1 Introduction

1.1 Research background

Since Yao Ming was elected president of the Chinese Basketball Association in 2017, Chinese basketball has undergone several reforms. The step-by-step improvement of the CBA system has led to a significant increase in the current CBA seasons’ size and level of competition. The CBA has been committed to making its league the second largest globally besides the NBA, with an international impact on the professional game [1]. However, it has been difficult to improve the game excitement of CBA through the reform of the system and the level of players. Compared with the NBA, the gap between the CBA league and the NBA is that the game participants are most interested in it. At the same time, the NBA sees the basketball game as a game and as an activity with cultural and entertainment factors. The NBA is recognized as a fine combination of basketball games, culture, and entertainment [2]. Therefore, if CBA’s commercial value is to be exploited more and developed into a high-level league with a wide influence globally, it needs to build a closer connection with its fans. Thus, increasing the brand’s core value by packaging the competition products to attract consumers can be a core strategy.

1.2 Literature review

Cheng analyzes the CBA sports environment construction aspect is more around the development of the competitive sport, ignoring the optimization of the human environment. The result is that the improvement of sports performance does not bring the overall progress of sports, but more and more serious sports social problems or worse problems in the process of sports and the development of competitive sports as a shadow. To turn the CBA into a high-level league, it must be studied at the cultural level, and its research focuses on the construction of the humanistic environment. The CBA league is part of China’s sports competition, and its humanistic environment is included in the category of sports humanistic environment, which has common characteristics. Therefore, the humanistic environment of the CBA league is related to the natural and social conditions related to the CBA league and the interrelationship between them, including the stadium facilities that host the games, the human conditions related to the games, and the institutional environment that regulates the growth of the league. Its manifestations mainly include clubs having their respective home stadiums; home spectators having a strong sense of ownership; a strong home cultural atmosphere; referees tending to be home conscious; a relatively scientific competition mechanism; and a unique management system. At the same time, the scale of the competition venues is small, and the facilities are poor. Moreover, the main measures for optimization are to strengthen the construction of the hardware facilities and the culture of home venues, to improve the cultural atmosphere of the venues. To improve the quality of the games and enhance the spectatorship. To expand the marketing efforts and respect the market law. At the same time, take the initiative to link up with the media to create a good public opinion atmosphere [1].

Cheng et al. proposed that home court games create a specific game environment and clarify the relationship between the hosts and the guests of the game. Given that all CBA basketball leagues use a home and away system, home court culture summarizes the main content of CBA game culture. The main connotations of CBA home court culture include the creation of a large and stable fan base, creating conditions for the commercial operation of clubs, and a clear sense of belonging for teams and clubs. Moreover, the embodiment of regional cultural characteristics in the sports arena and the enhancement of the main value of the CBA league home culture is to promote the socialization of people and the orderly operation and development of society [3].

Guo proposes that packaging is the core of reflecting the value of products. CBA competition product packaging plays an important role in the tournament by packaging competition products (mainly technology, art, activity arrangement, souvenir design). To stimulate consumer interest, increase the desire to buy, improve the attendance rate of spectators watching the tournament, thus attracting the media’s attention to the tournament with enthusiasm and attracting enterprises to CBA investment efforts so that the CBA competition forms a virtuous cycle [4].

1.3 Research gap

Most scholars have mainly studied the shortcomings and improvements of CBA’s home court culture and the importance of home-court culture for fans and the league. Some scholars have also given some suggestions for specific packaging changes. However, few scholars have studied the commercial value of improving the CBA’s packaging and connection with fans while lacking specific comparisons between the CBA and various leagues to identify shortcomings and advantages.

1.4 Research framework

First, analyze why CBA has not made great progress in product packaging and the human environment. Secondly, comparing with the NBA and other leagues gives the specific aspects CBA should make changes. In addition, analyze how the home court culture can be changed to attract fans in conjunction with improvements. Finally, analyze what kind of business value such improvements would bring to the CBA and how they would affect the development of Chinese basketball.

2 Method

2.1 Case study

A case study is a research methodology typically seen in social and life sciences. A case study is an intensive study about a person, a group of people or a unit aimed to generalize over several units’. A case study has also been described as an intensive, systematic investigation of a single individual, group, community, or other unit. The researcher examines in-depth data relating to several variables [5]. This paper will go through specific aspects of the NBA’s success in packaging to give examples of what aspects of the CBA should be copied or combined and improved in the local context.

2.2 Comparative analysis

Comparative analysis is the process of comparing items to one another and distinguishing their similarities and differences. A comparative analysis allows a business better to understand the issue and form strategies in response when it wants to analyze an idea, problem, theory, or question [6]. This paper will compare the CBA with the NBA and other basketball leagues that have done well in the human environment and then analyze what changes should be made to the CBA and what benefits they would bring. In addition, determine whether the commercial value brought by such a change is meaningful.

