On June 21st, Jiangsu City Football League continued to face each other, with Suqian playing Yancheng and Changzhou playing Nanjing, which pushed the heat of Su Chao to a new climax. The number of sponsors has increased from 6 at the beginning to 19. Although the official sponsorship price has risen to 3 million yuan, it is still hard to find a seat, and some enterprises have begun to find another way to sponsor 13 football teams. The popularity of sponsors in Su Chao has also exposed Jiangsu’s financial resources completely.
01. Big names flood into Su Chao.
Unexpectedly, this summer, Jiangsu City Football League (hereinafter referred to as Su Chao) was so lively. Since the start of the tournament on May 10th, the heat in Su Chao has only increased. An amateur competition is not only eye-catching, but also amazing in attracting gold.
When the billboard of Heineken, an international high-end beer brand, appeared on the edge of the green field in Su Chao, the fans exclaimed: Su Chao actually ushered in the "Champions League-level gold master".
Heineken has always sponsored top-level events in the world, even the Super League, the top-level football event in China, has never been sponsored by Heineken. But this time, the billboard of Heineken beer appeared in the green field of this amateur competition in Su Chao for the first time.
At this time, some people made up for it: it may be because Changzhou team has changed from a state to an "O state" that it has welcomed the permanent sponsor of the European Champions League.
To supplement the background for friends who don’t pay much attention to football: Su went ahead of four rounds, Changzhou team won 0 and scored 0 goals, and at the same time, it was ranked at the bottom with 0 points. And the other 12 teams, the lowest also has 3 points.
Based on this, Changzhou has been ridiculed by fans of other 12 teams. Changzhou team has been surrounded by various stalks. For example, "from Changzhou to Diaozhou, and then to Pizhou, there are not many strokes left for Changzhou". Of course, the terrier of "O State" is also close behind.
By the way, Su Chao is also a stalk-making competition. Su Chao just started, the stalk of "competition first, friendship fourteenth" and "winning as the provincial capital" came out. All kinds of stalks fly all over the stadium, and the stalks are full of "grudges and feuds" and "mutual disdain" among the 13 cities of "bulk Jiangsu". Netizens from all over the country also participated, and the Internet was full of excitement and exultation.
As several sponsors in the early days of Su Chao, they were also teased by netizens: There must be gambling at first, but I didn’t expect to win later.
Strictly speaking, Su Chao is not the official abbreviation of the event, but a nickname given by the fans because the event was so hot. "Super" usually refers to the highest level of professional leagues, such as Premier League and Super League, which are all super leagues. Jiangsu City Football League, an amateur event, is called "Su Chao", which is obviously a kind of honorific title for this event.
According to the article in the official account of Jiangsu City Football League on June 19th, there are 19 sponsors of Jiangsu City Football League in 2025, in addition to two public welfare support units-Development Sports Foundation and China Sports Lottery.
Among them, the total name is Jiangsu Bank, and there are seven official strategic partners-Guoyuan V3, Longpan Technology, Ideality, Hailan House, JD.COM, KFC and Anjing Food; There are two official partners-Wuqiku Sports and Huahong Pharmaceutical; There are five official sponsors-Master Kong drinking boiled water, ZTE, Togo car maintenance, Yili and Yushi; There are four official suppliers-Zijin Insurance, Gatorade, Heineken and Xiaomi.
In the first three rounds, only six sponsors were officially announced. In other words, after the explosion in early June, the number of sponsors in Su Chao has soared.
Moreover, with the explosion of the event, sponsors are no longer limited to Jiangsu, but break through regionalization and welcome some national industry giants and even international giants, such as JD.COM, Yili, KFC and Heineken.
At the beginning of the competition, among the six sponsors, Jiangsu Bank, Guoyuan V3 and Zijin Insurance are all Jiangsu nationals, and the other three-Carmel Sports, Drinking Water and Gatorade are also brands and industries closely related to sports events. Among them, Carmel Sports deals in the equipment of the competition, while behind Drinking Water and Gatorade are beverage enterprises.
The Paper reported on June 13th that the quotation of official sponsored seats in Su Chao has soared to 3 million yuan for the whole season, and to some extent, it is still "hard to find a seat", and people who have money have to queue up to sponsor. The Jiangsu Bank, which was exclusively named before the start of the competition, cost about 8 million yuan.
The Su Chao 2025 will last for seven months, covering 13 cities in Jiangsu, with 85 games (78 in the regular season and 7 in the knockout). Therefore, the total title of 8 million yuan is not exaggerated now, and it is even cost-effective compared with the big sponsors who joined later.
