“Our preliminary plan is to supply Beijing residents with a leisure centre combined with shopping, culture, sports and entertainment,” Guo Jinjiao, deputy manager of the development company, told the paper.
The 200 million yuan ($29 million) stadium played host to a Major League Baseball exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres last March.
But apart from the MLB’s rental fee for that game, it had not derived any income, the paper said.
Baseball remains a fringe sport in China, and the six-team professional league set up in 2002 struggles to attract more than a few dozen spectators to regular matches.
I saw a game in the 2004 Chinese World Series. There were a few hundred spectators, mostly foreigners and there was no admission charge. I went with some Chinese friends who were in their 20's and are athletes and they knew absolutely nothing about baseball.
Some of the players, including one of the starting pitchers, were Americans.
I saw a game in the 2004 Chinese World Series. There were a few hundred spectators, mostly foreigners and there was no admission charge. I went with some Chinese friends who were in their 20's and are athletes and they knew absolutely nothing about baseball.
Some of the players, including one of the starting pitchers, were Americans.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081219/REVIEW/318869595/1120
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