On March 20, Chinese Super League and Deloitte published a white paper on the Chinese Super League’s commercial performance, “Chinese Football Association Super League - 2018 Commercial Performance Review White paper”, demonstrating the status quo of the commercial value of the top Chinese professional football league in 2018, with some overviews of the last 14 CSL seasons as well. 

The white paper was jointly compiled by Deloitte Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Industry, Deloitte Financial Advisory and CSL and the project was started in September 2018. 

According to the white paper, the Chinese Super League has witnessed some very positive and significant growth during the 15 seasons of the league’s history in many aspects, such as the overall revenue, the sponsorship and media rights fees and the brand image of the league. 

For example, the white paper shows that the total revenue of CSL in 2018 reached CNY1.593bn. As a comparison, the 2006 total revenue was only CNY600m. The average attendance per game in 2018 was 24000. The attendance has since doubled from the 2004 season’s 11000 per game. 

In 2018, the total sponsorship revenue was CNY465m and there were 11 different partners. The total sponsorship fee has seen a 31.6% growth compared with the 2006 season. 

In media broadcasts and viewership, CSL plays a significant role in the Chinese market and amongst Chinese fans as a Chinese domestic football property, reaching more broadcasts hours and higher TV viewership ratings than most of the overseas football leagues. 

For example, in 2017 broadcasts of CSL games accounted for 11% of all broadcasts of football, followed by UEFA Champions League (10%), Bundesliga (7%), AFC Champions League (5%) and other football tournaments (68%). The TV ratings were ranked second place (0.33), followed by AFC Champions League (0.60), English Premier League (0.10), Bundesliga (0.07) and others. 

What is worth mentioning is that the white paper shows that new media (digital media) (51% of the accumulated viewers) have surpassed traditional media (49% of the accumulated viewers) as the most dominant way CSL is watched. 

In terms of the fans, the typical CSL fans are males between the ages of 30-39 years-old mostly married with children, with an undergraduate or above education background and with an annual income ranging between CNY100k-CNY300k. 

Click here to read the report (Chinese version). 

Reference: Deloitte

Proofread by Levison Makuvise