2016年CRI Talks between Yao Ming and Sport Authorities over Basketball League Stall

 

In 2009, Yao Ming bought the financially troubled Shanghai Sharks, which was his CBA team when he began his professional basketball career.

Leveraging¹ his experience in the US, Yao pushed for an NBA-style management and operation of the team.

However, the back-room reforms have done little to improve the financial performance of the team, which reported a loss of over 20 million yuan during the first season after Yao became its owner.

Yao Ming is the only personal investor² among all CBA stakeholders.

While turning a profit may not be as urgent for other teams with corporate³ owners, Yao admits generating money is necessary for the Sharks.

"To the best of my knowledge, no Chinese basket team is making a profit. If we start thinking of a team as a business, you realize that it can only benefit its employees when its profitable. And we can only provide better opportunities for our players and a better experience for our fans when the team makes money. We can't continue to run the team with continued losses."

The Chinese Basketball Association, the state-run sports authority that established and oversees⁴ the CBA league, only has a staff of 28 people.

In January, China's sports regulators approved new regulations which would allow outside management to run the league's daily business affairs.

Attempting to seize that opportunity to increase his stake in CBA affairs, Yao Ming partnered up with 17 other team owners in the CBA league to form a separate sports management company in February.

Yao then took helm of the company as its CEO and began negotiations⁵ with the China Basketball Association on the league's operational rights.

"We hoped to partner with the Chinese Basketball Association to deal with some of the structural⁶ challenges in the league. The association is very limited in its financial and human resources. But if our company is allowed to take over the league's operations, we can run it in a market-oriented way, making proper budgets and management decisions."

The first round of talks are said to have gone smoothly⁷, with both sides agreeing to establish a joint⁸ venture to manage the league.

However, disagreements soon began stalling the negotiations.

The CBA wants a majority stake in the new venture, with the rest equally divided among the league's 20 teams.

However, Yao's firm wants to represent the 18 teams behind it collectively, while allowing it to hold the majority stake.

Editor Su Qun with the Basketball Pioneers newspaper in China says the reality behind dispute is the fear of losing tax-payer money.

"For the basketball association, or China's sports authorities, if they only have a minority stake, they will lose the right to manage the league, which is considered an asset of the state. If the league suffers any losses or damage, they'd be putting state assets at risk, without any way of maintaining control."

However, for Yao Ming, who has publicly expressed his frustration⁹ and disappointment over the latest development, the proposal from the basketball association does not bring any real change to the way the league will be managed.

Public opinion also appears divided in China.

While many basketball fans have criticized China's sports authorities for not keeping up with the realities of today's sports environment, others are critical of Yao Ming's plans to bring an NBA-style of league management to China.

For CRI, I'm Victor Ning.

1 leveraging   

促使…改变( leverage的现在分词 )； [美国英语]杠杆式投机，（使）举债经营，（使）利用贷款进行投机

参考例句：

• De-leveraging is a painful process: it has barely begun. 去杠杆化是个痛苦的过程：它才刚刚开始。
• Archimedes said, saying: Give me a fulcrum, I can leveraging the Earth. 阿基米德说过一句话：给我一个支点，我可以撬动地球。

2 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

3 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

4 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

5 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

6 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

7 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

8 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

9 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。