Baseball - Yankees And MLB All Set To Promote Baseb

With China’s economy growing the way it has been doing recently, it was only a matter of time before major leagues decided to tap the world’s fastest growing sports market. It was none other than New York Yankees who decided to take the initiative to explore this large market. The Yankees have reached an agreement with the Chinese Baseball Association to send coaches, scouts and trainers to China so that interest in baseball increases even further.

In return, the Chinese Baseball Association will send their staff to New York and Tampa to learn and make use of the Yankees facilities. Yankee personnel will also help the Chinese national team amongst others.

According to Randy Levine, Yankees’ president, the Yankees would start sending their coaches and staff sometime in 2007 and he hopes that it would be in the first half of the year.

China has a growing and prosperous middle class besides being the most populous country in the world. It is this middle class that attractive for the Yankees. The sports market in China is estimated to be worth more than $10 billion a year.

Major League Baseball is trying very hard to expand the game so that more countries in the world start showing interest in this sport. This comes after the International Olympic Committee scraped the game from the 2012 Olympics citing that the game was not widely played.

NBA is already quite popular in China and MLB wants to achieve the same level of popularity, if not more. China has a fledgling following when it comes to baseball, though the popularity is gradually increasing as more high schools and universities students are taking interest in it.

The Chinese Baseball League is just 4 years old and has 10 teams. It is still trying to attractive spectators to the stadiums as well as viewers on TV. Currently MLB games just reach a few elite in China who have satellite TV.

With the Yankees and MLB joining hands to make baseball more popular and increase the viewership across China. MLB will promote baseball in China for the next six years and it will take batting cages to China to be installed in the Chinese Baseball League stadiums.