"I watch what they [NBA and NFL] do and I have no doubt they'll be watching what we do here in Australia. They'll look at it and see 80,000 people attending games here on Saturday and Sunday and see that it works." Field of dreams: Baseball comes to the SCG. Credit:Dean Sewell "I had a conversation with a couple of people about it. This is an interesting market for all of us. There are a lot of sports fans here and a lot of American sports fans here. I think they'd probably wish us a lot of success. When American sports go internationally, sometimes we feed off each other. If it's not successful that will make a difference in their minds. But if it is successful, they'll probably consider coming here." Australia is ranked No.1 internationally for NBA League Pass subscriptions as well as NBA store online sales, showing a huge appetite for basketball's premier competition. Given the NFL only play 16 regular season matches a year, it's unlikely they will bring a game to Australia. However the NBA play 82 matches across their season, and have played three regular season games in London over the past four years.

Ice hockey has also been brought to Australia, with several NHL players featuring in a three-match series between Canada and the United States in Sydney and Melbourne last year. Not cricket: Ground keepers water the specially imported clay surface on the baseball diamond at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Credit:Dean Sewell The NBA has also played exhibition matches in China, Taiwan, Brazil, England and the Philppines during the past 12 months, sending the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards, Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder on their global promotion tour. There are four Australians - Andrew Bogut (Golden State), Patty Mills and Aron Baynes (San Antonio) and Matthew Dellavedova (Cleveland) - currently playing in the NBA. Transformed: The baseball diamond at the SCG Credit:SMH

While it's unclear if the likes of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant or Kevin Durant will play in Australia any time soon, the NBA insists the region is an integral part of their vision for the game. "There is tremendous interest from communities all over the world to host NBA games," a NBA spokesperson said. "Australia is an important market for us, and Sydney is a world-class city. We have a great following from Australian fans, as evidenced by the fact that Australia ranks first internationally in both NBA league pass subscriptions and NBAstore.com sales. "The NBA has been operating in Australia for decades and we’re well aware of the country’s ability to host world-class sporting events. We expect the MLB game to be highly produced and very successful and we wish New South Wales and the MLB all the best with their game. As mentioned, however, there has always been tremendous interest from communities all over the world to host NBA games and we will continue to consider games as part of our overall marketing and basketball development programs." While the lengthy travel time is a strong deterrent for US sporting teams to play games in Australia, the time difference also makes it difficult for broadcasters in the United States.

Saturday night's Major League Baseball series opener at the SCG will be shown live on the west coast of the States at 1am (4am for east coast), however Sunday's game - which happens to fall on the same day as the opening game in the States - will be live in prime time from 7pm (10pm for east coast). But Archey insists the ratings back home won't be a factor in determining the success of the Major League Baseball's decision to start their season in Sydney. "We don't play these games for the reaction back home, otherwise we wouldn't do it," Archey said. "The success of it will be judged by the impact here and the exposure for the game. Does it give baseball a boost? Does it energise some potential business partners? Does it energise a fan base by introducing them to the game? Some of the impact you won't know for several years. But it's more important to us that we have strong ratings here in Australia on Channel Nine than back home. "We definitely hope to be coming back. We wouldn't be coming here and playing this if we thought we were never coming back. I don't know if that's on annual basis, but we want to come back. We play in Japan every four years, but we'll evaluate it after Sunday."

LA Dodgers pitcher and $238 million dollar man Clayton Kershaw will be the headline act when he touches down in Sydney at 10am on Tuesday morning. Loading "It was a weird spring," Clayton Kershaw told the LA Times before flying out for Australia. ""We practised a lot, but as far as actual game action, there wasn't a tonne. It kind of dragged on a little bit there."