Sep 27, 2007, 11:18 am
Quote:In another example of the growing demand for basketball across the globe, Euroleague Basketball, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and the international sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media have reached a partnership agreement to bring the best of European professional basketball to fans in Asia. The agreement calls for games, clinics and several other exchanges between the parties, to be highlighted by the first Euroleague Basketball / Team China Tournament, between a Euroleague Basketball team and the Chinese National Basketball Team, in October 2007.
Li Yuanwei, Vice-President of the CBA, welcomes the new development: "We are very happy to have reached this agreement with the Euroleague. The innovative partnership, arranged by our partner Infront, provides us with a base to strengthen the development of the Chinese teams, while gaining access to the proven resources and success of the Euroleague."
"We are excited to join with the CBA and Infront for what promises to be an international basketball partnership of the highest quality," said Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball Chief Executive Officer. "This collaboration agreement will offer us a great opportunity to learn and grow through an exchange of knowledge and ideas among leading basketball specialists. It is a great opportunity to work with these capable partners in bringing our special brand of basketball to a new audience."
"This new Euroleague partnership is about delivering substance for the benefit of basketball in China and goes far beyond a simple press release headline," said John Kristick, Infront's Executive Director Asia. "The key difference is that we are very much focusing on practical programmes to deliver tangible results for both parties," he added.
The agreement has been developed to bring the best possible knowledge and training opportunities to industry specialists through a series of management and coaching clinics organised by the CBA in China. Euroleague Basketball coaches and referees will have the chance to attend such clinics and several invitations will be extended to the CBA to participate in annual Euroleague Basketball events. These events include summer camps, ongoing player development programmes and player scouting programmes.
Official page: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" target="_blank" href="http://www.euroleague.net/uleb/cba-euroleague-challenge/main">[url="http://www.euroleague.net/uleb/cba-euro"]http://www.euroleague.net/uleb/cba-euro[/url] ... lenge/main</a><!-- m -->
Quote:Euroleague Basketball is proud to announce that the CBA-Euroleague Challenge 2007 is going to enjoy truly international coverage thanks to broadcasting agreements signed with Eurosport 2 and CCTV5, the Chinese national television channel that specializes in sports. Eurosport 2 will televise from China to 43 European countries three of the games between Team China, Sydney Kings, CSKA Moscow and Benetton Basket Tamoil on Sunday, September 30 and Monday, October 1. On Sunday, September 30, Eurosport 2 will broadcast the CSKA Moscow vs. Sydney Kings game and put Benetton Basket Tamoil vs. Team China on tape-delay. On Monday, October 1, Eurosport 2 will show CSKA Moscow vs. Team China live.
CCTV5 is the sports channel of China Central Television, China's largest national TV broadcaster. CCTV5 will broadcast live all of Team China's games during the CBA-Euroleague Challenge 2007. It is anticipated that well over 100 million viewers will watch the games in China alone, offering most of them a chance to experience, for the first time ever, Euroleague Basketball in full action.
"We are very proud of the TV coverage that the CBA-Euroleague Challenge 2007 will have as we are aware of the general interest of the fans to watch those games," says Benedikt Von Dohnanyi, Infront Basketball Director. "This is a great step forward and we hope that followers across China and Europe will be able to enjoy some solid basketball from some great teams."
"With these agreements we have reached two goals, bringing the games to the European public by extending our relationship with Eurosport 2 and also giving the possibility to the Chinese audience to follow this pioneer Challenge," said Andrea Bassani, Euroleague Basketball's Director of Television.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2007
CSKA Moscow vs. Sydney Kings
Team China vs. Benetton Tamoil
OCTOBER 1, 2007
Team China vs. CSKA Moscow
Benetton Tamoil vs. Sydney Kings
OCTOBER 2, 2007
Team China vs. Sydney Kings