Chinese Super League storm clouds again: Rizhao Guoan Haikou fierce battle, challenges continue!"

After three years and 979 days of waiting, the Chinese Super League finally restarted the home and away match system. Nearly 16,000 fans flocked to the stadium to witness the charm of the soccer city in the eleventh round match between Dalian Ren and Shanghai Harbor. Did this return to home-and-away matches evoke familiar soccer feelings? However, there are still some clubs adrift, when can they return home? When will the stadiums be fully open? All these questions have become the focus of our attention after the Chinese Super League realized the breakthrough of the home and away system, which also makes us think about how far the Chinese Super League is from restoring its past glory.

First of all, let's ask Kaidong: Do you think the atmosphere in the city has changed since the return of home and away matches? For example, you've been commentating on Guangzhou teams for a long time. Now that Guangzhou City has returned to Yuexiu Mountain, how does it feel overall, despite the lack of spectators?

Chen Kaidong: I was present at Guangzhou City's first match back at home. Although spectators were not allowed to enter the stadium, I saw many fans gathering outside the stadium to cheer for the players. The Yuexiu Mountain Stadium is uniquely designed and located at the foot of a mountain, so fans can climb up the mountain overlooking the stadium to cheer on the team. Although the sound sounded scattered, there were actually fans in the audience who did cheer.

Although the Yuexiu Mountain Stadium is not yet open to the public, the resumption of the home-and-away system is a positive start in itself. Clubs, players and fans have something new to look forward to.

Despite the game being played on an empty pitch, the Chinese Super League has returned to Guangzhou's soccer mecca, Yuexiu Mountain.

ZHANG WEN: When we saw the appearance of uniformed, scarf-wielding fans in the stands, we once again felt that there must be spectators at soccer matches, and that there must be home and away stadiums. Ran Feng, do you think it is imminent to restore the home and away system?

Luo Ranfeng: It is generally recognized that it is necessary for the Chinese Super League to seek changes based on the past match system. In the past two years, one of the problems brought by the tournament system is that the season is highly compressed and the management mode is closed, which puts tremendous pressure on the players physically and mentally, including injuries, physical fitness and psychological problems. In this state, players are unable to perform at their best, leading to a decline in the level of the tournament. Neutral and non-die-hard fans are difficult to be attracted, which ultimately affects the league's business development and other operational matters.

After the return of the home and away system, the mental state of the players is significantly improved, which is conducive to enhancing the viewing degree of the tournament. At the same time, the tournament landed in different cities across the country, the tournament system will be concentrated in a few regions have greater local coverage, higher local influence, both tournament organizers and sponsors, will be more satisfied.

Home advertising revenue eases immediate needs

ZHANG WEN: However, the return to the home and away system does face a big challenge. By the time the program was recorded, 11 of the 18 teams in the Chinese Super League had returned to their home stadiums, but in different ways. Some teams return home but are unable to open the stands, such as Guangzhou City; some teams can return to iconic home grounds, such as Henan Songshan Longmen back to the Navigation Stadium; and some teams need to go to an off-site home ground, such as Beijing Guoan, whose home ground is temporarily arranged in Rizhao. Kaidong, what do you think is the toughest breakthrough in the process of restoring the home and away system?

Chen Kaidong: The toughest breakthrough is undoubtedly the anti-epidemic policy of different regional governments. Epidemic prevention is a national chess game, the return of the home and away system must also follow the principle of epidemic prevention, it is impossible to follow the club's wishes to choose the home field.

This means that clubs need to find compromises. For example, Shenzhen have confirmed that after two rounds of the second stage of the tournament, they will move from their neutral ground in Haikou to Nanhai, Foshan to use their new home ground. Although not directly back to Shenzhen, at least staying in Guangdong province, fans can support the home team by public transportation or driving to the new home stadium. So, the club is slowly finding some breakthrough points amidst the difficulties.

Even with Rizhao as its home ground, Beijing Guoan has room to increase its advertising revenue.

There was also a breakthrough in that clubs regained their stadium-side advertising interests even though the stadiums were not fully or partially open, or even open to fans. Although clubs also have home advertising rights during the conference system, this is somewhat different from the club's rights in a truly exclusive stadium, and sponsors are more willing to support the team back in their city. This additional advertising revenue can be considered "life-saving money".

When fans are allowed to enter the stadium, more problems can be solved. Assuming a ticket is $50 and 20,000 people are admitted to each game, the revenue from one home game reaches $1 million, which can solve the current immediate problem. Therefore, many clubs believe that no matter how difficult the moment is, they want to return to their home ground. The CFA is also doing its best to make this happen.

Zhang Wen: However, clubs usually do not have the direct right to use the stadium and need to rent it; opening the stadium to fans requires costs such as security; plus travel and other expenses. Has the home-and-away system increased the pressure on clubs' operations?

Chen Kaidong: As far as I know, if the funding for home stadium advertising is introduced smoothly, it can already significantly cover travel expenses. As for renting a stadium, the club can choose a cheaper stadium, such as Tianhe Stadium, the traditional home of the Guangzhou team, but due to site constraints, it is not possible to rent, while the current choice of Huadu Stadium is much cheaper, and it is said that the Huadu Sports Bureau also provides some subsidies. Therefore, clubs can communicate with the Sports Bureau to reduce the cost of renting venues and generally get local support to land the tournament smoothly.

