Shanghai Takes 3 More Big Steps to Being Destination of Choice for Global Sports Attractions
Shanghai wants to be a major destination for global sports. Major sports want Shanghai to host them.
So far this week, Shanghai has:
1. successfully bid for the 2011 World Swimming Championships
2. secured Asia's first rights to host the ATP Tennis Masters series beginning in 2009
3. announced that Cleveland Caveliers and Orlando Magic will play a pre-season game there in October of this year.
"Shanghai will host 44 international competitions this year – up from 36 last year. The major attractions are the IAAF Athletics Golden Grand Prix, MotoGP and Formula One."
It's no mystery…any sport would like to have a Chinese audience…especially the afluent of Shanghai and its growing expatriate population.
This year's NBA game will be the second. Yao Ming and Houston Rockets played the Sacramento Kings in 2004.
What China needs is to host a sport that one of its own could compete in at the top level.
What might that sport be?
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