g the situation closely. The union has asked former NBA All-Star

Canadas largest sports company wants the Maple Leafs to become Chinas favourite hockey team, in much the same way Manchester United is the most popular soccer team in the worlds most populous country. At the same time as Chinese government officials have asked the NHL to stage a regular-season game in China as early as next season, TSN has learned four executives with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment are scheduled to leave Friday for Beijing for meetings to help grow hockey in China, an untapped frontier for many sports leagues around the world. MLSE chief commercial officer Dave Hopkinson, Bo Hu, MLSEs executive in charge of Chinese business, and two colleagues will attend meetings in Beijing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his staff, and Chinese government officials. Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan was scheduled to participate but canceled at the last minute, a team spokesperson said. (The NHL and NHLPA announced forward Carter Ashton was suspended for 20 games on Thursday after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Ashton said he borrowed another athletes asthma inhaler.) MLSE executives, the 27-year-old Hu in particular, have quietly laid the groundwork for building the companys profile in China over the past three years. Because basketball is so popular in China, MLSE staff first established relationships with companies interested in sponsorship agreements with the Raptors. The basketball team now has sponsorships with Chinese auto tire maker Aeolus Tires and Asus, a laptop maker. MLSE has also partnered with I.T. company Huawei on music-industry projects. Its believed that MLSE garners more than $300,000 from each of those sponsorships. Company officials declined to say how much sponsorship revenue they make from China-based companies. As MLSEs relationships in China matured, the company landed meetings with the Chinese government - meetings where MLSE received an attractive offer. China is competing with Kazakhstan to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. China wants to have hockey teams that are competitive. But with a mens national team thats ranked No. 38 — behind New Zealand, Belgium and Iceland — China needs help getting to that point. China wasnt a sports nation before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but it is now, Hopkinson said in an interview. The president of the country attended the Team Canada mens hockey games in Sochi and said he fell in love with hockey. Whats important to the president of China is important to China. Chinese officials said in exchange for helping to develop grass-roots hockey programs in China, the government would help MLSE promote the Maple Leafs brand there. This is the most storied and established brand in the game, Hopkinson said. We were told that if they were going to partner in the NFL, it would be with the Dallas Cowboys. If they were doing a baseball deal, it would be with the New York Yankees. And if theres a partnership in the NHL, its going to be with the Maple Leafs. It doesnt hurt that the Leafs are based in Canada. Tensions might appear if a U.S.-based team tried to do what the Leafs hope to do. The Chinese have told us they really appreciate what we are doing, boots on the ground, helping them to develop a hockey competency, said Hopkinson, who has made four previous trips to China. In March, the Leafs converted all of their rink boards to Chinese to welcome Chinese viewers. In August, the team sent staff to Beijing and Shanghai to stage hockey camps for young amateur players. In coming weeks, the Leafs will aid in the production of a 10-part Hockey 101 series to be included in NHL broadcasts on CCTV in China to educate viewers. We arent the only team in China, Hu said. The Canucks and Islanders are there, too, but we really have a plan to become the biggest hockey brand there. We want to keep holding camps for kids, building grass roots interest, and eventually take our Maple Leafs players there. This is the Manchester United model. The worlds most famous soccer club says it has 108 million fans in China, where it has played almost a dozen times since 1975. Hu said because the NHL prevents teams from promoting themselves outside their local territories, MLSE has been targeting Chinese companies such as Air China and the Bank of China that want to expand their business in Canada. There are a lot of Chinese mining companies that have investments in Canada, although we just signed an agreement with a Colombian mining company, Hu said. Hu confirmed Chinese officials have told the NHL they are interested in hosting an NHL game as soon as next season. As any seasoned marketer knows, the payoff for a team to break through in China is huge. In its recent filing for an initial public offering, Alibaba reported just 45.8 per cent of Chinas population uses the Internet, far lower than Canada or the U.S. In 2000, four per cent of urban households in China were considered middle class; by 2012, more than two-thirds of those homes had gained that status, earning between $9,000 and $16,000. In 2022, Chinas middle class may eclipse 630 million consumers. There already are signs that China, a non-traditional hockey market to be sure, is open to a new sport. Last year, the state broadcaster CCTV began showing four live NHL games every week. This is CCTVs second year of a three-year deal with the NHL. NHL games broadcast on the weekend in China have attracted an average 800,000 households - airing at 7 a.m. local time. By comparison, televised Leafs games in Canada with national distribution this season have attracted about 1.5 million viewers. This year, Beijings 150 registered teams have 2,300 players between the ages of six and 15, MLSE says. Still, there are challenges to growing hockey in China. For starters, its an expensive sport, Hu said, thanks to 30 per cent import duties for hockey equipment shipped from the west and expensive ice time. There are politics to consider. In 2005, the newspaper Beijing Today accused western soccer teams of gold-digging, using their tours of China solely to build their brand and commercial presence. Some efforts simply dont translate. Manchester United closed a pair of theme restaurants after fans didnt see a connection between soccer fandom and eating out, The New York Times reported in 2007. Also, its unclear whether the NHL sees a big