Justin Altman Blog 5/21

Today was honestly one of the best days of the trip so far. We packed a ton into one day. We had a Zoom call with an NFL China employee, a tour of the Bird's Nest (Olympic stadium), visits to the CFL and CFA headquarters, a lecture about table tennis and hockey's rise in Chinese culture, and hotpot for dinner.

We started the day with a Zoom call with Morris Huang from NFL China. He walked us through how the NFL is growing the sport in China. He explained that their whole approach is built around flag football, not tackle. This is because it's safer, cheaper to run, easier to get into schools, and it's now an Olympic sport, which is a huge deal here.

One of the coolest things he shared was that the NFL's goal is to reach 5 million flag football participants in China by 2030. They're already in hundreds of thousands of schools and leagues, and they're expanding into more cities every year. They also have a girls' scholarship program that sends Chinese youth teams to compete in the U.S. In fact, China's U15 girls team just finished 3rd at an APAC tournament in Brisbane and earned a spot at the championship in the States this summer.

After the Zoom call we took public transit to the Bird's Nest, the National Stadium built for the 2008 Summer Olympics that also hosted events at the 2022 Winter Olympics. It's one of those places you've seen a thousand photos of, but standing in front of it in person is still a different experience. The steel lattice structure is massive. We got a full tour inside. It's hard to explain how big it actually is until you're standing inside of it looking around.

Right next door to the Bird's Nest was the swimming facility from the 2008 Summer Olympics, which was also used for curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics. It was fascinating to learn that the facility has since been transformed into a waterpark.

For lunch we ate at a McDonald's connected to the stadium. After a full morning of walking around it was exactly what we needed to refuel for the rest of the day.

After lunch we took a taxi to the headquarters of the Chinese Football League. First, we went into a room with huge LED screens showcasing game scores, team rosters, and venues. After that, we were shown the VAR room, which is similar to instant replay in the NFL. That was really fascinating. We then went into a meeting room where the CFL executives and our professors sat in the middle while the students sat around the outside. We had time to ask questions, which gave us a real look at how a professional football league operates day to day in China. One interesting thing I learned is that there are three leagues of promotion and relegation for men (Super League, Division 1, Division 2) but only two for women (Super League, Division 1).

Two floors down in the same building was the Chinese Football Association. We got to go into the lobby, take some pictures, and ask more questions. Having both organizations in the same building made it easy to see how the professional side and the national governing side work together.

We took the subway back to the hotel and rested before the 6:00 PM lecture. It was given by Shannon Shang, a Syracuse alum from the Class of 2019. Her talk was called "China Sports Culture Sharing: Two Stories of Table Tennis and Ice Hockey." She covered how table tennis became China's national sport through a state-led, mass participation model, and how ice hockey is a newer sport that mixes state support with private family investment. After spending the whole day inside Chinese sports organizations, it was a really fitting way to end the academic part of the day.

Then we went out for a hotpot dinner. We had steak and lamb, and it was amazing. Hotpot was a great choice for dinner. The whole experience of cooking at the table and sharing food with everyone was a really fun and chill way to wrap up a busy day.