At the start of the CSL season Quanjian Natural Medicine reached an agreement to be the main sponsor of Tianjin Teda, that sponsorship has come to an end, only lasting half the season. The Sun Ke transfer affair is what brought it to its end, but the story goes on as today Quanjian purchased China League One side Tianjin Songjiang.
Last week, Tianjin supposedly purchased Sun Ke for a CSL domestic record of RMB66 million, the money being supplied by Quanjian. However, Teda balked at the deal believing Sun’s salary, somewhere in the neighborhood of RMB7 million, was way too high and unfair to the rest of the team. Quanjian had always hoped to purchase all of Teda, but wasn’t able to convince them to accept a deal. The company hoped the Sun Ke deal could put them on the map, but Teda’s rejection made it impossible for the two sides to continue working together and Quanjian cancelled their sponsorship of the club.
That isn’t the end of the story, though, as Quanjian still wanted to have a role in the football market and appears to have reached an agreement to purchase outright Tianjin Songjiang. It seems that if Quanjian can’t buy Teda, their goal is to get revenge by beating them. They will have a good head start as Songjiang has by far the best football specific stadium in all of China. The deal is set to be announced in the next week or so with Quanjian taking control of the club’s transfer moves in the summer window and the team eventually being renamed Tianjin Quanjian for the 2016 season.
Quanjian’s Deputy Chairman Deng Fei declared, “No matter what, Quanjian is a Tianjin company, we will always support sports in Tianjin and will never give up on the football market in Tianjin.”
Songjiang is currently struggling in League One, 13th out of 16 teams and sitting precariously at a single point above the relegation zone. That said, Quanjian has declared they will do whatever they can to keep the club up and make it their goal to win promotion in 2016.
by bcheng
“by far the best football specific stadium in all of China” -subtle as a brick there B! Opinion, not fact.
Beat me to it… Hongkou says hi 🙂
Would you prefer Hongkou or this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Tianjin_Tuanbo_Soccer_Stadium_2012.jpg
case closed
Beijing Troll! I’ll indulge you this time since its too easy to prove you wrong.
From an American perspective, sure, the stadium in the picture looks like a neat and modern facility that maybe would be good to sit and eat popcorn in. But it’s just a cookie-cutter, four boxes off-the-shelf design with zero character. The very embodiment of soulless designs which were churned out in the aftermath of the Taylor report are now so disliked in the UK for killing atmosphere and taking clubs out into the suburbs miles away from their natural place in the middle of centuries-old communities.
Have you ever been to Songjiang’s stadium? Not many people have. That’s because its literally miles away from the nearest metro station and in the middle of nowhere. Hongkou is “BY FAR” much closer to not only the metro station (it’s own dedicated stop) but also it’s in heart of it’s community. There’s nothing in Songjiang’s stadium that Hongkou doesn’t have, except quite a few less seats.
Maybe its possible to argue about what facility is better from a technical perspective. But fans don’t care not about technical, but the actual experience being in the stadium delivers.
Absolutely anyone who knows football culture will agree Hongkou is by far the best stadium in China for watching football in due a combination of design, acoustics, sense of history, and relatively big crowds for big games, one of China’s most historic clubs playing there with passionate hardcore fanbase, – and the clincher – lack of running track which is essential to a football-watching environment.
I’ve heard that Hanghai is a great place and very welcoming for away supporters.
Hongkou football specific? I thought it was more of a driving range these days…
yeah yeah, it was something that was added in the end, though I don’t think there’s much argument about that…
Actually, slight deviation from the article but I’ve followed the “lack of atmosphere” discussion in the UK for a few years and it inevitably boils down to being able to stand.
e.g.: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/feb/16/safe-standing-areas-football-stadiums-fans
I think it’s similar here in Wgtn too. It’s much easier to “have a laugh and get all vocal” to pinch Tony Christie’s song when you’re standing.
It looks like fans are allowed to stand in China – are there dedicated sections or is it pretty laissez-faire?
However I agree that running tracks are particularly good at killing the experience for a footy match.