upside in China. The league does not have a senior vice president in change of expanding its international business, a position common in other pro sports leagues. Moreover, the NBA has a long head start in China, where it began to lay a toehold during the 1990s. Now, the NBA attracts some five million viewers a game in China. In the U.S., NBA broadcasts on cable TV get about two million viewers per game. Its doubtful that the NHL would ever grow business through the sale of team jerseys. While authentic jerseys now sell for $330 in Canada, counterfeiting has flourished in China, bringing down the price of knock-off jerseys to $5 or $10 in some cases. Drew Lock Womens Jersey . He was with the New York Jets in 2011 when the NFL locked out their players after they failed to agree on a new contract. Willy went undrafted but was given a look by four NFL teams before heading north. Dalton Risner Broncos Jersey . Wall made the comment in a speech to a Regina business crowd that included Lesnar. 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OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Clippers chose not to speak publicly about owner Donald Sterling before they faced the Golden State Warriors for Game 4 of their first-round series Sunday. Instead, they made a silent protest to generate attention. In response to Sterlings purported comments urging a woman to not bring black people to his teams games, the Clippers let their uniforms become a show of solidarity. They ran out of the tunnel wearing their usual warmups. Then they huddled at centre court and tossed the outer layer of their warmups to the ground, going through their pregame routine with their red Clippers shirts on inside out to hide the teams logo. Players also wore black wristbands or armbands during the game, which they lost 118-97. They also donned black socks with their normal jerseys. "Its just us, only us. Were all we got," Clippers point guard Chris Paul could be heard shouting to teammates before they ran out. The Warriors announced sellout crowd of 19,596, decked out in gold shirts, booed the Clippers -- as they always do -- during team introductions. Sterlings wife was sitting courtside across from the Clippers bench. Commissioner Adam Silver had said Donald Sterling would not be at the game. Clippers coach Doc Rivers said prior to the game that he would remain the only one to speak for the team on the issue because players wanted to remain focused on basketball. Afterward, Rivers said he knew what his players had planned but didnt voice his opinion. Rivers said he wasnt thrilled about the demonstration, though he didnt elaborate why. Even he, though, acknowledged that staying focused has not been easy since TMZ released the alleged recording of Sterling. "Our message is to play," Rivers said. "Our message is that were going to let no one and nothing stop us from what we want to do. And I think thats a good message. I really do. I think thats the message were trying to send. And if we can pull this off all the way, I think that would be a terrific message." In an overcrowded postgame locker room, most of the Clippers players deflected comment or refused to answer questions related to Sterling -- other than to say they remain united and focused on basketball. Shooting guard J.J. Redick, who is white, said the controversy has impacted everybody on the team and around the league. He also admitted it might have affected their preparation. "Maybe our focus wasnt in the right place would be the easiest way to say it," Redick said. "I didnt get the sense that we couldnt function. I thought we competed, but give them a lot of credit as well. It wasnt just the distraction of everything that has happened in the last 24 hours. Golden SState played a great basketball game, lets keep that in mind.dddddddddddd." While the Clippers wanted to let their play do the talking, other NBA players continued to speak out on the subject. Some talked about the hurt Sterlings alleged words caused. Others urged Silver to take an aggressive stance against Sterling, who has a history of alleged discrimination. Most of them hoped Sterling would be removed as the teams owner someday soon. Miami Heat star LeBron James said Silver needed to take action, going so far as to suggest "there is no room for Donald Sterling in our league." Lakers star Kobe Bryant wrote on his Twitter page that he couldnt play for Sterling. Warriors coach Mark Jackson, who played for the Clippers from 1992-94, said he could forgive Sterling but couldnt play for him right now, either. Asked if he needed to hear something from the league or Sterling to return as coach next year, Rivers said he didnt know and that he was just concentrating on the playoff series. At the Trail Blazers playoff game against the Houston Rockets on Sunday night, Portland players all wore black socks in solidarity with the Clippers players. "I wanted to do something to support our brothers," Blazers All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge said before the game in Portland. The players union, still without an executive director since firing Billy Hunter in February 2013, is following the situation closely. The union has asked former NBA All-Star and current Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson to take a leading role on the players behalf to address the Sterling matter. Johnson and Silver attended the game Sunday. Johnson said he called an emergency phone meeting of every player representative to the union Saturday night and spoke with Silver before the game. He said this is a "defining moment" for the NBA and for Silver. Johnson said players trust that the commissioner will meet their demands, which include: Sterling not attend any NBA games for the rest of the playoffs; a full account of past allegations of discrimination by Sterling and why the league never sanctioned him; the range of options that the league can penalize Sterling, including the maximum penalty, which players want if the audio recording is validated; assurance that the NBA and the union will be partners in the investigation; and an immediate and decisive ruling, hopefully before the Clippers host the Warriors for Game 5 on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Johnson also said there will be no league-wide protest by players or a boycott because theres enough attention on the issue already and that players "trust Adam Silver. They trust that Adam Silver will do the right thing." ' ' '