Minnesota Sports Forum

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/16561211/minnesota-timberwolves-sell-ownership-shares-lizhang-jiang-meyer-orbach

with Yao Ming and Kobe retired it's time to make Towns the star, then when anyone says he plays in a small market we will have to point out that he's the most popular NBA player in the world

(besides LeBron)

Well, just because the minority-owner is Chinese doesn't mean Chinese fans are going to become Wolves fans. But that would be cool.

It's good Taylor has some financial backing. Eventually, we'll get a new owner, and hopefully it's somebody with some patience and brains to go along with deep pockets (I wouldn't want to end up like the Nets have).

Well it's not a lock but China would easily be my pick for a popularity explosion even just by a minority owner due to how shockingly nationalistic they are, Combined with the fact that Kobe is now retired who was dominating over in China popularity wise and the fact that this owner dude is only 35 years old, I wouldn't put it past him to already have a plan to boost interest in the Wolves in China

The Chinese are huge NBA basketball fans. Many of them love to play fantasy basketball and I have been in a few leagues with several of them. They move will help Minnesota draw more Chinese fans. Good move.

Beijing Wolves has a nice ring to it, though I think the travel is going to take a toll on the team and staying up into the middle of the night to watch their home games isn't something I see myself doing.

Pick up Jeremy Linn then we might be on to something!

My wife is originally from China. I can attest to the fact that basketball -- especially NBA basketball -- is huge in China. My wife's youngest sister came from China to visit us a few years ago and we took her to a Wolves game. She was constantly texting and posting WeChat photos to her friends back home from Target Center. She returned to Bejing almost as a folk hero for having personally attended an NBA game. She and others watch NBA games on line whenever they can. So this is a very interesting. There's a huge market with lots of money to tap into in China.

If we signed Lin, just imagine the PG discussions we'd have!

I teach at an international school in Germany, and the Chinese kids are generally awesome people. And there's a billion of them and they're interested in basketball. Yao really helped kick that off, but I think the NBA has been the best major sports league in realizing the importance of developing a fanbase outside of the zip code where the team plays. This is in part how European soccer leagues have been so successful. Heck, everywhere I go here, people know all about Dirk Nowitzki and, increasingly, Dennis Schroeder too.

To attract more Chinese fans, having an NBA player they can identify with would definitely help (though Lin is Taiwanese, so it's a little touchy with the mainland). I'm still not sure a minor part owner would get us more Wolves fans. BUT if that guy became full owner someday and became interested in boosting the value of the team, arranging summer tours or something like that would probably help. Kobe is a freakin' god in China because of the marketing. I mean, he's huge everywhere, but he did summer tours in China every year for awhile and really boosted his personal fan-base there. So you don't have to have a Chinese player to develop the fanbase. As an international fan myself, I'm a huge fan of trying to cultivate an international Wolves fanbase, and China's billion-plus people would be a big place to start!

I didn't realize the guy made his fortune off sports advertising! 35 years old and he's already buying shares in an NBA team, I'm too the point where I would be money he will be aggressively advertising the Timberwolves now.

BloopOracle wrote:I didn't realize the guy made his fortune off sports advertising! 35 years old and he's already buying shares in an NBA team, I'm too the point where I would be money he will be aggressively advertising the Timberwolves now.

Sports marketing, huh? This could be good.