GAC GROUP 2011 World Table Tennis Championships is a success – Table Tennis News
The final of the Men’s Singles of the GAC GROUP 2011 World Table Tennis Championships played at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands from May 8-15, was the most watched sports event in China this year.
The Arena was packed with over 8,000 spectators to witness the all Chinese Men's finals.
The event was watched by 27 million in China and over 100 million in the world. The final exceeded the viewer ship of Li Na's final appearance at the Australian Tennis Open.
The Marketing Director Steve Dainton, of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) said, "With a new sponsor from China, the GAC Group, we are delighted to continue to be one of the leading sports on the Chinese Television and ensuring high value
for all of sponsorship partners. With such a wonderfully staged event in Rotterdam, fantastic TV images, production and most importantly table tennis at the absolute highest level these results have been possible."
The figures of the viewership underline the increasing popularity of the sports in the world. The sport is gaining attention of major brands to sponsors the table tennis event. The Volkswagen Cup earlier was sponsored by the Volkswagen car manufacturing
company. The World Table Tennis Championship was sponsored by the GAC Group.
The deputy General Manager of the GAC Group, Mr. Li Shao said, “Table Tennis is an intelligent and very competitive sport, we enjoy a solid foundation of this sport in China. Our partnership with the ITTF helps us internationalize our company and fulfil the
interests of our large number of investors.”
The championship itself was success story but it also sent an alarm to the non-Chinese players of the World, as all the titles were won by the Chinese players. Table tennis is the national sport of China and certainly it has a massive television audience
in that country. The attachment of GAC GROUP with the table tennis championship will play a key role in increasing the brand recognition throughout the world.
Although the figures are not as high as that of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but still gained attention from all over the world wherever table tennis is played. The table tennis federation has also become the second largest sports federation in the world.
It has more members then FIFA, the most favourite sports of youth football. Currently the number of member associations rose to 215 and made ITTF the second largest sports federation in the world.
During the Beijing Olympics, table tennis got the attention of almost half of the population of China. Almost 48.2 percent of the Chinese tuned in the television to watch table tennis matches for an average of 15 minutes. With the growing popularity of the
sport it is expected that major companies will be coming forward to obtain the sponsorships of the events.
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