NBA and partner to build huge arenas in China

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-10-13  |     ONLINE EDITION

THE National Basketball Association and billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz's AEG entertainment firm have formed a joint venture to develop NBA-style arenas in China.

The ambitious project, that might feature a dozen or more arenas in China's major cities, was announced yesterday at the O2 Arena in London before an NBA overseas preseason game between Miami Heats and New Jersey Nets.

"NBA China and AEG have formed a joint venture to design, construct program and operate multi-purpose NBA-style arenas in the major cites throughout China," NBA commissioner David Stern told a joint press conference.

"These venues will be state of the art entertainment destinations, and will anchor those communities and bring to them world class sports, cultural events and entertainment," he added.

With the NBA China games three days to go, AEG president and CEO Timothy J. Leiweke said that they were anticipating more detailed plans soon with local governments and developers although it is yet to be revealed when and where the arenas and entertainment will be built.

"We expect within the next few weeks to begin a series of announcement on opportunities, partnerships and a vision with corporation and government officials." he said.

Stern said that they had already been contacted by many local municipalities and governments.

"We'd like to have the visits first before being able to come up with a list and see where the best opportunities are. We anticipate that in a relatively short order, we will have laid out a road map of a dozen buildings throughout China even down to some small cities."

While AEG said the plan involves construction of 25 arenas, Stern reduced the number to twelve.

"The scale is going to be over a period of time, a dozen or so." said Stern.

Most of the arenas will be newly built rather than remodeling existing ones, according to Leiweke.