3 Results

3.1 Objective problems with the size of CBA arenas

Having a home court is necessary for every CBA club, which means a fixed location for fans to watch games. This is the first step to making the fans perceive the existence of the home team to the team. However, the city of each team, the capital of the team, and the size of the stadium are different, making it impossible to standardize the standard for each team. Compared to NBA arenas, which can accommodate 20,000 spectators, the largest San Antonio Spurs home arena, SBC Center Arena, can accommodate 34,215 spectators, and the smallest arena seats more than 17,000 [7]. The largest number of people that can be accommodated in a CBA home arena is the home of the Beijing Shougang team, which can accommodate 18,000 people in total. The home stadium of Tianjin has the lowest capacity, with 4214 people. The CBA home arenas that can accommodate more than 10,000 people are Beijing Wukesong Gymnasium, Guangdong Dongguan Basketball Center, Qingdao Guoxin Sports Center Gymnasium, and Shenzhen Dayun Center Gymnasium [8]. Compared with the NBA, the overall scale of the CBA home court is much smaller.

3.2 The current state of the CBA arena effects

The overall effect of the stadium is an important part of improving the spectacle of the game. This includes stadium lighting, stadium flooring, home court design, and spectator seating arrangements.

The main difference between CBA and NBA game lighting is the single design of CBA game lighting. However, the overall light can meet the normal game and video broadcast needs, the visual effect of poor hierarchy, and the lack of necessary lighting effects, such as the division of each field area. It gives the impression that the entire arena is bright, and some court areas are even reflective, but there is no light and dark and color overload [7].

In the flooring choice, the NBA floor is made of high-quality North American maple solid wood, and the whole venue consists of 210 boards of 2.6 m² and 14 boards of 1.5 m², with a total value of about 100,000 US dollars. The flooring used in the CBA league is generally the original flooring of the integrated arena rather than the professional flooring used in the NBA league. There are defects related to professional flooring in many aspects, such as anti-slip, anti-fatigue, protection, etc., [7]. In addition is the design of the court floor, the center of each team’s home court is the logo of the CBA sponsor, and only the name of the team’s city is on both sides of the court’s bottom line. This leads to courts without distinctive features and a lack of home-court identity.

There are also certain problems with the bleachers in CBA courts, the main problem of which is the organizing of the bleachers. The bleachers are also far away from the field of play, which makes fans and players feel a certain distance, unlike the NBA, where fans can watch the stars play up close. The seating arrangement also indirectly led to the lack of camera placement area. NBA has set up many camera positions, including overhead, flat, and even a special camera position for the players. For example, in the 06 NBA All-Star game, there were 29 cameras on the whole court live, even two dedicated to Yao Ming. CBA broadcast camera space is mostly between 6-10, and most of them are fixed, with poor flexibility and mobility, which shows that the professional gap in broadcasting is too large [7].

3.3 Current status of CBA on and off-court activities and court atmosphere

In addition to the exciting games, the NBA also pays great attention to the court atmosphere. Team mascots, cheerleaders, halftime shows, and special holiday events all add to the interaction between the team and fans. In contrast, the CBA lacks these activities, and fans tend to focus only on the game on the court. There is no way to increase the fans’ identity with the home team beyond the game.

There are many opportunities for fans to interact with the players off the court. For example, NBA teams will invite fans to participate in festivals on special holidays. In addition to that, some fans may be invited to visit the NBA players’ training facility and be there. The CBA has not had this opportunity to open up its practices to fans.

Usually, a team’s logo design can also represent the culture of a city and bring some visual effect to the fans. The CBA team’s logo has been unchanged for many years, making the team unable to attract some new fans. Due to the outdated design, it also lacks a certain purchase attraction for the fans. This reduces the team’s revenue to a certain extent. In addition, the CBA home court lacks a store for fans to buy jerseys or team peripherals, while NBA home courts usually have such stores where fans can shop for team-related products. These home team products are also a symbol to attract fans and increase their identification with the home team.

3.4 Problems in the long run

The current CBA league is still in development, although there have been reforms to the game’s excitement and some systems. However, the most important thing in a business league is the market, and the fans are the consumers that this market is aimed at. There are many long-term business decisions that CBA teams need to make to attract more consumers. For example, they are redecorating the arena and adding more fan-related equipment. These projects require a large investment of money and personnel, but they are a win-win for both the fans and the team in the long run. These are the decisions that need to be agreed upon by the management of each CBA team.

