Matt Beyer is a man on a mission to make basketball big in Macau. In 2016, he co-founded the East Asian Sports League (EASL), an international basketball league featuring clubs from Greater China, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Since 2017, he has brought EASL teams to compete in Macau four times, and is now hoping to make the city a regular fixture on the league’s calendar.
“In October this year we’ll be relaunching our Home and Away season and we hope to be having further game content, especially our Final Four championship in Macau in the future,” he says. “We’re in the process of discussing things with the Sports Bureau as well as with the integrated resort operators. The local government wants Macau to be a more family-friendly destination and for the operators it’s an opportunity. People like sports and basketball is the world’s fastest growing sport.”
The league currently features eight teams, with the Bay Area Dragons representing South China. The Dragons include several players from mainland China as well as two top players from the Hong Kong league, one Canadian Chinese, one Australian Chinese, and one American and one Canadian, both former NBA players.
“To have the mainland players and Hong Kong players and those from the Chinese diaspora all under the same umbrella and really bonding as a team creates a very special team culture,” Matt notes.
Due to recent travel restrictions, the team has been largely based in the Philippines, playing in the national league there, with great success in their first season. But now that borders are opening up, the team is looking for a new home base, and Macau is high on the list.
“Right now, we’re looking at having a large amount of the Bay Area Dragons games in Macau, so that’s a big part of what we’re pitching: how can we have this Greater Bay Area team actually based in the Greater Bay Area?”
“We would even like to play the Final Four games of the league in Macau, which would essentially bring 20 high level games here in a year. It’s a bold move, but an attractive proposition because it will be a destination event that brings a lot of fans with it.”
Having the team identify Macau as its home base would not just be good for sports tourism. Matt also believes it will be positive for the local sporting culture and community too.
“One of the things about having a team like that is that you start to create a culture and a following and start to cultivate a fan base at the grass roots. The team can really become a flagship for the city in terms of representing it across the region in sport. Macau would really benefit from having that sort of ecosystem. It takes time, but I do believe that it’s possible.”
