Canadas largest sports company wants the Maple Leafs to become Chinas favourite hockey team, in much the same way Manchester United is the most popular soccer team in the worlds most populous country. Kevin Hogan Jersey . At the same time as Chinese government officials have asked the NHL to stage a regular-season game in China as early as next season, TSN has learned four executives with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment are scheduled to leave Friday for Beijing for meetings to help grow hockey in China, an untapped frontier for many sports leagues around the world. MLSE chief commercial officer Dave Hopkinson, Bo Hu, MLSEs executive in charge of Chinese business, and two colleagues will attend meetings in Beijing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his staff, and Chinese government officials. Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan was scheduled to participate but canceled at the last minute, a team spokesperson said. (The NHL and NHLPA announced forward Carter Ashton was suspended for 20 games on Thursday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Ashton said he borrowed another athletes asthma inhaler.) MLSE executives, the 27-year-old Hu in particular, have quietly laid the groundwork for building the companys profile in China over the past three years. Because basketball is so popular in China, MLSE staff first established relationships with companies interested in sponsorship agreements with the Raptors. The basketball team now has sponsorships with Chinese auto tire maker Aeolus Tires and Asus, a laptop maker. MLSE has also partnered with I.T. company Huawei on music-industry projects. Its believed that MLSE garners more than $300,000 from each of those sponsorships. Company officials declined to say how much sponsorship revenue they make from China-based companies. As MLSEs relationships in China matured, the company landed meetings with the Chinese government - meetings where MLSE received an attractive offer. China is competing with Kazakhstan to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. China wants to have hockey teams that are competitive. But with a mens national team thats ranked No. 38 — behind New Zealand, Belgium and Iceland — China needs help getting to that point. China wasnt a sports nation before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but it is now, Hopkinson said in an interview. The president of the country attended the Team Canada mens hockey games in Sochi and said he fell in love with hockey. Whats important to the president of China is important to China. Chinese officials said in exchange for helping to develop grass-roots hockey programs in China, the government would help MLSE promote the Maple Leafs brand there. This is the most storied and established brand in the game, Hopkinson said. We were told that if they were going to partner in the NFL, it would be with the Dallas Cowboys. If they were doing a baseball deal, it would be with the New York Yankees. And if theres a partnership in the NHL, its going to be with the Maple Leafs. It doesnt hurt that the Leafs are based in Canada. Tensions might appear if a U.S.-based team tried to do what the Leafs hope to do. The Chinese have told us they really appreciate what we are doing, boots on the ground, helping them to develop a hockey competency, said Hopkinson, who has made four previous trips to China. In March, the Leafs converted all of their rink boards to Chinese to welcome Chinese viewers. In August, the team sent staff to Beijing and Shanghai to stage hockey camps for young amateur players. In coming weeks, the Leafs will aid in the production of a 10-part Hockey 101 series to be included in NHL broadcasts on CCTV in China to educate viewers. We arent the only team in China, Hu said. The Canucks and Islanders are there, too, but we really have a plan to become the biggest hockey brand there. We want to keep holding camps for kids, building grass roots interest, and eventually take our Maple Leafs players there. This is the Manchester United model. The worlds most famous soccer club says it has 108 million fans in China, where it has played almost a dozen times since 1975. Hu said because the NHL prevents teams from promoting themselves outside their local territories, MLSE has been targeting Chinese companies such as Air China and the Bank of China that want to expand their business in Canada. There are a lot of Chinese mining companies that have investments in Canada, although we just signed an agreement with a Colombian mining company, Hu said. Hu confirmed Chinese officials have told the NHL they are interested in hosting an NHL game as soon as next season. As any seasoned marketer knows, the payoff for a team to break through in China is huge. In its recent filing for an initial public offering, Alibaba reported just 45.8 per cent of Chinas population uses the Internet, far lower than Canada or the U.S. In 2000, four per cent of urban households in China were considered middle class; by 2012, more than two-thirds of those homes had gained that status, earning between $9,000 and $16,000. In 2022, Chinas middle class may eclipse 630 million consumers. There already are signs that China, a non-traditional hockey market to be sure, is open to a new sport. Last year, the state broadcaster CCTV began showing four live NHL games every week. This is CCTVs second year of a three-year deal with the NHL. NHL games broadcast on the weekend in China have attracted an average 800,000 households - airing at 7 a.m. local time. By comparison, televised Leafs games in Canada with national distribution this season have attracted about 1.5 million viewers. This year, Beijings 150 registered teams have 2,300 players between the ages of six and 15, MLSE says. Still, there are