Amazeballs

Does the NBL need to get a major betting sponsor onboard who has an interest in the Macau gambling market? This could transition to serious $$$ going forward

No concerns as far as politics go? like when the 7'9" North Korean wanted to go to NBA and wasn't allowed to.

We (Aussies) are not the flavour-of-the-month in China. Maybe they'll just put a huge tariff on him.

I think as long as Zhou can fulfill his NT commitments with China, there would be no issues whatsoever.

Hopefully, he will come to the NBL. There should be a finalized deal in the coming days. 

The Chinese government cant be across everything and I'd be highly surprised if they'd care enough to stop a player playing somewhere.

@ME

The Chinese government is serious with their sports. I remember Wang ZhiZhi getting branded as a traitor and expelled and banned. Not sure of the details but this article could explain it better.

From the article

https://tv5.espn.com/espnmag/story?id=3643579

But in the summer of 2002, a mere 13 months after arriving in the NBA, the loyal soldier stopped following orders.

Worried that his budding career in America might be cut short by the basketball powers in Beijing, Wang refused to obey his army's demand to return to China.

His act of defiance so infuriated his bosses that they publicly branded him a traitor, and for the next four years Wang wandered the fringes of the NBA, a tormented soul averaging just 4.4 ppg for three different teams.

In April of this year, without an NBA contract, he returned home, chastened. "Through years of painful reflection, I have a deeper recognition of the mistakes I've made," he said in an official apology to China's 1.3 billion people made through the staterun media. "Now I want to make up for my errors.

I remember how much shit the Chinese government put Wang Zhi-Zhi through being the first Chinese player to play in the NBA. When he wanted a break from national team commitments to focus on his NBA career they turned him, expelling him and like above officially branding him a traitor. He was never the same after that they pretty much ruined him mentally.

Yao Ming had to jump through a lot of hoops with their government to 'allow' him to play in the NBA and it was always speculated his NBA career was cut short with injuries due to how much they made him play for the national team. Yi Jianlian went through similar issues with their government when he went to the NBA too.

Hi I'm the newcomer to this forum because Qi will join the team. I'm a Chinese fan live and work in Melbourne. Happy to answer questions regarding Qi.

Qi is the most talented player in China now （sadly he is not as good as Yao and Yi，even Wang Zhizhi）. He is tall and excellent at protecting thr rim.He can shoot 3.

Lol I'd hate to think what China would have done with Ben Simmons

Great signing.

Smart move from a marketing/PR too

I thought the very top CBA players were on extremely good coin though? Especially the ex-NBA ones? Seems odd that this guy will be in the NBL

Love it though, SEM will be legit again.

@ME

Probably would have frozen all of his assets or something that could have hurt him financially or socially, especially with the way Ben has been non-committed to the Australian NT.

It could possibly be an Enes Kanter situation for Ben if he was Chinese.

@LV

Zhou had an issue with his mother team in the CBA. Apparently, it was because his team could not form a roster that could make him compete for a CBA championship.

Unfortunately, he cannot sign with other teams as long as his mother team offers him the max. CBA rules, I guess.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-10/Zhou-Qi-criticizes-Xinjiang-Flying-Tigers-on-social-media-109FYdp7iHm/index.html

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-08-29/Zhou-Qi-announces-withdrawal-from-2021-22-CBA-season-137GGtQ3BXq/index.html

Wow. Fascinating.

I just got emailed the media release from SEM to its sponsors.
Its official, he has signed for 2 years.

Official announcement to be made at 2pm today

SEM

In: Munford*, Zhou Qi, Smith-Milner

Out: Sykes*, Moore*, Wetzell

Undecided: Stephens, Gibson, Karena

Looks a step back so far but still have one spot to go can be import or local.

Zhou Qi is a center, not a wing. Don't underestimate his impact as well. he will be the best center in the league, if not, one of. This is bigger than LaMelo if you're talking international appeal. You could have 100 million chinese people watching the NBL next season.

Potentially bigger than Lamelo if you ask me - especially if NBL games with Chinese commentary are available. If not, mightn't make much of a ripple there.

Additionally w Kai Soto, the Phillipines has over 100 million people but only around 15 million speak English.

There will be more eyeballs on Zhou than on Lamelo, for sure. It is not about who is the better player, but the dedication and huge numbers of these Chinese fans. I don't know why an Anon said that it could not pass 100K. 

