Roar and Against: It's a great idea to play an AFL match in China

Will not be watching it in Sydney as it is not televised, reality tv repeats and lame fishing shows on instead. Mostly empty seats at the last Sydney home game and at the GWS home game against big crowd puller Collingwood I could have sworn it was synchronised swimming at the Athens Olympics there were so many empty seats. We need to promote the game in Sydney first, over the last ten years the AFL has gone backwards in Sydney. Also, the name needs to be changed, a game called "Australian Rules" will never catch on in NZ. I really feel Ireland and NZ are the best initial markets then PNG, India and Pakistan. Chinese do not seem to like contact sports, do not have the facilities and attempts to bring in almost other sport have failed. Remember that Aussies Rules was started as winter conditioning for cricketers, India and Pakistan already have the grounds, many Indians and Pakistanis live in Australia so are already exposed to the sport, wrestling is a big sport in both countries so they will accept the rough and tumble and there is less competition from soccer. Former cricketers such as Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne could be used to promote the sport.

You have to ask yourself the question. OK its not the AFL idea it's PA. Not really -- its a David "ego" Koch idea who will take all the credit. I have no problems with the game being played. Koch works for 7 and it is being televised by 7. Just keep his idiotic dial out of it.

In terms of sponsorship, Port also just agreed to extend its deal with China based company MJK until at least 2020 (the end of their 150th Football season).

Mark not sure what you call major but of the 3 "minor" tv, CCTV is the single biggest TV broadcaster in China reaching 1.2 billion ppl across its 50 channels. Even if .001% of that market watch it will still be the biggest audience ever for an AFL match by about 9 million. As for the money Suns have been Paid $1/2million to give up the game they wouldn't have done that if it didn't make sense for them I see today that Tony Cochrane want Suns to become Ports full-time oppo in Shanghai so he's seeing the benefit. As for AFLW as great as it is the simple fact is that Port would be gone if they remained only in the Australian market; the sponsorship pool in Adelaide is finite and predominately welded to the Crows. Read Michelangeloruccis report in todays Advertiser.

If it does happen again next year, it seems likely one of Brisbane or Gold Coast will be involved given the Commonwealth Games disruptions.

With new sponsors added to Ports books it looks like the game has already paid off for them. Will be interesting to see if Port return next year.

Honestly I think the Suns stand to benefit a lot more than Kochie. I've never been to Adelaide but I can't imagine it's a more appealing destination than the Gold Coast to a bunch of rich businessmen, whatever their nationality. They're going to steal his customers

Last new I heard was about a million dollar profit with the $4mill costs covered. The Gold Coast are pretty enthused now - and looking to be part of this moving on. There's a Gold Coast delegation including mayor and business people - because the Gold Coast is a key tourism market out of China.

I think games played outside Australia could work, but they'd have to look at doing them this way. Step 1: Make Round 1 a split round. Step 2: If a game is being played outside Australia schedule that game for the first week of the split round. That way the players can recover the next week after the flight home and hopefully be fit for Round 2. Until yesterday it was looking quite likely that the game wouldn't be televised in China, that would have been more embarrassing than Meat Loaf's "performance" at the 2011 Grand Final.

nice article. Sitting here in London I hope I havent missed the discussion. I congratulate Port for taking this on. Overall I think this strategy to push the game overseas is ludicrous. As much as I love our sport, it is unlikely to ever take a foothold overseas and even more unlikely to have an overseas team entered into the competition. Plenty of AFL cash (although I dont have exact figures) has been spent on pushing the game overseas and my personal feeling is this money could be better spent on the game in Australia. From a Port Adelaide perspective, they have done a good job getting this done. They have sought to seek international markets and promote their brand. This may well lead to future sponsorship opportunities. There is also potential revenue generated from this game, TV etc that may help but again I have no idea about the figures/costings. The fact that they put their energy into this rather than getting an AFLW does not mean it was not the right thing for the club. They were still only 50-50 shot to win an AFLW licence where as this had a much more assured chance of success. As for Mike's A-league comment - I am a fan of his work but didnt quite see the need for the inclusion of the AFL reference in his article. But overall fair credit to him, it is hard to produce good opinion based material on a bi-weekly basis. He writes opinion pieces and gets lots of reads and the usual posse deliver 100+comments per article.

Tuckerman is a 'journalist' in the same way a popular fast food franchise with a Scottish name is a 'restaurant'. He's well worth ignoring.

BTW. For those Victorians who remember Edwin Maher presenting the nightly weather report on ABC TV; he is a major news anchor on CCTV's English language channel.

Having the game screened on China Central Television is an achievement. That is the national TV network and voice of the Communist Party. It has about 50 channels, so I am not sure which one will screen the match. Shanghai Television is the major player in Shanghai. Therefore, the game will get mainstream television exposure in China on free-to-air TV.

Unless they play the game on Wechat no-one in China will care or know. Waste of time me thinks but if a few sponsors like it that's the business of sport.

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Perry you've never been to China let alone overseas have you. The 3 networks aren't anywhere near major that signed up. Are you part of the AFL propaganda machine?

The negativity shown towards this game is just baffling. If it's a success then great, if it isn't then what's the harm in trying?

The TV coverage has been settled this afternoon - The AFL announced today that three major Chinese networks CCTV, Shanghai TV and Guangzhou TV. The combined reach between the three networks extends to every television set in China. That alone makes it worth the while. The pre season comp games in country locations is fine otherwise - - although, the Doggies will host Port at Ballarat in Rnd 22 - so a nice irony there for the Power.

#ChristT Marx and Engels advocated something a tad different to what got carried out. Communism isn't that evil an ideology. Heck - workers of the world unite - unionism and trade/professional associations have been vital in driving conditions/work-life balance/fair pay etc. Not bad concepts. Religion as the opium of the masses - well - has Australia moved to a godless society status? Okay - we follow the Christian calendar but I know far more people who never go to church (other than for the odd wedding/funeral etc) than do. Most people I know support evolution above creationism. Remember - Communism was originally designed for an industrialised nation such as Germany - - not for vast agrarian nations like Russia or China. I always laugh at the 'Stalinist-Marxist' state. Marx would have never advocated Stalins approach. Lenin more so - but not Stalin. The idealists got purged by Stalin who was a power hungry dictator. It'd be like using Mugabe as an example of the flawed democratic system!!