The head of the city sports bureau had a simple idea: seeing that the new Tianyu Club had such substantial funds and that the club’s investors had such strong investment capabilities, he thought it might be wise to transfer a burden from the city and the sports bureau to the new Tianyu Club.

The stadium, located in the true core of the Yuzhong Peninsula, is the oldest qualified stadium in Shuangqing City and was the first Grade A stadium built back in the day. The stadium was constructed over four years under the supervision of “He Zong” in 1951. At that time, it was not only Shuangqing City’s first Grade A stadium but also the first Grade A sports venue in the country.

The stadium covers about 120,000 square meters and consists of a comprehensive sports venue and some auxiliary facilities, including gymnastics rooms, table tennis rooms, basketball courts, volleyball courts, and more. It can be considered a fully comprehensive venue.

However, now this stadium is a burden and a burden for the city. The entire stadium’s facilities are not only dilapidated but the fields and tracks have even become vegetable gardens for nearby residents.

In fact, there are many similar stadiums in the country that have become vegetable gardens. Some are dilapidated, while others are in remote areas far from city centers and thus lack popularity, leading to their abandonment.

Shuangqing City’s Datianwan Stadium was abandoned due to the dilapidated state of its facilities. Additionally, after the city government invested in building the larger Olympic Sports Center, this stadium was completely abandoned.

Only a few table tennis rooms and other facilities, after minor repairs, are offered free of charge to nearby residents for fitness purposes.

If the stadium’s facilities were intact, it would definitely attract a significant amount of foot traffic every day, and various commercial performances would undoubtedly choose to be held here.

The geographic location is excellent—right in the center of Yuzhong Peninsula and a major traffic hub. However, with the new Olympic Sports Center, the city government is naturally unlikely to allocate funds to rebuild this stadium. At least, the city and the sports bureau have no such plans at the moment.

After all, constructing a stadium of about 120,000 square meters requires a considerable amount of money.

Now, with the emergence of the new Tianyu Club, the head of the sports bureau couldn’t help but come up with an idea. However, the specifics of the plan still need to be discussed with other leaders in the city and sports bureau before it can be finalized.

Soon, the attending leaders understood Sun Guohui’s proposal immediately after hearing it.

“Old Sun, your idea is good, but how do we get the Tianyu Club to take over? The Datianwan Stadium is quite large and located in a central area. The Tianyu Club has already obtained a large piece of prime land at the Yanghe Stadium besides the Lifan takeover. If we hand over this land in the same way as Yanghe Stadium, it would put the city government at a disadvantage.” This senior city official understood the stakes involved.

In fact, the Lifan Club’s acquisition of Yanghe Stadium and its surrounding land was a preferential policy from the city at the time. Back then, there weren’t as many companies eager to take over football clubs as there are now. To entice Lifan to accept the club, Yanghe Stadium was sold to Lifan for 80 million.

This was indeed a great bargain for Lifan, as obtaining a centrally located sports venue from the local government is not an easy task in today’s market.

For example, Shanghai’s Hongkou Football Stadium was originally renovated from the Hongkou Sports Stadium, but the ownership still belongs to the city government, with the club merely renting the venue as their home ground.

Similarly, the Tianjing TEDA professional football stadium is the only AFC-certified football stadium in the country. Although TEDA Club owns it, the stadium’s location is in the suburbs and cannot compare with central city venues.

This also proves the point. The TEDA Football Stadium has a capacity of just over 30,000, but it’s always difficult to fill it up during matches. This is due to its geographical disadvantage. If the TEDA Football Stadium were located in a more bustling part of Tianjing City, a 30,000-seat venue would likely be filled!

Therefore, having a fully owned professional football stadium is not an easy feat for clubs in our country due to the high cost of land, which is among the highest globally.

Our country’s large population means land resources in major cities are extremely scarce.

Moreover, another reason domestic clubs do not have their own football stadiums is the rapid turnover of club owners. Most of these behind-the-scenes group companies are more interested in short-term profits rather than long-term investments. They are reluctant to invest in stadiums or even youth training camps.

Currently, only a few clubs in the country have their own youth training camps, such as Shandong Luneng and Guangzhou Evergrande.

Director Sun agreed and continued, “I completely agree with this point. So my plan is as follows: We can sell the ownership of Datianwan Stadium to the club without charging any fees. However, Tianyu Club must not only rebuild the main stadium but also construct additional facilities like a basketball court, badminton court, swimming pool, and other venues. The future use rights of the newly rebuilt main stadium will be divided as follows: Tianyu Club will hold exclusive rights for their own events, but for other commercial uses, the revenue will be split 50-50 with the sports bureau. In other words, while the main stadium will belong to Tianyu Club, any profit from its commercial use will be shared equally with the sports bureau. Furthermore, Tianyu Club cannot sell the stadium to others; if they wish to sell, it must be to the city sports bureau.”

Sun Guohui’s proposed conditions are advantageous from every perspective for the city. The sports bureau would not only be able to rebuild the stadium at no cost but would also retain ownership of the newly constructed facilities, except for the main stadium, which would belong to Tianyu Club.

Moreover, the restrictions on selling the stadium and splitting commercial profits with the sports bureau also limit Tianyu Club’s options for selling the stadium. Even if they want to sell, it must be to the city sports bureau, which will determine the sale price.