The NBA literally had to appease China because of Morey's comments on HK. The NBA has a 4 billion USD market in China. 

For Kai Sotto alone, I guarantee that there will be millions of Filipinos watching him as well. 1 million fans at least, to be conservative.

I would not be surprised if the signings of Zhou, Kai and Liu would generate at least 10 million Asian NBL fans in combined viewership overall. Like a million Filipinos on Kai games and 9 million Chinese fans on Zhou/Liu games. 

Again, these are conservative numbers, not even the best case scenario. There are half a billion Chinese basketball fans and millions of Filipino basketball fans.

"
Not bigger draw than lamelo and you would be lucky to get 100,000 watching from China."


How out of touch could you be? LOL. Zhou Qi is China's best player right now, in a basketball-mad country where more people play basketball than the entire population of the united states. The games WILL rate there.

I agree. Now is time to get Chinese and Phillipino commentary sorted out, and to work on exclusive content for those markets.

@ME

Good take on the commentary. Yep, Chinese fans need their Mandarin. 

For the Philippine side, there is no need for Tagalog commentary. English commentary is fine; even our FIBA/PBA/college basketball games are in English or Taglish. 

A good example was the B league games. Since a Filipino was signed there, the commentary was just in English. 

@412

Yep, merchandise is expensive for the average fan in the Philippines. Most average Filipinos would rather buy knockoffs.

NBA Stores in the Philippines could not even survive 5 years.

https://www.bworldonline.com/nba-store-philippines-run-comes-to-an-end/

However, for the Filipino community in Australia, I am sure that they are going to buy some Kai merch. Not sure how many will be sold though.

A relative of mine from the Philippines already has a cutout picture of Kai Sotto from The Advertiser stuck on the front of a bedroom door. She can't wait for the season to start to watch him.

[In: Munford*, Zhou Qi, Smith-Milner

Out: Sykes*, Moore*, Wetzell

Looks a step back so far but still have one spot to go can be import or local.]

Except if Pineau is healthy and back to his 2019/20 form, they'll be better.

And they were 17 points up in Game 3 of the semi finals last season.

If it wasn't for Landale's brilliance down the stretch of that game, SEM would've been champs.

Lol Kai Sotto being bench level has NOTHING to do with how enraptured with him Philos are. Anyone saying that must have slept on his social media presence. But I do love the know-nothing know-it-alls blessing us with their expert opinions.

@479

To be fair, 50K Jersey numbers is actually quite attainable, but the problem with this is for the Filipinos that can afford it in the Philippines, will they be willing to spend it? For context, for every 10 Filipinos in the Philippines, 4 of these are in the middle class (potential buyers).

These people are the only ones that can spend money on genuine products, aside from the wealthy Filipinos. The thing is, even if they can afford it, I know that they would rather spend it on a Curry jersey or a Lebron jersey. Imagine Kai's jersey cost the same as the NBA's brightest stars.

I will be honest, unless it is an NBA jersey of Kai, if God willing, he gets there, I can easily see a million jersey sales, but an Adelaide jersey? I just don’t think it warrants enough interest in the Philippines to spend on the merchandise, but I think a safe and conservative number for how well Kai’s jersey will sell here, excluding Filipinos outside the Philippines, is probably 10K at least. Anything more is a bonus.

I think Zhou Qi would sell a 100 K jerseys. The Chinese are known to spend like crazy on things that they like. Zhou may not have that many followers outside China, especially when you see his Instagram and Twitter, but the dude has a huge following in China.

https://weibo.com/u/5318584155?is_all=1

The only problem for Zhou would be how well the NBL could make it easy for his fanbase to buy these jerseys. I'm not sure how they can buy it with all the internet censorship and all. 

There is no issues with the Zhou replicas for me, I think even with the replicas, I still think a 100K jerseys will be sold.

Replica manufacturers in China would make a lot sales though with the Kai Jerseys.

I'm also from the PH. Kai’s signing is the type that would generate viewership but not sales. The english speaking netizens you see will try to defend him and they get all the likes but the tagalog ones are bashing him. In local tagalog-speaking communities the clickbait vlog titles and hype have become a running joke. Of course there are lots of people who still want to support him but I just want to give an idea on how he’s actually viewed. Taane Samuel who’s coming to NBL is a former UAAP player but only played 4 games due to injury, if this guy had a bigger impact in the UAAP I believe he’d make more sales from Filipino fans. Even Bleague is banking off former UAAP players by making jerseys inspired by the universities. Kai doesn’t have any connection of that sort to the locals. He played in the high school division which isn’t as popular as the collegiate ones. Gilas right now is popular because they’re from the UAAP. His jersey for that might make more sales. But probably not 36ers.

