By Chen Yong The 2023 Premier League season is still in a transitional period at the economic level, where survival and development are crucial. This is bound to be the main topic in two or three years. At the competitive level, the Chinese Super League is showing signs of improvement. Importantly matches are becoming more intense and players are committing more. However, the recovery of the level of play is limited by inputs, youth training and other factors, and requires a process of improvement.
There's still a long way to go looking ahead, but a dawn is exciting. That's the Chinese Super League fans:In the 2023 season, a total of 4,763,464 fans will watch Chinese Super League matches live. In the club market, Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng were hard to get tickets for, neck and neck; Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, Shandong Taishan, and Shanghai Shenhua had a hot market, complementing each other; Qingdao Hainiu, Dalian Ren and other clubs' markets were also quite bright, with 13 out of 16 CSL clubs averaging more than 15,000 people at matches.
The fans are back and the development of the Chinese Super League has seen the light. Of course, more fans deserve more attention and support from the government, which is worth the government's attention.
Two clubs, Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng, contributed nearly a quarter (24.7%) of the 4.76 million spectators, with 656,531 for Beijing Guoan's 15 home matches and 520,590 for Chengdu Rongcheng's 15 matches.
It should be noted that Chengdu Rongcheng has not yet scheduled three matches at Phoenix Hill Professional Soccer Stadium due to the Universiade competition. If all matches are at Phoenix Hill Professional Soccer Stadium, Chengdu Rongcheng's fan figure could reach 580,000.
Tianjin Jinmen Tigers and Shandong Taishan have home crowds of over 400,000, while Shanghai Shenhua has close to 400,000. Jinmen Tiger, Taishan, Shenhua, Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng constitute the five "gold medal markets" of the 2023 Chinese Super League.
Eight teams, namely Dalian Ren, Qingdao Hainiu, Henan, Changchun Yatai, Wuhan Sanzhen, Shanghai Port, Nantong Zhiyun and Meizhou Hakka. Attendance was over 220,000, with an average attendance of over 15,000 per game.
Zhejiang, Cangzhou Lions and Shenzhen were the lesser attended teams. Zhejiang's situation is quite special. Due to the Asian Games, Zhejiang has been playing in Huzhou, a city with a relatively small population and a small fan base, making it difficult to increase attendance at games. The Cangzhou Lions moved from Shijiazhuang to Cangzhou and have a lack of fan identification. In addition, the Lions have been having financial problems, which has also affected attendance. Shenzhen locked up a relegation spot early on and losing became the norm. Under these circumstances, fans have averaged nearly 8,000 people per game, which is good enough.
Overall, although the Chinese Super League (CSL) market in the 2023 season is not as hot as it was in the era of gold-dollar soccer, the market is still relatively stable for most clubs. The match between Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng was hard to get tickets. After 24 rounds of the season, one Chengdu fan was still complaining, "I've never grabbed a ticket this year."
It must be said that professional soccer stadiums provide a great help:Except Shandong Taishan, the other four clubs in the top five gold medal markets are professional stadiums; Dalian People and Qingdao Hainiu at the top of the second group are also professional stadiums, and the number of Dalian people in Barracuda Bay professional soccer stadium has reached 30,000 people, only 14,000 people in the Dalian Sports Center, and only 12,000 people in Puhuwan Stadium. Jinmen Tigers in the main city (Olympic Sports) and the new district (TEDA professional soccer stadium) the average seat is quite close, which also shows the attractiveness of professional stadiums.
The fans came back happy, and the creation of fan culture was even more moving: firstly, the stadiums tended to have the same color, such as the green of the Beijing Gongtai Stadium and the orange of the Jinan Olympic Stadium, which constituted a beautiful visual enjoyment; secondly, in terms of the special fan culture, the post-game chorus and the light show represented by the Phoenix Hill in Chengdu had a wonderful feeling similar to that of a concert while enjoying the soccer match. In the North Stand of Jinan Olympic Stadium, the "weareone" thank you ceremony was exciting.
Feng Wenjing, the deputy general manager in charge of Qingdao Manatee business, negotiated with several Qingdao companies at the beginning of the season, the other side just said to take a look and then talk at the end of the season, and the other side said that they could have a good chat after the season. The reason was simple. Nearly 270,000 people attended the Youth Soccer Stadium to watch the game. There were 33,000 in attendance at Three Town and nearly 30,000 for the Qilu derby. About 25,000 people played at Harbour, Guiao and Rongcheng. All these figures promote potential sponsors.
Including the Chinese Super League, sponsors are extremely difficult to negotiate with at the beginning of the season, and potential sponsors start to show interest in the middle of the season.
Ticket revenue (including other matches), the current figures for Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng should make the clubs quite happy. Ticket revenues for Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Shenhua are expected to be between 50 and 80 million dollars.
For the current economic difficulties of the Chinese Super League, more reasonable policy support and local government support is very important, but the professional league will eventually fall on the word "professional", still need to be linked to the market. If the market can rise steadily in the future, the solution to the economic plight of the Chinese Super League will undoubtedly have more "internal power".
Indeed, even if policy support and local government support are sought, more fans mean a more important voice:Governments are naturally willing to support what ordinary people like.
For the 2024 season, the CFL and CSL clubs still have a lot of work to do: introduce a more reasonable and detailed business plan to enhance the attractiveness to small and medium-sized sponsors; reduce commercial restrictions and security restrictions to activate the matchday economy in all aspects; introduce more detailed and experiential fan services to make watching football together as a family, with parents and children, and with friends, including commercial football, mainstream and fashionable.
On the basis of the fans, the direction of Chinese professional soccer is to completely say goodbye to gold dollar soccer (or even call it "gold master soccer"), reduce the dependence on "policy soccer" and "government soccer" (hopefully support but not dependence), and embrace more market and develop steadily. The direction of Chinese professional soccer is to completely say goodbye to gold dollar soccer (or even call it "gold master soccer"), reduce the dependence on "policy soccer" and "government soccer" (hopefully support but not dependence), and then embrace more markets for steady development.
