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. [url=http://www.cheapmetsjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=mets-rafael-montero-j ersey]Mets Rafael Montero Je

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. Mets Rafael Montero 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. Cheap Mets Replica Jerseys . The New York Rangers centre had a goal and two assists in a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators ending a 13-game goal-scoring drought. Mets Jamie Callahan Jersey . -- The Denver Broncos locked up a shutdown cornerback, only his name wasnt Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. http://www.cheapmetsjerseysauthentic.com/ . -- Terrelle Pryor took the opening snap of the game, put the ball in Darren McFaddens belly and saw LaMarr Woodley crash down.MILWAUKEE - Rickie Weeks hit a two-out RBI single after Jonathan Lucroy moved to third on a balk, Francisco Rodriguez earned his league-leading 15th save and the Milwaukee Brewers snapped a three-game skid with a 5-4 win Saturday over the New York Yankees. Lucroy, Carlos Gomez and Aramis Ramirez each homered off Yankees starter CC Sabathia. Weeks chopper skipped through the hole into left in the seventh off Alfredo Aceves (0-1), who was called for a balk two pitches earlier. Rodriguez allowed two flyouts to the warning track in right in a scoreless ninth. The veteran closer hasnt allowed a run in 19 appearances this season. Zach Duke (3-0) got the win after escaping a seventh-inning jam by getting Carlos Beltran to bounce into a double play. Lucroy and Ramirez hit back-to-back home runs in the third, and Gomez hit a solo shot to the upper deck off Sabathia, who allowed eight hits in 5 1-3 innings. The left-hander allowed at least four runs in a game for the sixth time this year. Still, the Yankees rallied from two-run deficit on Mark Teixieras solo shot in the sixth and pinch-hitter Alfonso Sorianos RBI single off Duke that tied the game at 4 an inning . It put runners on first and second for the power-hitting Beltran. But Duke got him to bounce into the inning-ending, 5-4-3 double play. Weeks then came through for his first RBI of the season. He is the right-handed hitting half of a second-base platoon with Scooter Gennett, but he hasnt played much with Gennett. Weeks helmet flew off his head as he raced toward first on the single and he pointed to the dugout as the crowd showered him with cheers. Mets Jason Vargas Jersey. It was enough cushion for the Brewers bullpen. Will Smith had two strikeouts in a scoreless eighth. Rodriguez got three flyouts in the ninth, though the outs by Brian Roberts and Kelly Johnson made the hometown fans nervous after sailing close to the wall. Sabathia only wished he was that lucky in his first start at Miller Park since Sept. 28, 2008. With the Brewers after a midseason trade from Cleveland, Sabathia tossed a complete-game victory against the Cubs to clinch the NL wild card. Gomez gave Sabathia a rude welcome back leading off the bottom of the first after sending a 1-1 pitch high over the left-field fence. The ball caromed off the window of a restaurant filled with spectators dining in the third deck. Three runs off Sabathia were unearned because they followed an error. NOTES: Ramirez left the game in the fourth with a strained left hamstring after fielding a bouncer. ... Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said RF Ryan Braun (right oblique strain) feels good. He is eligible to come off the disabled list in time for the start of a three-game series Tuesday against Pittsburgh. "Still not probably there, so we are (hopeful) for Tuesday but Im not sure," Roenicke said. "Maybe there is a little bit of tightness but it is not really bothering him." Braun took full cuts at batting practice Saturday, including a homer to dead centre. ... The Yankees send David Phelps (0-0) to the hill Sunday afternoon against the Brewers Matt Garza (2-3) to wrap up the three-game series. 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