BEIJING: Port Adelaide will unveil a $3 million sponsorship deal with Chinese firm MJK International Holdings at a gala dinner on the eve of tomorrow’s clash with the Suns in Shanghai. The signing gives substance to the Power’s drive into China and adds to multi-million dollar deals already struck with Ausgold Mining Group and Chinese property developer Shanghai CRED. The three companies sit atop a list of 20 sponsors that have flowed from Port’s China plan; a strategy in which tomorrow’s game at Jiangwan Stadium has been the catalyst in something that goes beyond Australian football.
Port chairman David Koch and chief executive Keith Thomas have always said sports diplomacy is at the heart of their China blueprint and now they’re delivering the goods for their club. “It confirms the potential of our China engagement strategy,” Thomas told The Weekend Australian yesterday. “The strategy’s much more than the game. “As a result of the game we’ve been able to attract 20 partners to support the game (tomorrow). Twelve of them are Chinese and are new to the game.” MJK International Holdings Group — a group that has e-commerce, wine, real estate, tourism and “cultural artefacts” divisions — was introduced to Port Adelaide when the Power hosted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Sydney Swans match in the opening round of the season.
MJK opened a Sydney office earlier this year and its chairman Zheng Junping, his family and one of his directors visited Adelaide for the first time last weekend. He attended the Port-Eagles game at Adelaide Oval and can’t have been too disappointed with the stadium, city or the hosts’ 10-point loss given he will sign a three-year sponsorship deal at the Portman Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Shanghai tonight. “We first got to know MJK as part of the Premier Li visit,” Thomas said. “We’ve been talking to them ever since. “That led into this idea that Australian football and Port Adelaide in particular could act as a vehicle to expand their business interests in Australia.”
The “coaches’ sponsorship” deal is believed to be for a million dollars in each of the next three years. “That gives them the profile of their brand on the coaches’ polos but it also enables us to expose them to all of our business connections and networks in Australia,” Thomas said. MJK is based in Xian and the company would help drive Port’s push into one of China’s oldest and most culturally-rich cities. MJK chairman Zheng Junping said his company was “very excited to extend our partnership with Port Adelaide”, a partnership that started with a smaller, one-season deal struck after the round one game against Sydney. “They wish to develop deeper engagement with China, and we wish to develop deeper engagement with Australia,” he said. “It’s a win-win.”
Port’s “power footy” schools program — where Chinese children play Australian rules as part of the curriculum — is mostly confined to Shanghai; MJK will help get it started in Xian. “They’ve bought into the vision of the engagement strategy,” Thomas said. “That a company that has only just registered in Australia attaches itself to our club and our game, in the space of two-three months … that they’re prepared to invest, is very, very significant.” The Ausgold and Shanghai Cred deals are believed to be worth about the same as the MJK sponsorship, so Port’s China expedition is already reaping rich rewards for a club working hard to expand its financial base. Being the nation’s most successful Australian football club is no guarantee of financial stability, especially given the Power’s origins as a hardscrabble outfit from the backblocks of the Adelaide wharves. The deals put meat on the bone of Port’s stated aim of broadening their base four years since launching the China strategy.
