“Shouldn’t this be impossible? A provincial capital as large as ours doesn’t even have a single team?” Wu Hao still seemed a bit unconvinced. Seeing this, Hong Lei sighed and said to him, “That’s true. In fact, there was a team a few years ago, but it disbanded last year, and now, there’s nothing left.”

Regarding Sichuan’s football history, things were decent when football first started to gain popularity in China. At one point, over a decade ago, it was among the top in the country. But after changing hands several times, things went downhill, and the situation worsened.

By last year, the team was relegated, then couldn’t pay salaries, and eventually disbanded. That team was once known as Sheffield United, also called Tiancheng Club.

Upon hearing this, Wu Hao felt speechless. After all, who wouldn’t be shocked that a large provincial city with a decent economy doesn’t even have a football team?

In reality, many cities in China don’t have professional teams. But these provinces generally belong to economically weaker regions, whereas the regions with the most football clubs are places like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Among them, Evergrande has undoubtedly been the most famous in recent years.

Liu Ben, standing nearby, noticed Wu Hao’s speechless expression, sighed, and continued, “Our province doesn’t have a team at the moment, and since Lei Zi and I are football fans, we’ve been thinking about starting a club ourselves. Of course, our idea is idealistic, but reality is harsh because we simply don’t have the money!” Liu Ben said this with some embarrassment, as it was obvious he was hoping to ask Wu Hao for investment.

If this had been in the past, Liu Ben would never have entertained such an idea. But now, with Wu Hao—a super-rich person by his side—no, in Liu Ben’s eyes, Wu Hao was no longer just rich but had already entered the realm of a “god-tier tycoon.”

Because Wu Hao could casually spend billions in his hometown, something that ordinary wealthy people could never afford.

To put it simply, even those billionaires ranked in the top ten in China couldn’t just casually pull out billions of yuan without expecting any economic return to build something like a resort in such a remote place.

After all, while their assets are valued at billions of dollars, most of it is in stock value. Stocks can rise quickly but shrink just as fast. To put it bluntly, if something unexpected happens, their personal assets could claim to be in the billions one day and shrink by half the next.

Moreover, how much cash could they pull out at once?

When Wu Hao heard Liu Ben’s request, he immediately understood but didn’t refuse. To be honest, hearing that Sichuan didn’t even have a football team bothered him, even though he didn’t know much about football and wasn’t a fan.

“So that’s how it is. Then tell me, how much would it cost to invest in football? And let me hear your plan.”

Upon hearing this, Liu Ben and Hong Lei exchanged smiles, knowing Wu Hao had agreed. From their perspective, given Wu Hao’s wealth, investing in football wasn’t a big deal for him.

After all, they weren’t planning to start a large team right away. At most, they were just thinking of playing in the second-tier league for now. Even if a new football club was heavily invested in and bought many players, it would still have to start from the lower leagues and climb step by step.

In China, aside from a few amateur teams, there are about 20 teams in the second-tier league each year, with 16 in the first-tier and the Super League. A team in the second-tier must win the championship to advance to the first-tier, and the same goes for the first-tier, while the lowest-ranked teams are relegated, making room for others.

The Chengdu team once competed in the Super League, but their time there was short, and for years, they struggled in the first-tier league before eventually being relegated to the second-tier and disbanding.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring city of Chongqing, there is still a team that returned to the Super League last year, preventing the entire southwest region from becoming a football wasteland.

However, this team is currently ranked in the middle-to-lower tier of the 16 teams in the national Super League, with its main goal being to avoid relegation. They are not on the same level as the wealthy teams from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. In fact, those teams now spend as much in a single season as some European clubs.

But domestic players are generally “terrible.” All the goals are scored by foreign players, and there are hardly any domestic players capable of scoring.

Soon, Liu Ben cleared his throat, his tone slightly excited, as he said to Wu Hao, “Brother Hao, actually, investing in football won’t cost much initially. Hong Lei and I just plan to start a professional team and participate in the second-tier league. At the very least, this would give our province a football seed.”

“And a second-tier team’s annual expenses are around 10 to 20 million yuan, which I think is nothing for you, Brother Hao. Of course, for Lei Zi and me, that’s a huge amount.” After speaking, Liu looked at Wu Hao with a somewhat bashful expression, his gaze making Wu Hao’s skin crawl.

“Only 10 to 20 million? Isn’t that a bit low?” Wu Hao had assumed it would cost much more. Learning it was only 10 to 20 million, he didn’t think it was a big deal. In fact, he wondered if it was too modest.

Actually, for a second-tier team, 10 to 20 million already makes it a wealthy club. But if there are ambitions to advance to the first-tier or Super League, the annual investment would need to be in the hundreds of millions.

Moreover, investing in a football club shouldn’t be done with the expectation of making money. The best one can hope for is to minimize losses each year.

Take the Chongqing Lifan Club, for example. This club was founded by Lifan Group, a local Chongqing company that manufactures motorcycles and cars. However, its products are low-end, and its total assets amount to just around 20 billion yuan.

Lifan Club has struggled in the first-tier league for years, only making it to the Super League last year. This turned Chongqing into the hottest football market in China.

During the promotion phase, the attendance at each match exceeded 30,000, with a peak of more than 40,000 spectators. Such attendance rates are extremely rare and exceptional in the country.”