@KNPG

I am pretty sure that the majority of Filipino basketball fans are supportive when it comes to Kai. I am not sure why you said that he does not have that connection with the locals. Look at Zodiac's comment about his relative. I totally believe your words because they are valid, but I think they are a minority in the situation and they do not speak to the overall conclusion about his support. At his age, he has sponsorships, commercials, and other opportunities because he has that large fan base.

Yep, I hate the BS YT hype videos as well, but I think most people are able to look past that when it comes to Kai. Just remember how united the fans were when Kobe was in the US. This is honestly double or triple the support compared to Kobe. 

Also, Gilas was always popular, with or without the PBA or UAAP. I am pretty sure the viewership of Gilas games blows out the water of PBA/UAAP games. 

@501

Thanks for sharing the information about the Daigou man. I did not know about this. If his targeted market has to buy through this Daigou process, then I don't think it will sell as much. Not only will the process be much more tedious, but the extra costs will also be added.

Assuming a 40% increase for shipping and profit as well as the original price, in USD overall it would cost 103 USD, and 40% is just conservative and somewhat in good faith. It could possibly be an increase of double or triple the price.

You are right, someone in China must get involved. This is the only way I can realistically see 100K numbers. Well, if there’s money to be made, I am sure they will find a way to make this possible. Tencent needs to get involved.

It would be nice if there were numbers about how well his CBA jerseys sold in China. We know that a buttload of NBA Zhou jerseys were sold, but we could speculate better if we had the numbers about his CBA jersey sales and the prices of his CBA jersey as well.

Maybe it's the demographic that I’m in but I can’t see the target market for his merch. Gilas with UAAP brought in young fans and PBA is struggling right now and even want them as a guest team. I said viewership that would translate to sales, the comments here and there on social media isn’t going to bring them money. I want him to succeed as well I think most local fans are even if they’re criticizing him, but that won’t translate to sales. Sorry to hijack the thread lol.

@KNPG

Yeah, I agree too. I don't think that Kai will bring in a lot of merchandise sales like Zhou, especially since whether how much we support Kai, like it or not, Kai is still an unproven player with potential for me.

Yeah, he has been decent in his Senior men’s performances against Prosper, Ra Gun-ah, Boban, Petrusev and etc but he won’t bring in a lot of jersey/merchandise sales with what he has done in his career so far, but I still expect him to sell some jerseys in the Philippines. I still think that he will reach 10K at least.

Do you know how well his Kaiju merchandise has been selling? I don’t think that it is selling that well either.

I only expect Kai to bring in Filipino viewers for now. 

Sales are directly proportional to the performance of a player, and with Kai’s current form and achievements, he won’t get the merchandise numbers for me, but he does have the potential in the future.

@520

I don't blame you for getting angry about his hype. I understand you, especially with the number of Filipinos flooding the social media of NBL and Adelaide pages about Kai. 

To be frank, we really don't have that much of a good reputation as fans of sports in general. Whether it is in boxing or basketball, I just hope that you can be patient.

@Stevy

Forgot he had his own merch. Is that why he's not on Getblued? Even then I think the volleyball players would still sell more than him lol.

@528

Is that accurate? Only 500? CBA games are packed with enthusiastic fans, but I am not sure if they are wearing jerseys or just shirts. Even PBA jerseys will easily overtake 500.

Still, I do think that you did your due diligence, so, assuming that 500 is an accurate figure, then I think 100K jersey sales for Zhou is impossible.

Sure, it is an SEM jersey, not his CBA jersey, but if only 500 were sold, then it would be unrealistic to sell 100K. Unless the NBL does some sort of marketing miracle for Zhou jerseys, which is unlikely. Even Kai, in his current form, will outsell him. 

@KNPG

Kai has appeal, but he still does not have enough reputation to justify the prices of his merchandise, especially to an average Kai fan. 

https://www.courtsmith.com/collections/kaiju

The reason why I think it is not doing well is the prices. The only ones that would buy this are dedicated Sotto fans.

