Top-flight Australian Rules football is embraced with religious fervour in Australia's southern states but in overseas markets remains a fringe sport confined to obscure time-slots on cable TV channels.
That has not stopped the AFL from wading tentatively into foreign waters.
The 18-team league dominated by Melbourne franchises trumpeted its first championship match in neighbouring New Zealand in 2013, when the St Kilda Saints played the Sydney Swans at Wellington's 'Cake Tin' stadium.
But after hosting a third match last year, the New Zealand capital opted out of extending the arrangement, citing underwhelming crowds and an inadequate return on investment.
Convincing Chinese to tune in to the fast-paced game played on a pitch the size of a cricket ground may also be a hard sell, given the Asian nation has no tradition of high-contact ball sports.
But the deal makes perfect sense for Port Adelaide and their new sponsor Shanghai CRED Real Estate, a property developer and part of a Chinese consortium bidding for politically-sensitive pastoral lands in Western Australia state.
Shanghai CRED's sponsorship includes beaming Port Adelaide games into China via state-run broadcasting behemoth CCTV and a documentary series.
Australia prime minister Malcolm Turnbull gave the sport a free kick by attending the announcement of the MOU between Port, the AFL and Shanghai CRED in Shanghai last week.
"I say this as a former mediocre rugby player -- AFL is the most exciting football code. An enormous field, extraordinary athleticism, it is the leaping, jumping, flying game," he said.
Port's opponent was not announced last week but Suns chairman Tony Cochrane told local media his team, based in one of Australia's top tourist destinations in northeastern Queensland state, had been awarded the game.
The Suns already have a Chinese corporate tie-up with Huawei, one of the world's largest telecom equipment makers, and see the game as a springboard to further deals.
"It's time to put this club in the limelight, and what better way than to be involved with China, and the fastest-growing Chinese tourist destination in Australia," Cochrane told The Australian newspaper.
"We are not here to make up the numbers. We're open for business and we want to be big players and we see China as part of that strategy."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by John O'Brien)
