NHL checks out China

When i t comes to China, hockey is n o where as popular as basketball. It might never be. With retired 7- foot- 6 Yao Ming as a spokesperson for hoops in his native country, that’s a tall order.

But during his recent trip there, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly heard the same message over and again about that country’s growing fascination with the world’s fastest sport. From government representatives. From potential sponsors. Even during a Metallica concert at one of the venues he was checking out with Chinese officials.

“Everyone there kept telling me: ‘ We’ve got a long way to go to catch up to basketball in China,’ but the bottom line is the younger demographic really connects with our game and thinks it’s cool,” Daly said in a phone interview with Postmedia. “Not only that, they want to see it more.”

If Daly and the league have their way, pre- season games involving NHL teams will be held in China as early as this September/ October, with the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks among the parties reportedly interested. In a perfect world, the news conference unveiling the NHL’s plans will be a spectacle attended by fans, politicians and local children who are among the 1,100 hockey players the International Ice Hockey Federation claims are registered in the nation of about 1.373 billion people.

( For the record, various Chinese outlets report the number of people playing hockey in that country is closer to 3,000.)

In his visit to China last week, Daly’s activities included: meeting with government officials looking to the NHL for advice in preparation for the 2022 Beijing Olympics; negotiating with firms eager to get a piece of the league’s sponsorship pie; and trying to lay the foundation that would see the country host exhibition games.

Daly admitted his experience in China fuelled his enthusiasm about the league’s hopes to establish a footprint in that country.

“I think in a lot of ways it did,” Daly said. “I think once you are there it makes it more real and less theoretical.”

To that end, Daly and the league last week completed a five- year partnership deal with Chinese Internet giant Tencent which will see the company carry selected NHL games on its video sites and mobile platforms. The league already has an agreement with China’s public broadcaster CCTV to show a cache of NHL contests.

YOUNGER DEMOGRAPHIC REALLY CONNECTS WITH ... GAME.