Chinese people will finally get to watch a NHL or National Hockey League in their home country as the famous ice hockey league is gearing up for debut in China later this year. The NHL had already started doing the ground work by dispatching its assistant commissioner Bill Daly to China earlier this year.

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According to the latest news, now the NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will arrive in Beijing next week to officially announce the staging of two exhibitions games in September. The two exhibition games will be played between Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings, with Beijing and Shanghai being their most likely venues.

However, reports claim that that these two NHL clubs won't play any exhibition games against Chinese clubs, nor would they feature any Chinese players in their playing eleven. The absence of local club and players may likely to dampen the spirit of Chinese fans, but the much anticipated debut of NHL is most likely to make up for everything.  

NHL's decision to rush into the Chinese market is buoyed by the fast growing Chinese sports market, which has also made other sports like Rugby, NBA and NFL to make similar effort. At stake is China's lucrative television viewership market and online streaming market coupled with an equally rewarding endorsement deal.    

The Chinese sports market is getting bigger by every passing year and is pushing several popular sports league to vie for a market share. The soccer's stupendous success has also greatly helped in demonstrating the huge potential of China's sports market.    

But the challenge in front of the non-traditional sports like NHL, Rugby and NFL is immense, considering that their popularity in China is constrained to very niche market.     

Tagsnhl, National Hockey League, china, Chinese Sports Market