At 7:30 am next Monday morning Beijing time, America’s National Football League (NFL) will kick off its 47^th Super Bowl, but how many Chinese will actually be watching? Last season the league estimated a 3.5 million-strong “enthusiastic” fan base in the country, with another 8.5 million with some interest. But the league admits it faces a long difficult journey in building its China business.

Richard Young is the man leading that journey. Since first beginning his China story in 1990 as a Mandarin student in Beijing, he’s jumped around greater China in the sports business working with everything from women’s tennis to Formula 1. In 2010, he signed on with the NFL for the unenviable task of making the Chinese love American football. In today’s podcast, Richard talks about sports culture in China and how it’s influencing the NFL’s expansion plans.

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