Port Adelaide’s China adventure is not just a sideshow

FROM death row to front row in China, Port has delivered on a bold vision to take AFL to the world. And it’s so much more than just a sideshow.

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 08: Karl Amon of the Power reacts after kicking a goal during the round three AFL match between the Port Adelaide Power and the Essendon Bombers at Adelaide Oval on April 8, 2016 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

JUST four years ago the AFL Commission was planning to turn the Port Adelaide AFL licence into a travelling footy show — from Adelaide to Alice Springs and Darwin, or perhaps Tasmania.

Now the Port Adelaide Football Club is taking the AFL to China — and this is no sideshow or another exhibition project to rip some commercial dollars out of Shanghai without ever trying to bond with the Chinese.

The AFL’s so-called “basket case” of 2012 — that survived on the AFL’s need to see out a television contract demanding two teams be based in SA to ensure an AFL game was played in Adelaide each weekend — is now Australian football’s passport to the world. China in 2017. India for another AFL club, perhaps Richmond, soon after.

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“Remarkable,” AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said in Shanghai on Thursday as the Power signed a major sponsorship deal with a Chinese benefactor offering at least $1 million a year for the next three AFL seasons.

“Port Adelaide has been on a journey — one of hard work plus vision. They have done very well.”

But, the cynics will say, it is another gimmick — another sideshow. Australian football has been trying to put its footprint on the world for more than 50 years — and failed. How can Port Adelaide sell the Australian game to China?

There is reason for confidence, however.

AFL chief Gil McLachlan in Shanghai.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in his first international trip, made Port Adelaide and the AFL his first announcement in China. Surely this gives the vision credibility.

A prime minister needing to make a grand first impression in the invaluable Chinese market can hardly afford to be turned into a clown in a sideshow.

SA Minister for Investment and Trade, Martin Hamilton-Smith, has had his State Government buy-in, understanding the Port Adelaide Football Club is not working a “sideshow” for much-needed coin in Shanghai.

“This is an extraordinary turnaround — from the tough times in 2012 to now playing on the international stage. Port Adelaide deserves a pat on the back,” Hamilton-Smith said at Thursday’s announcements in Shanghai.

Port Adelaide now has to find an opponent willing to give up a home game to play in Shanghai. McLachlan says the commercial realities of doing business in China will make this an easy sell for both the AFL and the Power.

Port Adelaide also has to find a strip of land where it can grow turf in the next six months to then refit the 40,000-capacity Shanghai Stadium to meet AFL standards. This will be more difficult than finding an opponent.

And the Power has to make this deal work beyond a history-making game in Shanghai in May or June next year.

The club’s new Chinese benefactor, Shanghai Cred founder Gui Guojie expects it. He will sign three seven-figure cheques — each of at least $1 million — with demands that stop Port Adelaide turning its “China Strategy” into a sideshow.

Gui, who became caught up in Port Adelaide’s big show at Adelaide Oval last year in the season-closer against Fremantle, does not want his company logo on the Power jumper.

But he wants the Power to carry the Australian football game — the one that has captured his fascination — to his fellow Chinese with a more than just a “sideshow” game every year.

Gui calls it his “gift to China”.

“You have an exclusive culture in Australia — 23 million people enjoy your game,” Gui told The Advertiser in Shanghai.

“Why not have one billion people in China enjoy it too. I know it will take a long time. But I am happy to be part of this long journey with Port Adelaide.”

It is no sideshow.