the same discipline, dedication and work ethic from dance - you can apply that to any field.

''That discipline you have today is going to set you up for life.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/AFL/AFL-news/last ... z1jBlaLZC3

I wonder if any of the other Australian leagues are trying to expand at this level. Or at least having a conversation about it.... Doubt it. 5 years from now they'll wished they had.

[AFLcrap1]

Would love to see the game take off in China and India. Great to hear the AFL is finally taking China seriously. Baby steps I know, but a good start.

I wonder if any of the other Australian leagues are trying to expand at this level. Or at least having a conversation about it.... Doubt it. 5 years from now they'll wished they had.

Expand What ?
Other sports don't have to .
They're played overseas at pro or semi pro level .
Players from other leagues in other countries can play for teams in Aust & vice versa.

Your sport hasn't got tat .
So it's the look at us look at us,
Catering tent game in China .
That's gets laughed at & ridiculed by AFL fans when the crowds are announced .

The desperation for the tiniest bit of international acclaim is pathetic .

& I always thought expansion was starting a team in a place that doesn't already have one .
So far ..lol where the Chinese team .

[notaleaguefan]

And rl only has one semi pro league out side of Australia and only played in places where union is popular, thanks to union its only remotely popular!

AFL doesn’t have another sport to piggy back off or one that it is a dumbed down version of

[AFLcrap1]

Don't start with your lies again .
The ESL is fully pro .

[NRL&NFLweLaughATAFL2]

China here we come???

[Fred]

Hope not. Bloody stupid idea.

[Quolls2019]

Can’t remember too many AFL supporters on this site thinking that expanding the AFL overseas is a great idea.
Expanding the footprint is what the AFL are trying to do and that is mainly about expanding revenue through broadcast rights, and that’s about it.
Helping to start junior leagues will help to promote that goal.
There is no interest in having an international side in the AFL or for that matter a successful overseas league.
We don’t want to lose our best, or in some cases, our middle of the road players to some cashed up future overseas teams, that’s the domain of rugby league, Union and soccer.

[Terry]

Would love to see this plan and a push into India really take off in the years to come. India in particular with the abundance of cricket grounds not used in winter.

League's giant push to China
8:57 AM Mon 12 Dec, 2011
THE AFL plans to play a premiership game in China by as soon as 2016 with Greater Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy saying the Giants are interested in going.

Melbourne would also be a logical choice, having forged close ties to China, having played an exhibition game against the Brisbane Lions in Shanghai in 2010 and exploring the possibility of taking pre-season training to the mountainous region of Kunming recently.

The AFL has also taken a number of significant steps in gaining a foothold in China, ensuring one game a week is beamed live into Shanghai and funding an AFL oval in Tianjin.

"If you've got that type of energy behind it, there's no reason why we can't aim for that type of outcome in the next three to five years," AFL international development manager Tony Woods told the Herald Sun.

"Ultimately, you've got to have two clubs who are really keen and driving it. It has to sit within our fixturing here and in the end it has to be a joint decision and endorsed by the AFL Commission.

"Absolutely, playing a game there for premiership points in the future is a consideration."

In November, Sheedy declared he wanted to take the Giants to China for a home and away game.

"A lot of clubs wouldn't be interested, but we are saying that we want to do it," Sheedy said.

"I have spoken to our chairman about it as it is in our best interests to be first.

"I haven't spoken to anyone at the AFL yet, but they know it is something that I want to do.

"We could even [open the 2013 season] with a game, and I think it would work really well."

The Demons are also keen to play in China with chief executive Cameron Schwab declaring that Melbourne is a "pioneering" club.

"At some point there will be a venue, a time, a reason and there will be enough momentum behind it that there will be clubs prepared to host games in other countries," Schwab told the Herald Sun.

"It makes a lot of sense for that to be in China, given the number of levels we relate to China on."

http://www.AFL.com.au/news/newsarticle/ ... fault.aspx

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