02, listed companies "cluster"
The sponsorship market reflects the attention of a sports event. Similarly, the popularity of sports events reflects the enthusiasm of sponsors. There is no doubt that Su Chao ignited the enthusiasm of both sides.
Among the above 19 sponsors, many are local enterprises in Jiangsu. For example, Jinshiyuan is located in Huai ‘an, Longpan Technology is headquartered in Nanjing, Hailan House is in Wuxi, and Zijin Insurance is also an enterprise in Nanjing … In addition, Liu Qiangdong, the founder and chairman of the board of directors of JD.COM, has his hometown in Suqian; Although Anjing Food comes from Fujian, it has a branch in Jiangsu …
In addition to sponsors related to Jiangsu, attracting national and international giants is the embodiment of gold attraction. In fact, it is also true.
▲ Tuyuan/Jiangsu City Football League official account issued a document on June 19.
Of these 19 sponsors, 15 are listed companies or backed by listed companies.
It should be noted that Guoyuan is one of the three major brands of liquor listed company Jinshiyuan, with a high-end positioning, which is called hard currency in Jiangsu. Guoyuan V3 is one of the main products of Guoyuan. Gatorade is a beverage brand owned by PepsiCo, and its main product is electrolyte beverage.
Among these sponsors, A-share listed companies include Jiangsu Bank, Jinshiyuan, Longpan Technology, Hailan House, Anjing Food, ZTE and Yili; Master Kong, Xiaomi and Togo are listed companies in Hong Kong. The operator of Heineken in China is China Resources Beer, which is also a listed company in Hong Kong. In addition, Longpan Technology is also a listed company in Hong Kong.
JD.COM and LI are listed companies in US and Hong Kong stocks. Needless to say, Yum! China is listed in many places, and it is also a company listed in Hong Kong stocks and US stocks. PepsiCo (PEP) is a US-listed company.
According to rough statistics, on June 19th, the total market value of these 15 listed companies exceeded 4 trillion yuan.
Among them, among A-share companies, Jiangsu Bank, Yili and ZTE all have market capitalization of more than 100 billion yuan, and the total market capitalization after the close on June 19 was 217.3 billion yuan, 175.3 billion yuan and 149.2 billion yuan respectively. In Hong Kong stocks, Xiaomi Group is a trillion-dollar listed company.
These are just the current sponsors of Jiangsu City Football League in 2025. In addition, each division and 13 teams also have their own "gold owners", and some teams even have multiple teams, and there has also been a phenomenon of "clustering" of listed companies.
On June 19th, China Ping ‘an announced that it had officially become the official partner of the 2025 Jiangsu City Football League (Nantong Division), saying that it would provide Nantong with a national team-level "golden leg" guarantee of over 44.6 million yuan.
China Ping An had sponsored the Super League for many years before, but it was not renewed in 2024. However, now I come to Su Chao to join in the fun.
China Ping An, a listed company, is just one of them. The "capital support group" behind the 13 teams is very strong.
Yanghe, located in Suqian, sponsored the hometown team-Suqian team. Yanghe Co., Ltd. is a giant in liquor industry, ranking in the forefront of liquor listed companies. Another liquor listed company in Jiangsu Province, Jinshiyuan, also sponsored the hometown team-Huai ‘an team.
These two liquor companies are not only competing in the liquor market in Jiangsu Province, but also in the competition field in Su Chao.
On June 17th, local enterprises and digital logistics platforms in Nanjing were officially announced to be named Nanjing Team, and behind the full operation was Manbang Group, a listed US company. The title sponsor of the Xuzhou team is Weiwei, a local listed company, which specializes in soy milk powder.
The official partner of Wuxi team is CITIC Pacific Special Steel. In addition, Shu Hua Sports also indicated that it has sponsored Wuxi team to participate in Jiangsu City Football League. Both companies are listed companies. The title sponsor of Zhenjiang team is Shengxiang Group, which is a leading flooring company, a subsidiary of listed company Daya Shengxiang, and a local enterprise in Zhenjiang.
According to the article in the official account of Yangzhou Sports Bureau on June 11th, before the fourth round of Su Chao, the number of sponsors of Yangzhou team had reached 15, including China Industrial and Commercial Bank Yangzhou Branch, Jiangsu Hanjiang Group, Yangjie Technology, Yangli Group and Laura Star.
