Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 18 (reporter Shan Lei, Li Bowen) 2018-2019 Chinese men’s basketball professional league (CBA) held a press conference for the new season in Beijing on the 18th, chairman of CBA company, yao Ming, chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association, explained all kinds of new measures in the new season on the spot. An almost new league will be presented to the fans.
The new season will start from the 21st, and all 20 teams will appear on the same day. Because of the window period of China’s men’s basketball international competition, the competition was interrupted twice from November 26 to December 4 and February 18-26 respectively, and the regular season ended on March 13, 2019. The CBA All-Star weekend is scheduled for January 12-13, and the season is expected to end in mid-May 2019.
Yao Ming explained the changes in competition system, contract, security, business, customer service, copyright, brand, etc.
The biggest change is the competition system. For the first time, 20 teams are divided into 4 groups according to the Serpentine ranking last season, with 5 teams in each group. The new season will adopt four cycles of Main and away games in the group and two cycles of Main and away games in different groups, that is, a team will play four regular season matches with the other four teams in the same group, play against other 15 teams in different groups twice. The new competition system has increased the schedule from 38 rounds to 46 rounds, and the competition has also changed from 5 matches in the past 2 weeks to 3 matches in one week. Judging from the new schedule, except Monday, there are almost 6 days a week, and there are 460 games in the regular season alone.
Another reform of the re-competition system is that playoff teams have changed from 10 to 12 in the last season. Teams from 5 to 12 in the regular season first play the first stage of the playoffs, four seats were decided to participate in the second stage of the competition (the competition system was 3 wins in 5 battles). The third stage is the semi-final, using the 7-game 4-win system until the finals.
In addition, the “Chenghai Cup” representing the best coach was launched in the new season to commemorate the late famous coach Qian Chenghai and the “God of War Cup” awarded to the Most Valuable Player (MVP) “. Yao Ming introduced: “The most impressive impression coach Qian Chenghai left on me was his courage when facing setbacks in life. I hope this is also reflected by the best coach. The name “God of War” is the most famous nickname of Chinese basketball, and it is very suitable to use it as the Cup name of MVP.”
The main sponsors of the new season are still Li Ning, China Life Insurance, Tencent and other enterprises. Yao Ming introduced that the sponsorship income in the new season has reached a new level, and the amount has increased significantly for two consecutive years. No less than 22 partners provide services to CBA, and 5 companies with an amount of over 100 million. The league will create a brand new logo for 20 clubs, making them more localized and younger, and more capable of reflecting commercial value. The rookie player’s jersey will be embroidered with the exclusive logo of “sharp”. Seven teams that once won the CBA championship will win the exclusive championship jersey to promote the innovation of the league content. The championship ring will be newly designed, and the defending champion Liaoning team will get a new ring. The club will also get more commercial benefits. The rights and interests of 9 new projects will be opened to the club to share investment promotion categories. 19 national TV channels will broadcast the CBA competition.
Beijing Shougang player Fang Shuo said: “Two teams have been added in the playoffs, which will greatly promote the excitement of the league and contribute more games to the audience, our players also feel very good. Just now, Chairman Yao said that many sponsors are willing to sponsor this league, which is also in line with the positive spirit of the players and the league. It is really very good. This kind of reform shows that CBA league is developing towards professionalism more and more. (League) in the past few years, there have been new moves every year, and these moves are standardizing and promoting the whole league. Now it is the arrival of the era of CBA great stride forward.”