C/J/K League 2005 attendance

If the tops teams in J.League can get bear 40000 average, then they should have the financial capabilities to buy good European players and make thier league more competitive.

 

Its an amazing sight to think of those days or to watch old footage on tv, what happened??? Too many scandals and too much foreign football on tv is what did it...As things clean up and the scandals become a thing of the past and if the league gets more competitive, I figure the attendance will go up, but I just don't see it improving that much...I wonder if ticket prices have anything to do with it? I wonder if its possible to do a comparison in prices...

 

Well imo, population for each nation should come into factor also. Not that K-League would have done better if they had Japan's population (128 mill i believe?) but it does make some difference.

 

To be fair I don't know much about the Chinese League, but I'd say maybe the quality of play has something to do with it as well. Also the national team's recent debacles probably hasn't helped either. I remember last time I was in Shanghai I was watching a C-league game on the tele, and my uncle told me not to watch it or else i'd get so frustrated at the rubbish players i might throw somethin at the tv - not a very scientific test I know..but nonetheless...

 

we should really buy some decent European players to improve the quality of our league. Most of our national team players play in the domestic league. If the quality of CSL sucks then they will also suck. Buy some mediocre European players and we will see some improvement.

 

The quality of play, if anything, is actually a bit better than 10 years ago. I'm not positive about this, but I don't think there was any (or at least not as abundent) televised coverage of European games during the early-mid 90s as there is today. The scandals and the media reaction to them also has played a critical role. We won't be able to win all the fans back, but if the league keeps things clean and can offer an exciting race at the end of the year or have some exciting storylines, it will bring the casual fans back. Most of the teams have pretty solid fan bases, but its just they lose out on casual fans who'd rather not spend their money or don't find the league compelling enough to drop the minimum RMB 20 a ticket.

I don't think bringing in mediocre Euro players is going to work. The current crop of foreigners in the CSL offer some decent quality players, but there is no way a team can attract a decent name foreign player, even the older ones, because I don't think any Chinese club can match the money the Arab teams put up. I do think one of the thing the CSL, much like America's MLS, is cursed with is the size of the country. Away trips is what breeds true support, but its nearly impossible for fans to travel to most away matches in China.

 

You know, I don't consider our nation to be poor. I feel very discouraged that Arab country are clearly outbitting us on players. I am not saying that the Arab countries are suppose to be poor or anything but I just can't see why they are dominating financially. I didn't think CSL is that much poorer than the Arab leagues. Are we even making an attempt to outbit the other teams on players or are we just poor?

 

It's not the Arab leagues in general, and perhaps someone with more knowledge on the subject could chime in, but it seems a few teams owned by oil barons or something have put up huge fees for players who have no hope of getting that kind of money in Europe anymore. Buying washed up Euro players isn't what the CSL needs and will have little impact in improving quality of play or attendance. Sure its good that the Chinese players learn from outside, but this could just as easily be done by bringing over retired Euro players as coaches or advisors.

 

Foreign players isn't the issue. Qatar league is stuffed with them, but yet their league sucks, their clubs suck, and their national team sucks. Anyway, isn't Dalian owned by a big conglomerate (a generous one too)?

 

Dalian, like most Chinese teams, are owned by a large company, its true. But these companies run soccer as separate from the company funds and only sort of as a charity, while its a source of pride for the city of Dalian and the company, the other teams don't take it so seriously (further, because of Dalian's amazing academy, they're not interested in bringing in too much foreign talent). Shenhua is putting up a large amount of money during the offseason for purchases, but it isn't enough to attract quality Euro players.

 

The quality of foreign players have gotten better I think, especially when Shenhua brought in Jorg "Die Hammer" Albertz. They're also coming in at a younger age, not just coming to retire.

 

I totally agree, the CSL has done a pretty good job in bringing in foreign talent. I'm against an idea like I think CFF was bringing up, bringing in top Euro players. Look at sinosoc's poll on who is the CSL player of the year, there are 2 foreigners. Jelic was the only reason (with the other parts of the holy triangle) that Guoan didn't finish lower. Guoan's 2 foreigners, Jelic and Alex aren't that old and are both solid players, they aren't big names, but they are talented. The signings that CSL gets aren't going to be names that people know, but once they get on the field, they can impress.

Forget about top foreign talent, keep the league clean and make it interesting, have a last day of the season where 2 or 3 teams have a chance at winning the title and the fans will come back. All it takes is one horrible and corrupt season to turn fans off. All it takes is one exciting season to start bringing them back!

 

I can almost gauratee you that if we bringing some big names from EPL to any of the CSL teams, the stadiums will begin to pack. Once we start winning the ACL and make it into FIFA world club championships, trust me, the fans will start to come. Especially, Beijing, Shandong, Dalian, Shanghai Shenhua fans.

Obviously we can't achieve that right now. If you look at Shenzhen vs Al Ittihad, we are still on a different level of football. We need big names and we need it fast.

 

perhaps someone else can offer more definitively, but I think that Zheng Zhi's move last season was one of the highest in CSL history, for something like RMB 10-12 million. As an aside, what is the highest transfer fee in CSL history? In any case, assuming it was RMB 12 million, thats a little over 1.2 million Euros (if my math and conversion is right), which means, no chance in hell of signing any top names. The NASL tried to do it in America, sure it put butts in seats extremely quickly, but it ended up bankrupting the league. There are better, more realistic ways to get the attendance up that won't kill the league.

 

that's why it will never improve.

On one hand, most of our quality players are either overseas or dying to go overseas. The leftovers are just mediocre players. Quality just stinks. On the other hand, quality players overseas are not attracted to CSL. In conclusion, we're not going to improve anytime soon.

 

In what category does play the Shanxi?

 

In 50 years our nurses won't even let us watch soccer in our old age home, beacuse it's will cause too much excitment and risk heart attacks ha ha ha