"Going home" has multiple incentives

Zhang Wen: The home and away system overcame difficulties and made a preliminary return. Even if there is a case of Beijing Guoan playing home matches in Shandong, we would consider it as a different memory left by the Chinese Super League in a special period. Ran Feng, do you think the operation and work content of clubs will be different from the match system after the league returns to the home and away system?

Luo Ranfeng: Under the match system, some club executives are stationed at the venue, and the working scene is more limited. Under the home-and-away system, executives have more room to move around and are more flexible in handling business negotiations or other operations, and can directly interface with personnel organization units.

Players are in a similar situation, where it is difficult to execute targeted commercial interactions in a closed environment, and at best they can only service league sponsors or participate in events in an online format. And with the return of the home-and-away system, there is much more room for local activity for players. We know that player incomes have changed significantly from back then, and some support for external event costs makes more sense for players.

The home and away system allows clubs to work with sponsors for more local activation.

Zhang Wen: Two typical return home matches, with an all-Chinese team, Dalian Ren, drawing against Shanghai Harbor and Henan beating Beijing Guoan 3:0. Although the difference in scores is not a reflection of the real power gap, the fact that there were fans in the stadiums for both matches gives a sense of the strong bond between clubs and fans, as if a chemical reaction has been created to make the teams play at a high level. So, do teams that actually return to their home stadiums and get cheered on by their fans "take advantage"?

Chen Kaidong: Fans are called the "12th man on the pitch", and of course they help the team a lot. In the first few rounds when the crowd returns, this support effect may be more obvious, as if the players are "pumped up". However, when the home and away matches are gradually stabilized, the players' mentality will slowly adapt, and strength will still be the main factor in determining the outcome of the matches.

However, the fact that the players are "home" under the home-and-away system is a very important encouragement. Last season, we often saw the players could not reunite with their families during the closed period, and sometimes they could only meet with their relatives through the guardrail, which made people feel a bit sad. Liu Dengzheng's speech at the press conference expressed what the players were saying, "Going home is a particularly big reward". Therefore, the players who have been encouraged should perform better than they did during the ten rounds of the first phase of the tournament.

Zhang Wen: Lin Liangming also wrote on the microblogging, more than nine hundred days before the real Dalian team home and the fans meet, this experience is very unforgettable.

Dynamic adaptation to overcome future difficulties

Zhang Wen: The effect of restoring home and away games, at least from the first round, is still relatively obvious. But in the long run, the Chinese Super League to return to the heat of the year, still need to go through no small test. These tests are mainly reflected in where?

Luo Ranfeng: The main test is the difficulty of organizing the event. In the case of recurring epidemics, there may be a situation where a city suddenly faces challenges in epidemic prevention. For example, the current fluctuation of the epidemic in Hainan will be a great test for the Haikou race. This requires the organizers to develop emergency responses well in advance of an outbreak. The specific scenarios that these filings address will be many and varied, such as whether clubs can quickly move to another city's stadium to play, or how to replenish pulled progress if there is a situation such as static management, and so on.

In addition, each club will have its own special tests accordingly. For example, some clubs do not have a fixed home ground, and even if results are guaranteed, they lag behind operationally compared to clubs with a home ground. So how do they cope? Of course, compared to organizational issues, these problems are not that difficult because they can be solved over time, such as Shenzhen's quick implementation of a new home stadium.

Our greatest wish is that there will be no objective circumstances that will interfere too greatly with the conduct of the league. As long as there are no such situations, I believe the league, clubs and players will feel a sense of hope for development.

After the Hainan outbreak, the Chinese Super League quickly adjusted its schedule to cope.

Zhang Wen: The future Chinese Super League will also solve the problem of "fans' biological clock", which is the key to the establishment of the commercial logic of the league. Let the fans know when and where the game is fixed to start, to the corresponding point in time, season, fans will be associated with the game should start, the champion should be born. But the Super League to restore this inertia, there is still a long way to go.

Chen Kaidong: Both the FA and the clubs will continue to adopt a dynamic management mindset for the next twenty rounds of matches. Clubs that have not found a home field continue to look for a home field, and clubs that currently have a temporary home field will also seek to optimize, for example, Beijing Guoan may be in Rizhao transition for a period of time, when the conditions are feasible to move to a place closer to Beijing.

In addition, if the matches can be kept running smoothly, clubs need to try more self-help strategies to improve their operations. Instead of limiting themselves to the traditional modes of advertising displays and sponsorship rights, they should re-explore how to conduct offline activities. Especially for clubs with off-site home games, they should also try to attract fans and sponsors through offline activities. In short, they should start from different directions to try and find new profit points. This will ensure that while the game is advancing, the club's operations can keep up.

ZHANG Wen: Before the Chinese Super League had to enter the match system model, the average attendance of the Chinese Super League had reached the level of more than 20,000 people. More than 20,000 people in each city is probably the core force that ensures the survival of a Chinese Super League club. And when clubs, players and fans truly become "family", the emotions aroused are also the ties that help Chinese Super League clubs survive and persevere. We hope that in the coming days, more teams will return to their home stadiums and witness the passion of more fans. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time!