Beijing Crowned Champion of China Pro Football League as Ice Hockey Pros Hold Their Own

This year Beijing took a Great Leap Forward in professional sports with the launch of not one but two new pro teams: an arena football squad – the Beijing Lions – as part of the fledgling Chinese American Football League and an ice hockey squad – Kunlun Red Star – which joined the Russian KHL.

Two months in and Beijing’s gridiron squad has run the gauntlet, going undefeated throughout the regular season and winning the first ever CAFL championship by defeating the Qingdao Clippers last weekend (watch the replay of their exciting victory in its entirety here).

If you completely missed it, you’d be forgiven as the team only played one home game in Beijing (at the start of the season), and the finals were played in Shanghai.

Part of this has to do with the fact that the new league only has six teams and thus a short season; here’s to hopes that the league returns next year and finds a way for playoff action to happen on home turf.

In the meantime, the league now packs its bags, its foreign players return home, and league organizers meet to discuss how to structure next season.

Over in the KHL, Kunlun Red Star has not fared quite so well, hovering just under the .500 mark at 12-13, but good enough for the 7th seed in the playoffs.

While their record is mediocre, the team enters an already mature league with plenty of powerhouse clubs, so merely holding their own is something to be celebrated.

Made up mostly of ice hockey talent drafted from other KHL clubs, the team has yet to display a breakout star, especially of the local variety – only two players on the team are ethnically Chinese, Zach Yuen and  Rudi Ying, neither of which has been an impact player.

The bad news for Beijing-based fans is that the club does not have another game on home ice for the foreseeable future – their matches are all either in the other club’s home ice or in Shanghai, where the team will be ostensibly the home side, albeit down south. Red Star is the first Chinese team in the multinational league that features teams in Russia and Europe, and the league is shuttling them around in hopes of sparking interest in the league.

Images: caflchina.com