In addition, the football teams in several other cities also have their own sponsors.
It can be seen that from the sponsors in Su Chao to the sponsors of various teams, although the event is amateur and the players are from all walks of life, the listed companies among the sponsors are "clustered" and the lineup is very luxurious.
03, "bulk Jiangsu" is very good at playing.
The popularity of Su Chao has instigated the deep integration of "football+cultural tourism+consumption".
According to the data released by Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, from June 14th to 15th, the number of foreign tourists in Wuxi, Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Lianyungang and Huai ‘an, the home cities, increased by over 48% compared with the previous weekend, and the consumption of cultural tourism in different places through UnionPay channel increased by over 15%, with Wuxi exceeding 29.5%.
The fourth round of the match between Xuzhou and Zhenjiang attracted 30,823 people to watch the match, setting a new record. Since the start of the Super League in 2025, the average number of people who have entered the game in the first 13 rounds is 24,371.
These data are beyond many people’s expectations.
Lazy Bear Sports recently mentioned in the article that in December 2024, Su Chao was still in the preparatory stage, and Jiangsu Sports Industry Group Co., Ltd., as one of the organizers of the event, released a business cooperation plan for Su Chao.
In the cooperation plan at that time, Su Chao’s original planned sponsorship system was divided into one total title of the event, with a sponsorship amount of 8 million yuan; 4 official partners, with the sponsorship amount of 1.5 million yuan and 500,000 yuan in kind; 10 official sponsors, with a sponsorship amount of 500,000 yuan; There is no limit to the number of official suppliers, and they need to provide 200,000 yuan in kind. In terms of cooperative rights and interests, it mainly includes five aspects: brand authorization, on-site exposure, official publicity, media publicity and VIP courtesy.
At present, the price of official sponsored seats is 3 million yuan, which has increased several times, and it is still "hard to find a seat".
Although Su Chao is an amateur league, it has ignited the passion of Jiangsu people. More importantly, because of economic competition, cultural differences, historical evolution, etc., "the right time, the right place, and people are not harmonious" and Jiangsu "Thirteen Pacific Insurance" collided, either creating a stalk or despising it.
During the "Jinyuan Football" period, Jiangsu Suning team once ignited the enthusiasm of Jiangsu football. In the 2020 Super League, Jiangsu Suning team also won the championship, and many glories were added. However, at the beginning of the second year, Jiangsu Suning team announced its dissolution.
Football has always been called the world’s number one sport, both in terms of the sport itself and the ability to attract gold in related events. However, Jiangsu, as a strong economic province, in recent years, there is no championship team in the Super League, and even the number of places in a top league is difficult to protect-Nantong Zhiyun Team was promoted to the Super League in 2022 and downgraded in 2024.
However, although the 13 districts and cities in Jiangsu "despise each other", they are all "capable of fighting" when it comes to economic strength. This is the "Thirteen Pacific Insurance" mutual "disdain" confidence, but also Su Chao’s confidence in attracting gold.
In 2024, Jiangsu’s GDP exceeded 13 trillion yuan, entering the stage of "the average GDP of the city exceeded one trillion yuan", and the increment reached the first place in the country. From the perspective of various districts and cities, economic development can be described as multi-flowering, forming a gradient structure of trillions, 900 billion, 700 billion, 500 billion and 400 billion.
Among them, there are five "trillion cities", from high to low, Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, Nantong and Changzhou, and Suzhou’s GDP in 2024 exceeded 2.67 trillion yuan; And Xuzhou, at the level of 900 billion, is only one step away from one trillion; There are Yangzhou, Yancheng and Taizhou at the level of 700 billion; The 500 billion level is Zhenjiang and Huai’ an; Suqian and Lianyungang are gatekeepers for Jiangsu at the level of 400 billion.
However, even Lianyungang, which is ranked at the bottom, although its presence in the province is not very strong, its GDP in 2024 will reach 466.3 billion yuan, which will be "looked up" by most cities in the country, and its GDP is even higher than that of some provincial capital cities. For example, the GDP of Urumqi, Hohhot and Lanzhou last year was 450.2 billion yuan, 410.7 billion yuan and 374.2 billion yuan respectively.
In the GDP ranking in 2024, more than 300 cities in China and 13 districts and cities in Jiangsu are all among the top 100, even among the top 70. In the whole country, only Jiangsu Province has done it.
Some people in Jiangsu said, "Scattering on the surface, gathering on the inside" may have contributed to the fire in Su Chao.