Nike and the Univ. of OR (UO) are "hoping to make the
world's biggest market into a top spot for sports business,"
according to Andy Dworkin of the Portland OREGONIAN. Funded
by a $150,000 grant from Nike, UO's business school will
spend the next three years "helping to develop China's
fledgling, privatizing sports industry." The grant funds a
program that will bring professors from Fudan Univ. business
school in Shanghai to study at the Warsaw Sports Marketing
Center, part of UO's business school. In exchange, UO
professors will also travel to Shanghai to teach Fudan
students. The goal is to "create an ongoing program that
can teach Chinese students how to turn interest in sports
into leagues, organized games, retail chains and other
features of for-profit sports industries." Dworkin writes
that UO and Nike "want to get in on the ground floor of that
industry, in a society that many U.S. industrialists call
the world's greatest untapped market." Phil Romero, Dean of
the Lundquist School of Business at UO, said that the Fudan
program will give faculty "greater insight on China's sports
market, knowledge that can be shared with students." Romero
added that two UO professors have already visited Fudan and
more exchanges "are being planned" (OREGONIAN, 7/12).