4 Discussion

4.1 Expansion of the Arena

The CBA’s expansion of the arena is an immediate need for the team. The scientific design of the arena is also very important. Many CBA stadium entrances and exits are concentrated. There is no buffer space for pedestrian traffic, resulting in traffic congestion, which is not conducive to the evacuation of pedestrian traffic and affects the normal urban traffic order. Secondly, the supporting services of stadiums are not sound. Many stadiums have no or very small parking lots, resulting in many vehicles parked along the street [9]. There are several ways to raise funds for the construction of stadiums. First, attract more sponsors. For the more profitable big city teams, the CBA company can support each team through sponsors and then financially support the construction of new arenas. Secondly, for some cities with small ball markets and sponsor support, it can also be done through cooperation with the government [10]. The government would spend most of the money to build a diversified arena for various tournaments and large events, and the teams would pay annual rent to the government.

4.2 CBA arena effect improvement suggestions

First of all, the increase for different lighting is given to the professional team that designs lighting for large events. Design the appropriate lighting for each part, including player entrance, audience lighting, etc. At the same time, it ensures the lowest energy consumption of lighting [11]. The final result is to create various lighting effects through dimming and scene pre-setting functions, making the visual scene grand and layered, giving people a comfortable and perfect visual experience of the effect. Modern competition stadium lighting design requirements generally meet the athletes’ visual requirements, and the objective impact of lighting on the game is minimal. To meet the visual requirements of the audience to reduce the discomfort of watching; to meet the video transmission requirements, as far as possible to improve the quality of the broadcast [7].

Secondly, for the choice of flooring, CBA can directly introduce professional flooring and develop special flooring suitable for the CBA league according to the demand of the CBA market [7]. And replace the logo in the center court with the team logo, and move the sponsor logo to the borderline near the two halves. This does not reduce its size but also increases the number. It increases the impression of the sponsor’s logo while being aesthetically pleasing.

Transforming the stands first required expanding the capacity of the stands. For several large arenas, add a few more rows of bleachers in front of the current nearest bleachers while adding courtside seating similar to that of the NBA. They are allowing fans to have the best viewing area. In addition, remove some areas with a poor viewing vision to add more cameras to capture the players on the field.

4.3 CBA on-court and off-court culture improvement

The NBA cheerleaders are trained as a whole as a team. But most of the current cheerleaders in the CBA are not full-time cheerleaders. This leads to different levels of dancing and also reduces the level of viewing. So, forming a professional cheerleading team for each team will increase fans’ visual and auditory viewing. In addition, only some teams in the CBA have mascots at present, if each team can have a mascot. This can increase a lot of interaction with fans before the game or during the timeout of the game.

The NBA teams are more interactive with their fans off the court. There are special jerseys and key games on special holidays, such as Christmas. Let the fans feel the atmosphere of the holidays on the court. China has many meaningful traditional holidays. Holding games on these holidays can make players feel the atmosphere of the holidays and allow fans to feel like they are coming home. the CBA should make better use of traditional Chinese holidays to hold some key games. In addition, the NBA invites many influencers to visit the arena or watch the games. These influencers usually use the influence of their platform to promote the NBA team and let more people know about the team. There are also many such influencers on TikTok in China, and through their promotion, they can attract more fans of all kinds. Also, before the regular season starts, CBA teams can hold some activities between fans and players or invite fans to watch the team’s practice games. This approach can make fans more excited about the new season and more willing to go to their games.

Although the CBA team has already had a logo upgrade, many fans are still not satisfied with some of the upgrades and do not think there is much change from the original logo. The best way is to design multiple logos, put them on the internet for fans to vote on, and then directly select the logos that make the fans happy. Then according to these logo changes, the jerseys will be upgraded. You can refer to the NBA, a season in addition to the home and away jerseys, there are some special holiday jerseys, city version jerseys. More products to choose from will also increase the revenue of the team.

5 Conclusion

5.1 Key finding and research significance

The overall point is that the CBA company cannot just focus on the current market but also find ways to broaden the market and expand the fan base. Promote a home court culture to attract more fans through practical changes and packaging of their products. In the short term, updates and changes in packaging are an important point to attract fans, and more than that, they can attract a portion of fans who did not originally watch basketball. By making them aware of the CBA through packaging design, watching basketball games becomes a regular activity in the lives of more Chinese people. From a long-term business perspective, such an investment makes much sense and can greatly boost the influence of the CBA in Asia and even around the world. It makes the CBA the most successful business league outside of the NBA. The long-term revenue from this impact is immeasurable. At the same time, the development of the CBA can also greatly influence a greater breakthrough in Chinese basketball. A well-developed league can attract more foreign players to join to increase the rivalry and ornamental nature of the game to improve domestic players’ level.

5.2 Limitations

Due to the time, most of the information collected is secondary rather than primary data. Moreover, some of the information is far away in time, and only some of it can be referred to analyze the research on the current situation. Secondly, many cases can only be borrowed for reference, and the actual operation needs rigorous market research to be completed. Future research can be done by interviewing the management of each club to explore the possibility of actual operation. In contrast, a large research sample on the fan market is needed to obtain first-hand data on what fans want.