Just look at these prices, man. People would rather buy a nicer shirt than this, I think. If Kai was an NBA player, I could see this gaining traction, but for now? I don't think so. Maybe if it was cheaper.

Of course, we don't have accurate numbers and nothing is set in stone. I mean, who knows? Kai could be selling 100 Kaiju shirts, shorts, socks, or a million.

@535

Well, to be fair, Australians aren't really the targeted market for Kai’s merchandise. I wouldn’t expect Australians to buy Kai's merchandise like I wouldn’t expect Filipinos to buy Cadee's merchandise.

I wouldn't expect anyone to buy Cadee's merchandise.

7 million people viewed the Zhou Qi announcement according to Phoenix...

so yeah... "they'll struggle to get 100'000 viewing games" LOL

@ME

Damn, impressive numbers and to think that this is just an announcement. How much more on live games?

https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1435831062072987651

Stevie......"CBA games are packed with enthusiastic fans, but I am not sure if they are wearing jerseys or just shirts. ."

I have only been to a few Liaoning games in Shenyang a couple of years ago but I can assure you the few I attended were not packed with enthusiastic fans. Maybe a thousand or so at the games I saw live.

Obviously Beijing and Shanghai or others may have more.

@Stevy

Kai's merch still looks better than Junemar’s tho lol. Half that price + UAAP players = sales from young fans. I agree no one is dedicated enough to spend that much on him. We don’t even see him play that much all we get are news.

@FSTOS

Oh really? My bad. It just seems like the majority of the highlights that I have seen from CBA games are always packed, but then again, highlights can be deceiving and inaccurate.

It doesn't help either that most of the highlights I see from the CBA are from their playoffs. Maybe the regular season is not that great, especially for games with the least popular CBA teams.

@KNPG

Wow, now that's something that I didn't know. Does Junemar have merchandise? To make it worse, it is double the price. Damn, can you send me a link? Well, he is the most decorated PBA player, but his merch is too expensive if it is double the price of Kai's.

Also, Kai's socks are actually quite reasonable. Unfortunately, the company that manufactures it is unproven but it can be tempting to an average Kai Fan.

@Stevy
I was referring to Kai's prices haha. Junemar’s merch is actually cheaper but quality is worse. You can search for Kraken Apparel. Sorry to derail the Zhou Qi’s thread.

@KNPG

Oh okay. Since you mentioned the quality, I guess you bought some or have seen it from hand. Prices are actually reasonable for the average fan. Could see these selling for sure.

If I was a fan of him and the PBA, I could see myself buying a shirt. At the very least, it appears to be quite decent from the outside. Would not count on it lasting very long though from your words and price.

@Stevy
I didn't get them just basing it off the designs, saw a few posts too they were criticizing his merch and people were saying even Kai’s designs had more effort put in lol.

Maybe the only thing holding Cadee's clothing line back is that he isn't a "footer"(lol).

Yep, they are truly treated very well here. Actually, it is part of the many reasons that are hindering us from being better internationally. Basketball is mixed with showbiz here. Our top stars are contented with settling into the PBA instead of moving out of their comfort zones.

A good example is Terrence Romeo. This guy is good enough to try out different opportunities outside of the PBA, but he just loves it here. You may recall him from the last Asia Cup, when he scored 22 points in one quarter against the Koreans, or for more negative reasons, such as the infamous brawl. Terrence just receives so much, and he even has his own signature shoes from Peak as a PBA player.

Being a basketball star in the Philippines will get you:

-A huge following

-Sponsorships

-Commercials

-A part of the Showbiz business (Movies, TV Shows)

-Merchandise

Many international imports who have played in the PBA consider it to be the best place they have ever played, not because of the money, but because they receive so much adoration and support unlike anywhere else they have ever played. Like Anon said, basketball players are treated like mega stars in the Philippines.

@631

Yep aside from the instant fame, the money is not bad either. PBA imports reportedly earn in the neighborhood of $30,000 to $40,000 U.S. per month for a two- or three-month stint, plus added perks like the free use of a car and free board and lodging.

Ra Gun Ah, for example, has already played here. Ex-NBA players like Terrence Jones, KJ Mcdaniels, and many more.

More like teen idols cuz the youth is the bigger market. Varsity athletes are more popular and get more endorsement deals than the pros. Only in the Philippines you'll see players would rather stay in college than go pro.

@632

Many locals hate the league. Ateneo beat 36ers once. Explains why they don't want to go pro they’ll get ruined in the PBA lol.

