Eugene Kim Yomiuri Shimbun New York Bureau

It is no secret that companies across the globe see China as a potential gold mine. As the world's most populous country continues its rapid economic growth, firms from all over the world have been investing billions of dollars there. As the Chinese economy develops, the sports market is growing and U.S. professional sports leagues are looking to tap into this enticing market.

"All the information and research we have suggest that there are huge opportunities for almost all sports because sports is relatively underdeveloped there," said Mark Waller, senior vice president of the National Football League International.

The NFL is hosting the first preseason U.S. football game in China on Aug. 9, and Waller sees that as a big platform to raise awareness of the game. He sees China as an "incredibly exciting" market, not only for the NFL, but also for other sports leagues.

The most intriguing number about the Chinese sports industry, however, maybe the country's population. China's population will be 1.36 billion by 2010 and is expected to increase by 200 million over the next 30 years. The current population of China is more than quadruple that of the United States.

"You have over a billion people here who have not yet been exposed to the quality of your product and service," said Wayne McDonnell, professor of sports management at New York University. "But the thing is, what type of marketing strategy and long-term growth plan can sports leagues or franchises develop for China?"

One answer to that question can be found by looking at the National Basketball Association. Since 2002, the NBA has had the good fortune of having the biggest professional sports star in China, Yao Ming. But it is the NBA's continuous effort in various grassroots programs, clinics and camps going back 20 years that helped pave the way for its current market success. As a result, the NBA is the most popular sports league in China, and today 300 million people in China play basketball. In fact, the NBA is celebrating its 20th year of broadcasting games in China. Fifty-one TV stations in China are telecasting NBA games now with an average of 558,100 viewers per broadcast. In addition, NBA.com/China has 12 million page views on average per day and had 8 million unique page visitors per month last season.

Heidi Ueberroth, president of NBA International Business Operations, said China was "by far the largest market for the NBA outside of the United States." For the next several years, Ueberroth projects at least a 30 percent annual growth rate for the NBA in China, whose overall sports market is estimated to be a multibillion dollar industry. "We are very encouraged because we think it's just the beginning," Ueberroth said.

For Major League Baseball, a new phase of its marketing effort began in January, when the New York Yankees and the MLB announced their first strategic alliance with the Chinese Baseball Association. Under the terms of this landmark partnership, the CBA will send staff to the Yankees' facilities in order to learn more about baseball, and the Yankees and the MLB will send players, coaches, and training personnel to China. The MLB has high hopes to make inroads into China's lucrative and rapidly growing sports market.

"Everybody thinks that it is a great place to grow the sport of baseball," Yankees President Randy Levine said at a press conference held before leaving for China. "There's a real appetite for it. The Chinese want to move forward and expand their talents in the game and really make it a well-known, very active sport."

In fact, the MLB is planning to open an office in China within a year. That will enable swifter business operations and hopefully bring the first ever regular-season game in China. Baseball will be an Olympic sport in Beijing in 2008, which should further heighten interest in the game. "Our goal is to open the season in China with regular season games in the very near future," MLB President and Chief Operating Officer Bob DuPuy told Reuters in November. "We think that China can do for MLB what Japan has done for MLB."

Meanwhile, some foreign companies in China have encountered difficulties doing business there.

"The biggest issue for the sports industry is trademark and intellectual property protection," said Dan Harris, a business attorney specializing in China, who also writes for chinalawblog.com. "You can find fake NBA shirts anywhere in China. What you've got to do is register your trademark and go after the people who violate it."

U.S. sports entities have not publicly expressed any concerns over intellectual property protection or the difficulties of doing business in China. Rather, they say the biggest challenge in this quickly evolving market is just keeping up with the opportunities for growth. "The NBA has 50 people in four offices in Greater China," Ueberroth said. "And we feel like we should have 500 people there, at least."