AFL’s push into China gathers momentum

The AFL will open an office in Shanghai to try to sign more Chinese sponsors and help Australian companies break into the market.

Port Adelaide play their third game in China this year with St Kilda their opponents. Picture: AAP

The AFL will open a commercial office in Shanghai to try to sign more Chinese sponsors and help Australian companies break into the Chinese market, headlining a strategy of devoting more resources to one of the world’s fast-growing economies.

The move will follow Port Adelaide’s upcoming match against St Kilda in Shanghai on June 2, which is set to be the South Australian side’s most profitable venture overseas yet. Port Adelaide will make $300-500,000 from the match, having clinched new sponsorship deals and sold corporate packages around the game, which will account for about 12 per cent of the club’s annual revenue this year.

The Shanghai game also marks the AFL’s most serious move into China, where Auskick junior coaching programs are being expanded and a general manager for China has already been hired by the AFL, as well as the latest push by Port Adelaide in carving out a corporate identity there.

Separately, the AFL will on Thursday launch a Chinese-language Auskick program in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville, where officials hope to have 50 children, split equally between males and females, playing the sport straight away.

Port Adelaide chairman David Koch told The Australian his club would make its first profit in the third edition of the China game after two previous matches against Gold Coast.

“The game is very expensive. It costs $4.5 million to put on but that is fully underwritten by our Chinese partner (Gui Guojie’s Shanghai CRED), who we have for another five years including this year,” Mr Koch said.

“We’ve broken even for the first two years, but we will make money from the venture this year.

“We think we will make $300-500,000 from the non-game sources this year, which we think is a great result and proof that we have been able to make China a point of difference for us when it comes to attracting commercial partners in what is a very competitive market.”

More than 500 corporate figures will attend a gala dinner on the eve of the June 2 game, which will cap a 10-day “Festival of Australia” program put together by Austrade to promote Australian businesses across 10 Chinese cities for about two weeks.

The match will be broadcast on Guangzhou TV and Shanghai TV in China, and the AFL claims all 10,500 tickets to the game will be sold — about half to locals and the remainder to Australian tourists and corporate hospitality guests.

At least 80 per cent of hospitality packages have been sold, with the club expecting to sell the remainder by the end of next week, and all sponsorship signage properties are sold out.

St Kilda have committed to the match for the next three seasons and the club will announce new sponsors in time for the match. The Saints are also hosting a business forum in Shanghai before the match and taking part in a sports technology forum.

“We know creating relationships with Chinese companies and engaging Chinese Australians living in Melbourne will take time but we have already had some success with engagement programs involving Chinese students studying in Victoria and will expand these activities over coming years,” said St Kilda president Andrew Bassat, who, as managing director of Seek, has business experience in China via its subsidiary Zhaopin.

“A key component is a partnership with the AFL and the Victorian Government to help promote trade and business investment between China and Victoria, and we look forward to the impact this can have for both the state and for St Kilda.”

Koch said the China match had helped Port Adelaide attract 17 new game partners and helped facilitate sponsorship deals with companies such as Rio Tinto, Penfolds and investment bank Moelis.

“Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG (a new major partner) is also more interested with our China story now as they are looking at that market, and Oak’s parent company Parmalat also has a big Chinese presence too,” Koch said.

Port would also have a staff member based permanently in the new AFL Shanghai office in the hope of attracting more corporate deals.

“This is a big sign of our commitment long term to China,” Dave Stevenson, the AFL’s general manager (China and India) said about the new office.