The defending Chinese Super League champion Wuhan Sanzhen team's gold owner, Shangwen Real Estate Company, announced on August 28 this year that it was withdrawing its capital. Although Shangwen Real Estate is willing to transfer the club at zero price and zero debt, there is still no news of a buyer, and the Furniture Club has been plunged into a stormy situation.
Now, the Wuhan Three Town team has another very fatal problem, the fans don't come to the games.
As you can see from the statistic table above, Wuhan Three Town's home attendance in the Chinese Super League has dropped drastically after the withdrawal of funds from their gold owner. Immediately after the divestment, the first home attendance was 20% less than the lowest recorded in the pre-season, while the current round of the Chinese Super League has seen a further decline to a new record low.
It is worth noting that Wuhan fans are not suddenly do not like to watch football, ranked 25th in the Chinese Super League, 26 rounds twice to create a new low, the first round of the AFC Champions League group stage against Urawa Red Diamonds, Wuhan fans this season to create the second highest.
This season, Wuhan three towns team started poorly, but the team record in the middle of the season began to recover, even the gold master withdrawal did not interrupt the team state, in the current round of the Chinese Super League before the start of the Wuhan three towns and Shanghai Shenhua, Zhejiang with the same points, only mutual record disadvantage ranked fifth, and still hope to obtain the qualification for the next season of the AFC Champions League.
On the other hand, Wuhan 3 Town had a very good performance in the AFC Champions League group stage last week. Facing the Japanese powerhouse Urawa Red Diamonds, Wuhan 3 Town established the lead twice in the match with only 3 foreigners left. Although they were beaten in injury time, I believe the result will still satisfy the fans.
Therefore, the reason why Wuhan Three Town set a new low for the second consecutive round of the Chinese Super League should have nothing to do with the team's record.
Shangwen Properties settled all of the club's debts before pulling out, but the Wuhan Tri-Town team has averaged seven-figure daily expenses this season. Now without a golden owner, ticket sales, the bulk of operating income, have plummeted. The pressure on the club to survive is palpable. Fortunately, with the help of the local government, the Wuhan Sports Bureau and the Football Association have sent a working group into the club. They will secure the team's next AFC Champions League and Chinese Super League fixtures. The end of the season for the Sanzhen team should not be a problem.
Despite government support, the Wuhan Sanzhen team is still struggling to reduce its expenses. Earlier this month, the team sold central midfielder Stancho to Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Music Damac, a deal that brought Sanzhen €2.5 million in transfer revenue and freed up 20-30 million yuan/year in salary space. Most recently, the team sent unregistered CSL wideout Wallace to Karbal United of the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Music. While the deal had no transfer fee, it still saved the team wage space.
In the absence of a gold master, San Zhen team is unable to deploy another powerful foreign aid like Stancho, and I am afraid it will be difficult to hit the Chinese Super League title again in the future. This drop in expectations for the future is the reason why the team's attendance dropped significantly in the last two rounds of the CPL.
I was very surprised last week when I saw the number of attendances in the three towns of Wuhan plummet. Now only the fans have lost their gold master. How can the fans abandon the team at this time? I wrote my point of view, but I was misunderstood by some Wuhan fans that I wanted to dig Wuhan Three Town team. But in fact, this is not the case. Although I'm not from Hubei, as a Chinese fan, I very much hope that Sanzhen can survive like the fan who sent me a private message to scold me. Therefore, I would like to urge Wuhan fans to continue to come to the stadium to support their team in this difficult time. Although it is difficult for clubs to survive on fans alone in the Chinese soccer environment, as written on the Wuhan fans' shirts, fans are still the backbone of a team. The more fans that come out to watch the game, the more weight the club will carry in the eyes of its potential owners.
