After four years, Zhejiang Football Club today signed a three-year home contract with Huanglong Stadium. According to Football Daily, Zhejiang FC's shareholding reforms are progressing slowly and one of the club's goals is to further improve its performance in terms of self-financing and operations.
According to the club's director, it was also a very difficult decision to say goodbye to Huzhou's home ground. Huzhou has given the club a lot of support over the past few years and is sincere in continuing the partnership. However, from a long-term perspective, the club would like to have a platform for sustainable development and operation. At the same time, they also want to reward the fans who have supported them over the past years, even during the Central League, which is why they left Huzhou and returned to Huanglong.
Zhejiang FC has two main goals upon its return: one is to improve its home attendance rate over the next three years; the other is to further improve the club's self-build and operational metrics. Both of these are a huge challenge for the club. The first is the issue of home attendance. Due to Zhejiang's long slumber in the Chinese First Division in recent years, the early stages of their return to the Chinese Super League were a competition system, coupled with the fact that their home ground was settled in Huzhou and returned to Hangzhou this year. So fundamentally, although the club has been around for a long time, there is still a big gap in the number of true hardcore supporters compared to the Chinese Super League giants; at the heart of improving home attendance is the stable operation of the club, of which stable results are the basis for ensuring stable results, stable financial security and a high-quality management team.
The biggest problem Zhejiang club is currently facing is financial pressure. With Greentown out of the picture and new shareholders yet to be identified, the share reform is progressing slowly. In the absence of further working instructions from the provincial government level, the sole shareholder, Zhejiang Energy, could not decide to bear the operating costs of the new season alone. As a result, Zhejiang didn't make too many staffing upgrades to the team in the new season, and both internal and external reinforcements were introduced with free agency or low rental fees as the main target.
Luckily Jordy has made a huge difference to the Zhejiang team over the past few seasons, and even the current players are able to play modern soccer with spectator appeal. In order to increase the number of home spectators, Jordy will work closely with the club. He not only focuses on match results, but also gives full consideration to the fans' viewing experience during training and matches.
