Currently, Chengdu is the hottest home ground for Chinese soccer.
The Chinese Super League highlight of the match between Chengdu Rongcheng and Shanghai Shenhua on a weekday evening Tuesday set a new high for attendance at the Phoenix Hill professional soccer stadium.
The nearest elevated lower gate to the stadium was blocked for nearly two kilometers from 5:00 pm. Police arrested scalpers outside the stadium gates, which has been the norm for almost every home game in Chengdu Rongcheng this season...
Chengdu fans on the scene.
Apart from the 500 or so visiting fans in blue jerseys, the home fans at Phoenix Hill were all in the home team's red color scheme. They have a unified "Chengdu Rising" chant and an indispensable "concert" after the game.
Arguably, the reproduction of Chengdu's gold-medal market is an organic combination of professional fans and internet celebrity punching bags - where the Phoenix Hill saga plays out even as controversy and compromise go hand in hand.
Does soccer need internet celebrities? Should soccer be pure? What is the vehicle for promoting Chinese soccer in the new era?
Chengdu fans have a slogan of targeting Asia.
Controversy over "Concert"
The last three home matches of last season's Chinese Super League were the first time the Phoenix Hill Professional Football Stadium was used by the home team Chengdu Rongcheng. According to statistics, the attendance had exceeded 90,000 at that time.
"This has greatly exceeded our expectations. Of course, in this case, we still want to attract more fans to come and watch the game, so that more people can feel the joy of soccer."
After the first home match of the season against the Cangzhou Lions, a staff member of the club expressed his views while talking to a surging news reporter.
For this reason, Phoenix Hill has added a new so-called "concert" this season - a post-game event where the lights are turned off, fans turn on their cell phones and sing along with the players.
After the game, the stadium turned off the lights and the fans lit up their cell phones for the full chorus.
At the end of every game, Phoenix Hill Stadium is like a large-scale singing club, and that exciting atmosphere gives people goosebumps and makes out-of-town fans envious.
However, after a 3-2 home defeat to the Manatees in the second leg, controversy arose - the most famous Blades fans in the North Stand would not be joining in the chorus. After the match, the fans' organization sent out an explanation:
"In response to last night's thank you after the game, I'll the bleachers didn't get to participate in the full lighted sing-a-long, just like the rest of the bleacher area didn't get to participate in our standing sing-a-long and dance-a-long during the game. There was no competition, no right or wrong, no rivalry."
In a statement, the Blade fan organization argued that "love pop songs that have nothing to do with soccer Watching Meteor Shower with you is clearly not in line with the basic values of its fan organization. But even so, we have to respect the way other fans watch football."
After the match with Shenhua, the live chorus of Moon Represents My Heart.
"I hope we can respect each other, seek common ground and cherish the moment. Finally, as a fan organization, Blade will still firmly say no to this excessive entertainment of soccer!"
In an interview with ThePaper, Chen Tao, president of the Blade Fan Association, said:Â "Our original intention of setting up the Blade was to absolutely keep it a pure fan organization, including many sponsors we found before, which we turned down."
"We are not boycotting this segment, but we are targeting this pan-entertainment, or themes that are not related to the city and soccer."
Mutual Compromise, Mutual Advancement
A stone has been thrown into the air, and the controversial incident has caused a bit of a backlash in fan circles across the country.
"The club must be doing something useful and they want to get the atmosphere right. But I don't think it's appropriate to simply move pop songs to a soccer stadium."
Ding Ding, head of the Shanghai Blue Devils fan club, told ThePaper, "Actually, fan songs or soccer songs are adapted to a certain extent, and there is no such thing as a direct entertainment song. If you change the lyrics, you can sing about Chengdu, which is related to singing about soccer."
"In this case, Blade just stuck to his guns, and I don't think Blade was wrong."
Coincidentally, Tintin's point was immediately applied by the Hibiscus Club - one of the songs in the main concert afterwards was Chengdu, and the Blade Fan Club rejoined the chorus.
After the game, the players interacted with the fans to thank them.
