With the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League, the Chinese Super League, the Chinese League A and the Chinese Second Division coming to an end, the 2023 football season, which is "back to normal", has finally been difficult to complete. As the first season in the "post-Jinyuan era" to play a normal home-and-away format, this year, we have seen that the sinking of Chinese football still exists, we have seen investors doing their best to operate the club normally, and we have seen that the competitive level of the league is still at the bottom and needs to be improved, but we also saw some hope for recovery in the "waste to be rebuilt".
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Zhang Chenyao Zhang Hao
Many teams in the Chinese Super League are hard to find a vote, and the market in the first and second divisions is also improving
In this season's Chinese Super League, there are at least three teams that have left a particularly deep impression of the "devil's home" - Chengdu Rongcheng, Beijing Guoan, and Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. Most of the home stadium of the Chengdu Rongcheng team is located in the professional football stadium Phoenix Mountain; The home stadium of the Beijing Guoan team is in the professional football stadium Xingongti; The renovated TEDA Football Stadium has been re-used as the home of the Jinmen Tigers to take on half of the home games this season, while the other home stadium has a large capacity and a good ball market.
According to relevant statistics, this season's Chinese Super League, a total of 476.2 million people watched the game, with an average of nearly 1,4 per game. The two clubs of Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng contributed nearly 15/65 of the total number of viewers in the Chinese Super League, of which Beijing Guoan had 6,15 people in 52 home games and Chengdu Rongcheng had 40,<> people in <> games. Tianjin Jinmen Tigers have more than <>,<> people, and the Tianjin Tigers have become the only unbeaten team at home this season with the enthusiastic cheering of the home fans. In addition, the ball market of Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Shenhua, two traditional giants, is also as hot as ever, the home of these teams can be called "hard to find", and the most exaggerated is Chengdu Rongcheng, online ticket sales are basically "empty", and many people can't grab tickets.
The last normal home-and-away Chinese Super League season was the 2019 season, when the average number of spectators per game reached 23464,2019, and although this season did not reach the average number of people per game in the <> season, it was already quite impressive.
Look at the middle armor again. Even in the second-tier professional league, the enthusiasm of the audience for the local team is quite high. The Guangzhou team, which was relegated to the Central League, relied on the success of the football school youth army to relegate this season, and the help of the fans also contributed a lot. In Yuexiu Mountain, although the statistical attendance of each game is basically about 1,1 or even less than 15,2, the stadium is "visible to the naked eye" to be full. Yanbian Longding FC has maintained an unbeaten home game this season, with only two of the 20468 home games without more than <>,<> fans, and the largest number of fans exceeded <>,<>. Pingguo City Stadium, the home of Pingguo Hayi, Guangxi, is also almost full. The second division also has a "devil's home", such as Hunan Xiangtao, where as many as <>,<> fans cheered on the scene in the fourth round of the preliminary round of the second division; Chongqing Tongliang Dragons, as the champion of this season's Central B, has an average attendance of nearly <>,<> and is undefeated at home.
According to the statistics of "Football News", the total home ticket revenue of Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng will be about 5000 million to 8000 million yuan, and Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Shenhua are expected to earn between 2000 million and 5000 million yuan. This is the most "visible" revenue. The popularity of the ball market at least shows that the Chinese Football Professional League still has no shortage of die-hard fans, as long as fans can return to the stadium, the league has the first step of recovery!
Many clubs still have varying degrees of difficulty
Not long after the end of this season's league, the Chinese Football Association announced the notice on the access to the third-level professional league for the 2024 season, requiring clubs to submit access materials through the access system by December 12, that is, today. This means that many clubs will have to solve the relevant problems within the year, otherwise it will be difficult to get in. The Chinese Football Association is also "taking precautions" and trying to leave enough time to prepare for next year's league work.
This time, it is clearly stipulated in the requirements of the access materials that the club shall handle the international and domestic overdue payment cases in a timely manner, and upload the "2023 Season Club Full Payment of Player Salary Confirmation Form" and "2023 Season Club Full Payment of Staff Salary Confirmation Form" as proof that the 2023 season has not defaulted on overdue payables. At the same time, clubs should ensure that there are no historical wage arrears.
Despite the booming market, many clubs still have varying degrees of difficulties, most of which are caused by historical reasons.
The team with the most worrying performance in the latter part of the season is the Cangzhou Lions. After the early relegation success, the Cangzhou Lions lost their motivation all of a sudden, and almost lost by a big score, and there was a lot of speculation from the outside world, which was basically related to the failure of the share reform and arrears of wages. However, the previous news was that the Cangzhou Lions were doing their best to "save themselves".
In the middle of this season's Chinese Super League, the investor of last year's champion Wuhan Three Towns announced that it would stop capital injection and "0 yuan transfer", which caused heated public opinion. So far, there is still no news about the share reform of the three towns, and the next step of the club is still inconclusive, and how to survive and operate in the future is unknown.
As for the Shenzhen team and Dalian team that were relegated from the Chinese Super League this season, it is quite a bit of a "hard to return" meaning, the historical debts of the two clubs are too much, and the backlash of "Jinyuan Football" makes their survival crisis the most serious, and the local government has also taken certain rescue measures.
In order to survive, you can only constantly "find a way" in business
The ball market is improving, and what can be seen for the time being is the ticket revenue on the books; However, in this season's league, the clubs have not made much action in attracting investment and operation for the time being, after all, potential businesses are still waiting. With the popularity of the football market this season, it is believed that next season, the business partners of various clubs may increase.
In order to survive, the clubs have indeed "racked their brains" in business this season. Some clubs have successfully attracted investment in adversity, such as the strategic cooperation reached by Suzhou Soochow and Susa Food; Some clubs have a good tradition in the development of the surrounding area, such as Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Shenhua these teams, in addition to the jersey sales have maintained a fairly good scale, some daily necessities, commemorative supplies have also brought a certain amount of revenue to the club. In terms of fan culture construction, many clubs have also provided more detailed services to form a "centripetal force", such as the "chorus" after the game in Chengdu Rongcheng and the light show at the home stadium of Shanghai Shenhua, etc., which will make local fans further identify with the club.
This season, the Chinese Super League even cooperated with a winery to launch a 30th anniversary wine with the logo of each club, which can be regarded as an official attempt to develop merchandise.
And some previous small and medium-sized clubs, because there is no pressure of historical debt, as long as they attract a certain number of fans to enter, the subsequent business work should also be able to carry out smoothly.
China's professional football is currently in a state of "a hundred wastes waiting to be revived", and the cruel reality forces everyone to find a way to truly "embrace the market" and try how to be a real professional club, which is a kind of progress to a certain extent. Of course, for the current plight of the league, more rational policy support and local government support are also very important. All in all, the league's business difficulties still need to be "broken".