September 2007

Baseball
The Chinese National Team will become the first international team to participate in the Arizona Fall League (AFL), continuing the ongoing effort by MLB to help develop the squad as it trains for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The 16th season of the AFL will begin on 10/9/07. Team USA, a national team of non-40-man-roster players from MLB organizations, also will participate in the AFL. Former Major League manager Jim Lefebvre and pitching coach Bruce Hurst will lead the Chinese team on the field. Team China is training at the complex of the San Diego Padres in Peoria, Arizona. (MLB Press Release, 9/25/07)

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Basketball
The NBA and the Walt Disney Company, the sponsor of the NBA's 2004 "China Games" that sent the Sacramento Kings and the Houston Rockets to Beijing and Shanghai for two games, are nearing a deal that has the entertainment giant buying a minority stake in the league's nascent NBA China entity. The dollar value of Disney's expected investment is not known, but some estimates have the value of NBA's China operations at up to $2 billion. (Sports Business Journal, 9/19/07)

The NBA has named Tim Chen, CEO of Microsoft Greater China, as CEO of NBA China, a new enterprise created in April to encapsulate all of the league's businesses in Greater China. NBA China will be governed by a Board of Directors that will include NBA owners, representatives of outside investors as well as Commissioner David Stern, Adam Silver, and Heidi Ueberroth, among others. The NBA is conducting more than 170 special events in 112 cities in Greater China including the NBA China Games 2007, three pre-season games in Shanghai and Macao in October. (Sportbusiness.com, 9/19/07)

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Other Sports
Tokyo formally submitted its candidacy to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, with local government proposing to build a new main stadium in the Harumi waterfront district for the opening and closing ceremonies and the track and field events. Tokyo is bidding against Rio de Janeiro, Prague, Chicago and Qatari capital Doha for the right to host the Games. The International Olympic Committee will select a host city in October 2009. (Sportbusiness.com, 9/12/07)