@632

No worries, man. It is true. I can only count 3-7 Filipino PBA players that can be considered NBL standard. They wouldn't even be NBL starter/star quality. To be honest, more like NBL bench level players, to be frank.

There are also 3-5 players, including Kai, in Gilas right now who can play in the NBL, in my opinion. They would, however, most likely be signed as DPs or, like Kai, as SRPs. I wouldn't expect many minutes.

Maybe some people would view this as optimistic, especially if you are Australian, but for most of the Filipinos that read this, I would probably get bashed hard. But it is what it is. We still don't have that reputation for producing world-class players, and our performance in the last world cup certainly does not help our case. 

Our recent performances in the ACQ and OQT as a young developmental team are much better, but we need to do a lot more than that to be respected. It isn't that impressive, especially if you are in the shoes of a top 5 world team. Winning in the ACQ games against Korea and losing in a "close" game against Serbia is not something to be proud of if you are a top 16 team. 

For context, beating Korea for us is something to be proud of, while beating Korea for you guys is probably treated as a good warmup for the B team. 

@KNPG

The PBA is going to collapse with the way they have been handling everything. I stopped supporting the PBA in 2015 because of their Gilas politics. 


 

" but for most of the Filipinos that read this, I would probably get bashed hard"

Being right > popular

How many joe ingles Europe jersey have you seen here in Aus???

They'll be lucky to sell 100 in Asia

This is huge for the Asian Australian market, particularly in Melbourne and particularly in the south east

@Yup

Can you clarify what you said? 100 jerseys of who?

"How many joe ingles Europe jersey have you seen here in Aus???

They'll be lucky to sell 100 in Asia"


That is such a mind-numbingly dumb take. Asian basketball fans and Australian ones act completely differently. For one, we dont hero worship our basketball players the way Asian fans do. Why do you think SE Melb have started preorders of Qi's jersey to sell at $110 a pop? They definitely believe it will be hot property.,

NBL have been getting real smart with these NS choices from a marketing stand point

"Why do you think SE Melb have started preorders of Qi's jersey to sell at $110 a pop?"

Simple Maths.
Even discounting the still large peasant/working class, there are a lot more affluent Chinese than Australians. If even a small fraction of those collect memorabilia, that's still a massive potential market.

Also remember that for the Chinese, China comes first, second, and third, so a Chinese star playing overseas is big news.

@ME

Oh okay, so your comments confirm Yup's take of his interpretation. Yeah, like you said, Asians are different. I understand Yup's side since he focuses on his Australian perspective, where basketball is just the 3rd or 4th sport, and where the citizens are not as enthusiastic as the Chinese or Filipino fans.

I mean, aside from Qi's pre-orders, just look at what Filipinos in Australia and in the Philippines are doing. There are plenty of videos about the Jersey of Kai. Like I said, as a Filipino for me, there should be at least 10K jersey sales in the Philippines alone. 

There was a rumour, st some point, linking the Wildcats with a Chinese player. Not sure if it was Zhou, or someone else.
But I do wonder if they are looking? Still got 3 slots to fill, including a starting centre and currently only one import spot available.

@D2.0

I remember a forumer 2-3 weeks ago named Curtley saying that it was Big Liu who was linked to the wildcats together with the bullets. Days later, after he posted his thoughts, Liu was signed as a DP by the Bullets. 

There are Kai Sotto/36er/NBL related videos on YouTube dropping about every 10 minutes from Filo fans. It's quite incredible. It pales in comparison to any Australian basketball fan activity.

@ME

Yep, and that's just not on Kai Sotto. There are numerous videos about Philippine basketball in general, players, the PBA, interviews, breakdowns, the B League, and so on. Plenty of videos about the NBA are also made.

Of course, while it is a good thing in terms of activity, there are drawbacks as well. Let's say out of 10 Philippine basketball videos, only 2-3 are of decent/good quality. Most of the videos being made are garbage quality. 

I can't count the number of low-quality videos being made everyday. 

I am excited to see what kind of jersey numbers Zhou Qi will generate. Kai just sold out of his NBL jerseys, so we should expect Zhou to outperform him, especially with his larger fanbase. Hopefully, Zhou fans will bite. 

BTW, who will benefit from the jersey sales? The NBL? Their teams? I'm not really sure how the financials work for the NBL Jerseys.