Road To A Billion Begins In Honolulu
Adam Markowitz
Thursday October 31, 2013
"There will be as many as one billion people watching you on Sunday, November 10th." –Lou Tilley, AFL China
HONOLULU --The sun may have set on beautiful Waikiki Beach on Tuesday, but this was merely the calm before the storm for AFL China. On Wednesday, players from all across the country congregated in Honolulu, and that officially signaled the beginning of perhaps the most influential time in the history of the sport of arena football.
Tilley was one of the many to speak on Tuesday at the organizational meeting for the staff and supporters for AFL China, and he promised that the game in Beijing was going to be viewed by a national television audience in China, where as many as one billion people could be watching the second of two exhibition games on the All-Star Tour.
That number should get you going. To put this in comparison, just over a million fans went through the turnstiles at all of the AFL games that were played this year. 29,137,856 fans have seen AFL games in the 26 years that this great league has been in existence. That's a ton of people. Now multiply that by 40. Not four. 40. THAT'S how many people could be watching the game a week from Sunday across China.
Though the dream to bring the 50-yard indoor war to China started for Marty Judge, Ron Jaworski, David Niu, Ken Bozarth, and Peter Wong a year ago, Wednesday is when that dream started to become a reality. 45 players, coaches, and officials have arrived or will be arriving to the nation's 50th state, when their lives and the lives of millions, if not billions of others will be changing.
Here in Hawaii, for Russ Francis and so many other Hawaiians, Saturday's All-Star Game at the Blaisdell Center truly is a special event. At least two dozen media members showed up for a 5:00 p.m. HST press conference where Lou Tilley and all of the other vital members of AFL China introduced the game to the Aloha State for the first time since 2004.
The hope is that this isn't going to be just a one-time event. Over and over again, Niu, Bozarth, and all of the powers that be with AFL China are fully expecting that this is going to eventually become an annual event here in Honolulu, and perhaps this could replace the Pro Bowl. The city is clearly excited about this game, and this is going to be a heck of an experience. Locals are already stoked about everything from the game on Saturday through the Thursday afternoon All-Star Challenge on Waikiki Beach, where plenty of locals are going to get involved with the players to compete in various challengers.
Alas, the goal remains the same. The trip to China is essentially the dress rehearsal and an awfully important one for what might be the biggest stage in the history of not just the AFL, but the totality of indoor football.
"One billion people," echoed Dolezel in his first address to the group on Wednesday night. "That's why we play. The world's our oyster right now if we can get this thing to work."
The sun setting on Waikiki Beach has to be one of the most stunning settings that this writer has ever seen. However, everyone from the local players from Hawaii through the players who are just looking to have a chance, to the best of the All-Stars that the Arena Football League has to offer to the staff right down to this little guy from Orlando… We all feel it. That sunset over Waikiki is just the beginning. The sun is just rising in China, and that sun might be the brightest light that arena football has ever seen.
