Dalian players greet fans after the game on April 26th.
On April 26, Nantong Zhiyun players celebrated the victory with fans after the game.
On the evening of April 26, at the Shanghai Stadium, after the first game of the new season between hosts Shanghai Shenhua and Changchun Yatai, Shenhua players collectively ran to the club's "loyal" stands to celebrate their third consecutive victory with fans. A total of 28,615 people flocked to Shanghai's 80,000-strong stadium on Wednesday, a record crowd for the Chinese Super League. A day earlier, nearly 25,000 spectators flocked to Qingdao Youth New Professional Stadium to witness the home debut of Qingdao Manatees after their return to the Chinese Super League.
After three consecutive uncharacteristically difficult seasons, Chinese Super League clubs seem to have slumped to the freezing point in terms of operations. With the ebbing of the gold dollar, they have become more rational in their planning and investment. After the flashy season, no club can expect quick results in terms of generating revenue from the league, so putting their heads down and winning back the hearts of their fans is a top priority. As Manatee FC general manager Zhang Dong said, "It's good that fans can buy tickets with their money ......"
average audience
15,197 third round of the season 15,197
With the end of five matches on the second match day, the third round of the new Chinese Super League season ended on the evening of the 26th. The data shows that a total of 121,576 fans watched the matches on site, with an average audience of 15,197. Compared with the previous two rounds, the data has dropped, but the current two match days are scheduled in the afternoon and evening of normal weekdays on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, so this data is not bad. Shenhua vs. Yatai and Hainiu vs. Guoan attracted 28,615 and 24,865 respectively, while Taishan's home match against Zhejiang also attracted 22,317 spectators to the warm game.
If Shenhua fans can get to the Shanghai Stadium, located in the bustling area of Shanghai, relatively calmly after work because of the convenient transportation conditions, then the Youth Football Stadium, which is about 30 kilometers away from Trestle Bridge, one of the tourist landmarks of Qingdao, may bring considerable problems to the travel of the island city's fans. According to the relevant person in charge of the Manatee Club, the Youth Football Stadium is 3 kilometers away from the nearest metro station, and there are very limited ground public transportation lines from the metro station to the stadium. If bulk fans go to the stadium from Qingdao City to watch the game, then their traveling cost is undoubtedly very high. Therefore, Manatee City Youth Transportation Department took the initiative to push the stadium.
Giving back to the fans
It's the heart and it's the situation.
In the interview, many club managers pointed out that due to the operating environment and various impacts of the league, they have encountered bottlenecks in their operations, and in fact they are experiencing unprecedented challenges and crises, and it is not even an exaggeration to say that they are operating "close to the freezing point".
In this case, when the league has just returned to the normal track of home and away matches, it is obviously unrealistic for clubs to expect immediate results in revenue through league operations and commercial development. So giving back to the fans is not only a return to the heart of professional soccer, but also a necessity of the situation. Zhang Dong also shares this view. After Manatee's first victory in the Super League, he said: "Because local businesses in Qingdao are not interested in soccer. So the share reform requires the municipal party committee and the municipal government to participate in leading, and secondly, we have to rely on ourselves to play the game beautifully and do well for the club, so that the outside world in the first game there is more attention).
Ten years ago, 25-year-old Zhang Dong experienced the relegation of the Zhongneng team in the cold wind of Beijing workers. In the televised footage, he was the young man consoling weeping club owner Qiao Weiguang. After ten years on the same road with Manatee, Zhang Dong has gradually transformed from a newcomer to the professional soccer door to a professional club manager.
Treating the fans well
Make it a first class experience for the audience.
In today's context, Zhang Dong understands the relevance and urgency for the club to give back to the fans and win them over.
Zhang Dong said: "I think Chinese (soccer) clubs should combine public welfare attributes with commercial market attributes. Over the past three years, more than 40 clubs have been dissolved, probably due to money problems. Since 2004, our private sector clubs have invested more than 2 billion yuan. At present, our jerseys are still bare boards on the chest, and advertisements on the back, and it is estimated that progress may be made after four or five rounds. There has been so much negativity in (domestic) soccer in recent years. Everyone is very cautious about sponsoring and investing in soccer for fear of causing something negative. Qingdao companies' enthusiasm for investing in soccer is very low, and it can basically be changed.
Chinese Super League clubs express the same devotion when it comes to winning fan support. For example, after Shenhua FC changed its shareholding, it benefited from the long-standing resources of its parent company and moved its home ground for the new season from Hongkou Stadium to Shanghai Stadium, known as an 80,000-strong stadium. This adjustment is not limited to the change of venue. Prior to the club's first home game of the new season against Taishan, the Shanghai Stadium had been upgraded to Club World Cup levels. While the mark of a comprehensive stadium is faintly visible, the stadium has a unique canopy at the top of the league and divisions for each functional area of the site.
Clubs treat fans well is also reflected in other details. By observing the different regions of the Chinese Super League, the Beiqing Daily reporter found that each game was full of rituals before the match, with high-quality acoustics, cool light shows, and teams and fans singing and dancing to their hearts' content after the match, which turned the soccer stadiums of the Beijing Industrial Stadium, the professional stadium of the Fenghuang Mountain Park in Chengdu, the Qingdao Youth Stadium, and the Shanghai Stadium into stages for alternative concerts, so that the audience could enjoy the event.
clubs
Creating a "home" business district
In addition, the clubs are racking their brains to create a "home" centered on the "home" of the home shopping district. As Zhang Dong said, "We now centralize all the activities in each home field, which is equivalent to a carnival and festival for fans. Some of the players interact with fans, and some of the small performances seem simple, but are very grounded. We don't think too much about anything else right now. If we can earn back the various costs of the venues, the club can at least ease the pressure. Last year the league split was around $8 million, and this year it probably won't be more than that, but this year is an opportunity to get better and better for next year and the year after."
Qiao Weiguang and Wu Jingui joined the camp of interaction between their teams and fans. In fact, the club took the initiative to change their business mindset. Club investors, coaches and players know that for the league and clubs to get out of the doldrums and turn around, they have to put their heads down and use sincerity and hard work to win the hearts and minds of their fans, which is necessary to restore the credibility of Chinese professional soccer and even Chinese soccer.
