Radley Mackenzie is the founder of SinoSports Development in Toronto, which received the Bronze Award in the education category at CCBC’s 2020 Business Excellence Awards. SinoSports combines education and sports, arranging camps, coaching, and recruitment of Chinese athletes to Canadian private schools.
Key takeaways from Radley:
- Sports help Chinese kids to be more well-rounded, something the traditional Chinese education system lacks.
- Drivers of sports development in China include top-down factors from government – it has benefits for public health and helps youth build character, grit, and leadership skills. Bottom-up drivers are parents recognizing the benefits of sports for their children.
- As with many Chinese sectors, there is a dizzying array of impressive numbers to consider. The National Development and Reform Commission has invested US$1.4 trillion into sport, including facilities and infrastructure. Youth sports participation was a $53b industry in 2018 and is growing 14%/year.
- People are watching sports on tv and on their mobile phones. A Douyin short video clip with ice hockey centre Connor McDavid did relatively poorly, only having 13 million viewers. Game 4 of the Stanley Cup had 60 million views, more than all the combined views in the US.
Rapid-Fire Questions:
- Most popular sport in China? Basketball, with 600m fans and 300m participants. Soccer and swimming are also popular. Winter sports are growing, with more than a million figure skaters, and 20 million ski visits in 2019. Only about 10,000 people play hockey, but they are a sought-after demographic.
- Best-known professional athlete: Basketball player YAO Ming.
- Recommendation to better understand China – a book by Peter Martin called China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy.
This multi-part miniseries is sponsored by SnapPay.