[外電] WSJ interview with MLB Asia Director

看板MLB作者subpop (尚未通過身分認證)時間14年前 (2011/06/27 17:57)推噓9(9推 0噓 1→)

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304314404576409254178528890.html Giving Baseball Wider Play in Asia By JASON CHOW In Jim Small's first job in Major League Baseball, as an intern with the Kansas City Royals in 1982, his duties included opening mail and picking up the players' dry cleaning. These days he has a much bigger assignment—to raise the sport's profile in Asia. It's a challenge. Baseball is already popular in Japan, Taiwan and Korea, but elsewhere in Asia many people wouldn't know a home run from a strikeout. China in particular has never really caught the baseball bug. As well, there's stiff competition for the same Asian sports fans, particularly from soccer and basketball. Mr. Small, now managing director and vice president for Asia, declined to disclose numbers for MLB's business in Asia, saying only that revenue has doubled since 2003, partly as a result of the popularity of Japanese and Korean stars who now ply their trade stateside. Mr. Small, who is based in Tokyo, recently spoke to The Wall Street Journal's Jason Chow about the challenges of introducing baseball to China and about how to grow in the mature Japanese market. 小先生是MLB派駐在東京的高層人員，負責亞洲地區MLB的推廣。亞洲除了日本、台灣、韓國外，幾乎是棒球沙漠。 The following interview has been edited. WSJ: What are your goals in Asia? Mr. Small: It's the same for all sports. There's basically four revenue streams: media, sponsorships, licensing and events. We've done games in Japan, China and Taiwan. The best long-term opportunity, of course, is to find a local player and build on that. Our revenue today is five times greater than before [Japanese pitcher] Hideo Nomo came over [to the U.S.] in 1995. People always want to cheer for the hometown guy. 運動收入的四大來源: 媒體播放、贊助、商品授權、辦活動現在MLB在亞洲的收入是野茂時代的五倍了亞洲當地觀眾還是希望看老鄉在球場上打球 WSJ: What is the status of baseball in China? Mr. Small: In 2001, I met with the China Baseball Association—it was the first time we established a tie. But baseball's history is quite long there. It was actually quite popular in the 1940s and '50s, but during the Cultural Revolution Mao effectively killed the game by forbidding it. They look at baseball as an Asian sport, not an American sport. It's played in Japan, Taiwan and Korea. There's context. WSJ: What are you doing to grow the game in China? Mr. Small: We're on nine channels in China now. We've a licensing program in over 70 stores. We've a grassroots program called "Play Ball" where we're in 150 schools in five cities. Secondly, we're continuing to help the national team train. In 2009, we also created a development center program with a middle school in Wuxi. This is the great experiment. Can you take a kid from a non-traditional baseball country and with the right training, nutrition and coaching, can you make him a prospect? 目前中國有九個頻道有MLB MLB在中國的作法是深耕基層引起小孩子的打棒球興趣及幫助中國國家隊訓練 WSJ: Basketball and soccer have made big inroads in China. How do you compete? Mr. Small: We think we are building on a significant base that we already have. In 2008, a research firm called TNS found that 16% of the population in China have some interest in baseball and 25% of them had brand awareness for MLB. It surprised us. Additional data from TNS showed that the fans were in big cities and were highly educated. We trail behind basketball and soccer, but it's a gauge that there's awareness. 四個中國人中有一個人知道MLB喲 WSJ: How do you encourage grassroots participation when there are few baseball facilities in China? Mr. Small: Facilities and the presence of a professional league are really important. At the moment, we are not involved [with the professional Chinese Baseball League]. As we continue to grow, there needs to be a ladder for a kid to climb. He has to see that he can play in school, then for an elite club in his area, at a university, a national team, and a professional league, and maybe at the top of the rung, MLB. WSJ: Baseball is already popular in Japan. What can you do there? Mr. Small: In Asia, sports marketing is behind Europe and the U.S. Eight years ago, if a company in Japan wanted to run a promotion, they'd call us, Hello Kitty and Snoopy and they'd pick the cheapest deal and run a two- or three-week promotion. There was no thinking long-term. That's starting to change. We have 90% brand awareness in Japan and we do really well with wealthy housewives. At first, it didn't make sense but then it dawned on me: Our games are on at 8 a.m in the morning. Women have the game on in the house. So we took this info to Kellogg's. That started a five-year promotion. They put MLB players on their boxes with paraphernalia in their cereals, and their sales spiked. 在棒球已經非常深入生活的日本， MLB下一個消費族群瞄準"有錢的人妻" 例如授權家樂氏的早餐麥片盒上印上球員吸引人妻來買 (不如在咖哩塊包裝封面印上Ichiro...) WSJ: Where else in Asia do you see growth? Mr. Small: The next big opportunity for us is India. We have a contest there called "The Million Dollar Arm." We go around the country and get people to test their throwing with a radar gun. The top arms can come to Mumbai in August, and the top two guys will then be invited to come to Wuxi to train. At the end of six months, they'll have an opportunity to try out with an MLB club. Two years ago, the two were signed with the MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates. One of them is a kid named Rinku Singh, a 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) lefty who throws 93 miles per hour and is currently playing in their double-A affiliate. [Sony] is looking to do a movie on him. MLB在亞洲另一個大機會是在印度 (不是人口多就是機會大吧...) MLB在當地舉辦百萬金臂人的活動兩年前參加這個比賽選出的兩個阿三目前在海盜隊小聯盟 Sony將為其中一個阿三拍攝自傳電影 -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 85.235.31.248

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