Perth Lynx star Han Xu’s first home game sets crowd records and has owner Christian Hauff thinking big

Perth Lynx owner Christian Hauff has declared Friday night’s record-breaking attendance to watch Chinese star Han Xu’s first game in WA was a transforming occasion for the club as it looks to turn decades of dreams and hard work into a reality. The Lynx were hoping to set new attendance records when they signed Xu, given her status on the global stage. They also moved their matches to Perth High Performance Centre due to it having double the crowd capacity to Bendat Basketball Centre. But even Hauff was amazed when they nearly more than tripled their most recent home attendance and lifted their all-time record from 1753 to 3121. “It’s a massive turning point for us. We are going to springboard off this both on the court and off the court. It’s super exciting to see all of these fans here.” “Our barometer is when we hear people talking about it outside of our circles. We can see and hear that frequency picking up so we know it is building and gaining attention. We just had the most media attention we’ve ever had and look at the result with this crowd. “We don’t have the numbers from merchandise and membership sales yet so we will take stock of that next week. But we can see it everywhere we look. This is exactly what we are trying to build.” Xu was brilliant in the 98-81 win over Southside Melbourne Flyers. The 211cm centre not only scored 19 points, but she took the defensive attention away from Perth’s shooters. Amy Atwell ran wild with 32 points and Alex Ciabattoni scored 21 points. Anneli Maley flirted with a triple-double after finishing with 13 points, 19 rebounds and six assists. The Lynx did everything possible to welcome the Chinese community. They had Chinese writing on the big screen and a Chinese dragon performed at half-time, Fans flocked to see their hero and Hauff said the club knew the impact Xu’s arrival would have. “We did have a sense this would be the case,” he said. “As soon as we signed her, we had the opportunity to sit with the Chinese Consular General, and their associations really got behind her arrival. They were there to greet her. We had over 1000 tickets sold through the Chinese associations. “She’s a superstar on and off the court. But her presence also benefits the other players and we saw that with the way everyone else performed.”