He said, "The club took the initiative to communicate with us, and we know that the club took the singing matter very seriously and met overnight to discuss what to do next.
Chentao said he can understand the club's original intent. "We support the audience to sing together. This makes it easier for ordinary fans and members of the public to attend the games. There's no problem with this starting point, it just means don't sing for the sake of everyone singing, but light up for the sake of lighting up."
With some compromises made, Blade had his own insistence. "I told the club, including the leaders of the Chengdu Football Association - I should be grateful to us because we are sending a message to the outside world about how to be a really loyal fan."
Chen Tao revealed that Blade released a cheering song for the 10,000-strong chorus of fans during the final match. "We also promoted a new song and the whole audience got good results. We want more fans to embrace our singing and standing cheers. The experience might make more people like the stadium."
Chengdu fans outside the stadium.
Internet celebrities hit new landmarks
Moving on to the Hibiscus-Shenhua game. More than 500 Shenhua fans came to the away game despite the game being scheduled for Tuesday night.
Before departure, the 500 rush tickets opened by Shenhua club were swept away in eight minutes. Several fans who did not buy tickets even asked ThePaper reporters for help.
Even more bizarrely, several fans from Hunan happened to be traveling in Chengdu. The morning before the game, they were asking ThePaper reporters if they could get tickets for the game.
One Shenhua fan told ThePaper, "This away expedition has been in our plans for a long time. Besides cheering for the team, we also want to experience Chengdu."
It is reported that the Shenhua expeditionary force even includes an 80-year-old man, which shows the attraction of the city and the soccer stadium to foreign fans.
Fans have Chengdu written all over their faces.
Chengdu has always been one of the most popular tourist cities among internet celebrities - Chengdu's food, surrounded by Leshan Buddha, Mount Qingcheng, Mount Emei, and internet celebrity giant panda "Huahua...
A Shenhua fan deliberately lined up for hours on the morning of the game to go to the giant panda base to see "Hua Hua" to shoot a video, which also received a lot of praise on social media.
And Phoenix Hill professional soccer stadium, this time also more or less the flavor of the new landmark of Netflix card.
Female fans taking pictures off the field.
Before and after each game, the "Phoenix Hill Professional Football Stadium" positioning on social media photos and videos can be seen everywhere. Many young people organize a group to come to Rongcheng to play the game site.
Before the game, one fan told ThePaper, "I paid triple for this game.
At a press conference the day before, there was a scalper party around the stadium with "recycled tickets". On the night of the match, videos of police arresting the scalpers were uploaded on social media.
A local person involved in soccer told ThePaper, "Tickets to Rongcheng are definitely one of the most popular things in Chengdu right now."
Thanks to Chengdu fans Shenhua fans. Video Editor Xu Duanli (000:30)
Inviting fans back to the stadium
Indeed, judging from the atmosphere inside the stadium, the Blades in the North Stand are the most powerful fan organization, and there is also a "Sichuan Fan Association" in the South Stand on the left.
In the first Sichuan Quanxing era, the Sichuan Fan Association was closely linked to the Chengdu gold medal market - in the match against Shenhua, the Dujiangyan Fan Association made a special slogan to thank Shanghai, expressing their gratitude for Shanghai's assistance during the 512 earthquake.
The best viewing position under the South Stand belongs to the Public Interest Area, which is a special stand arranged by the Hibiscus Club for different groups, such as elementary school children, police officers, nurses, teachers, etc.
Mom takes the baby to the ball.
"The atmosphere was really good. Before the match, we sang with the Chengdu fans. Some of their fans basically cheered for 90 minutes, which is done well in the country. The Chengdu Rising chants were also very impressive and the soccer atmosphere was pretty good."
A Shenhua fan who came to the site of the expedition told ThePaper, "We didn't watch the concert after the game, but we watched the video later and felt good. Whether it's fan culture or internet celebrity culture, Chengdu and Phoenix Hill are doing well."
Indeed, at this stage, nothing is more important than inviting fans back to the site.
