Strategic Proposals To Enhance The Future Of Asia-sports Essay

Strategic Proposals To Enhance The Future Of Asia-sports - Essay Example Ice Hockey had been in existence since the 18th century when it was first played on frozen lakes and ponds in Western Europe. During the 19th century, Hockey began to take shape and standardize rules in the 1870s and was first formally played in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1885 as the first ice hockey league. From Eastern Canada, Hockey spread to Western Canada, Northern USA and across to Scandinavian and Northern European countries. The growth of hockey was due to two factors. Firstly, hockey was viewed as a spectator and team participation sport. The fast pace and exciting sport faced competition from a variety of other popular spectator sports. Asia-sports is an established private company with the majority of shares and decision-making power held by Shane Weir and Bill Gribble, 30 percent each. A Hong Kong capital venture company holds 20 percent of shares whilst 10 percent of shares are awarded to the executive director, Tom Barnes. Thirty shareholders hold the remaining 20 percent of shares. However, the financial resources of the company are limited to the contributions of the two majority shareholders and executive director, Tom Barnes. Tom Barnes and his assistant, Keith Fong who contracts out secretarial support, handle day-to-day operations of the company. Volunteers of hockey league members and their families also support Asia-sports. Figure 1 shows the exponential growth of the annual event over the past six years as the tournament. Throughout the past three years of operations, Asia-sports has established a niche position as the only provider of organized ice hockey tournaments and development programs in Hong Kong. The most popular product of the company, World Ice Hockey 5’s has seen substantial growth since its introduction in 1990’s as Hockey 5’s. The tournament consisted of five players instead of six and a smaller rink.