Sport Knowledge Australia (SKA) – an innovative high level sports management and science educational organisation, which launched as an Australian Government initiative in June this year, is pursuing a major presence in China.

Currently SKA Chief Executive Officer, Leighton Wood is in China as a keynote speaker at the 2005 Guangdong Sporting Industry Forum.  In past visits to China, Wood has consulted with educational institutions, sports business leaders and government officials in order to gain a specific understanding of what services China requires to meet its burgeoning sports economy.

Already, at Beijing's Tsinghua University, SKA has delivered a high-end seminar on sports stadium management in a programme led by Simon Weatherill, CEO of the Victoria's State Sport Centres Trust.  The Trust is an organisation comprising the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre and Melbourne School of Sports & Recreation Management, as well as the State Netball and Hockey Centre at Royal Park, Melbourne.  These venues provided to course participants, who included facility and venue operators, project and event managers, builders, architects and government officials, an ideal business model for the successful, profitable and efficient management of stadiums and events.

Speaking from Guangzhou Today Wood said that China's rapid growth and hosting of the Olympics would be an exciting time for the people of China but that it would also throw up new challenges to ensure long term commercial success, "China has an estimated 70,000 multi-sports centers and many more are being built as a result of interest generated by the 2008 Olympic Games.

"Sport Knowledge Australia is keen to share world-best practices in this new area of massive expansion to ensure China has access to the world's finest management models so that it may benefit from the experience gained by other countries around the world."

"It is a thrilling time for China and the rest of the world is watching with anticipation and delight, confident that the country will deliver an exceptional Olympic experience.

"One of the areas that SKA is looking to assist with is the post-Olympic, and long term management of the infrastructure built for the hosting of the Games so that China can benefit for decades to come from its investments."

(Imago Group October 31, 2005)