challenges to growing hockey in China. For starters, its an expensive sport, Hu said, thanks to 30 per cent import duties for hockey equipment shipped from the west and expensive ice time. There are politics to consider. In 2005, the newspaper Beijing Today accused western soccer teams of gold-digging, using their tours of China solely to build their brand and commercial presence. Some efforts simply dont translate. Manchester United closed a pair of theme restaurants after fans didnt see a connection between soccer fandom and eating out, The New York Times reported in 2007. Also, its unclear whether the NHL sees a big upside in China. The league does not have a senior vice president in change of expanding its international business, a position common in other pro sports leagues. Moreover, the NBA has a long head start in China, where it began to lay a toehold during the 1990s. Now, the NBA attracts some five million viewers a game in China. In the U.S., NBA broadcasts on cable TV get about two million viewers per game. Its doubtful that the NHL would ever grow business through the sale of team jerseys. While authentic jerseys now sell for $330 in Canada, counterfeiting has flourished in China, bringing down the price of knock-off jerseys to $5 or $10 in some cases. Kenny Britt Jersey . Minutes before the final whistle of Sporting Kansas Citys 3-0 victory over a shorthanded Montreal Impact squad on Saturday afternoon, Saputo tweeted: "Our fans deserve better. DeShone Kizer Jersey . With a victory seemingly slipping away late in the third quarter, his quick scoring flurry helped Golden State regain control early in the fourth. http://www.footballbrownsnflprostore.com/Youth-Sammie-Coates-Elite-Jersey/ . "Yes, Id like to get them in," Detroits rookie manager said. "Mother Natures going to have a say in that." Sure enough, the Tigers had their game against the Kansas City Royals postponed because of rain on Thursday.Madison, WI (SportsNetwork.com) - Coming off their first Big Ten Conference loss of the season, the seventh-ranked Wisconsin Badgers will attempt to start anew as they play host to the Nebraska Cornhuskers at the Kohl Center on Thursday night. Nebraska was considered one of the favorites to challenge for the Big Ten title prior to the season beginning, but after a 5-1 start, the losses have piled up to the point where the team comes into this fray at 10-6 overall and an even 2-2 in conference. The good news is that the Huskers have won two in a row, beating the likes of Rutgers (65-49) and Illinois (53-43), both at home, to run their record in Lincoln this season to 7-3. Wisconsin had been ranked in the top-five for much of the campaign, but a shocking 67-62 loss at Rutgers last Sunday put an end to the teams eight-game winning streak. As a result, the Badgers currently sit at 15-2, the other loss coming at home to Duke on Dec. 3, and 3-1 in conference. They are 8-1 at home this season, and theyve won four straight in Madison. Nebraska owns a narrow 11-10 lead in the all-time series with Wisconsin, but the Badgers have won five of the last six meetings, including four of five since the Cornhuskers joined the Big Ten. Nebraska held its second straight opponent below 50 points in the recent win over Illinois, after doing so just once in the first 14 games. The Fighting Illini were frustrated to the point of only 27.3 percent field goal efficiency, which included a woeful 6-of-29 showing from 3-point range. Conversely, the Huskers knocked down 6-of-17 3-point tries as part of a 42.9 percent shooting effort overall. They also converted all five of their free throws while logging a 38-30 edge on the glass. Terran Petteway led all scorers with 18 points, while Shavon Shields finished with 11 to go with eight rebounds and five assists. Petteway and Shields have been as potent a one-two punch as there is in the Big Ten this season, posting scoring averages of 18. Jamie Meder Jersey. 9 and 17.1 ppg, respectively. No other player nets more than 7.7 ppg for the Cornhuskers, who produce just 65.9 ppg due in large part to their rather anemic 30.9 percent performance from beyond the arc. As for Nebraskas effort at the defensive end, it has been on par with some of the top teams in the league as foes are putting up just 60.7 ppg in hitting 37.7 percent of their total shots, which includes a 27.6 percent effort out on the perimeter. The usually defensive-minded Badgers had an off night in their recent matchup with Rutgers, as they allowed the Scarlet Knights to shoot 54.3 percent from the floor in what turned out to be a five-point loss for the visitors. Nigel Hayes and Sam Dekker scored 15 points apiece for Wisconsin, which also got a double-digit effort from Bronson Koenig with 12 points. The Badgers struggled from distance in the game, netting only 5-of-21 3-point attempts, and they went just 9-of-16 at the charity stripe as well. Both teams took very good care of the basketball, combining for only 12 turnovers. Wisconsin lost more than the game against Rutgers, as starting guard Traevon Jackson (9.4 ppg) suffered a fractured right foot and is expected to undergo surgery this week. All-America candidate Frank Kaminsky (16.9 ppg, 8.2 rpg) did not play against Rutgers due to a concussion, but he is expected to be back in the lineup on Thursday night. Wisconsin allows the fewest points of any team in the Big Ten, and it ranks seventh nationally with an average yield of only 54.9 ppg. The teams effort at the offensive end typically generates 73.5 ppg, but with some of its stars ailing, guys like Dekker (12.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and Hayes (12.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg) will be asked to do even more. Cheap Jerseys Stitched Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Jerseys China ' ' '