NBA plans to develop sports arena in Shanghai

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The National Basketball Association said on Tuesday it plans to develop an entertainment and sports arena in Shanghai as part of expanded operations in China.

The league will work with sports and entertainment group AEG and local firm the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group in a joint venture in Shanghai to manage an 18,000-seat arena, a main facility of a complex for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

The joint venture is pending Chinese government approval, it said in a statement.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said on Sunday that the league was looking to expand operations in China.

"The (China expansion) project will continue and it is a long-term plan," Heidi Ueberroth, president of NBA's Global Marketing Partnership and International Business Operations, told reporters in Shanghai.

Ueberroth said the league would hire more people in China, where it has opened four offices, but declined to comment on the size of the project investment.

AEG operates more than 90 major facilities worldwide including London's O2 arena, Berlin's O2 World, and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

AEG and the NBA would see between 12 and 25 arenas and entertainment districts built in major cities throughout China, Stern and AEG Chief Executive Timothy Leiweke said on Sunday.

(Reporting by Alfred Cang, editing by Alan Baldwin)