Football coach Pan Xin was impressed by the vibrant atmosphere at the Jiangsu City Football League’s opening match a month ago, but admits to being surprised it has persisted. The game drew a large crowd – including senior provincial officials – with cheerleaders adding a dash of colour, and was broadcast live by state media, he said. “It felt like a great start to the event, but I didn’t anticipate such a lasting impact,” said Pan, who coaches a youth football team in Danyang, Jiangsu province. Over the past month, the grass-roots football league – known colloquially as the Su Super League – has attracted millions of online viewers and thousands of fans to stadiums, sparking a consumption boom in products ranging from match tickets to local specialities. Chinese soccer fans, repeatedly disappointed by the men’s national football team, which was knocked out of the Asian qualifiers for next year’s World Cup after losing to Indonesia earlier this month, are showing unprecedented enthusiasm for the amateur tournament in the east coast province. Featuring 13 city-based teams with players from diverse backgrounds, the league has become a commercial juggernaut, with the rekindled passion boosting consumption. Unleashing the spending power of the country’s 1.4 billion people has become a major focus for officials looking to stimulate economic growth and offset the impact of a trade war with the United States. Official data painted an improvement in the consumption picture in May, with retail sales climbing by 6.4 per cent year on year, beating the 5.1 per cent growth seen in April. Running until November 2, the league has entered its fifth round and is attracting an average of 25,000 spectators to each game. Many travel from other parts of the country, helping to push up revenues for businesses in Jiangsu, authorities said. There are usually six games per round, but one was postponed last weekend. According to data released by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, the number of out-of-town tourists in the five host cities last weekend surged by 48 per cent compared to the previous weekend. It said cultural and tourism consumption in those cities paid for via UnionPay, China’s largest bank card scheme, was up 15 per cent. “I feel really excited to play in a game with 20,000 to 30,000 spectators, which is rarely seen even in professional leagues in China,” said Dai Pei, captain of the team from the city of Zhenjiang. At 36, he works full time for a real estate developer after retiring as a professional football player over a decade ago. People from out of town usually don’t head home right away; they tend to sit down to enjoy barbecue and beer together Dai Pei, Zhenjiang team captain Playing in an amateur tournament might not bring much in the way of personal financial benefits, but it has enriched his life and injected vigour into the local economy, he said. “As we can see, many matches of this football league have introduced package tickets, which include not only admission but also accommodation, meals and transportation,” he said. “After watching the game, people from out of town usually don’t head home right away; they tend to sit down to enjoy barbecue and beer together.” With the tournament having drawn over 190,000 spectators and hundreds of millions of online views during the first three rounds, according to Xinhua, city governments are using matches to drive tourism and local spending. Incentives such as free scenic spot tickets and local delicacies have attracted thousands, with Changzhou reporting that 60,000 fans visited from Yangzhou for a single game, Xinhua reported. Merchandise sales, from team jerseys to city-themed souvenirs, have surged, while live-streams on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, promote local businesses, fuelling e-commerce. With ticket prices ranging from roughly 10 yuan to 20 yuan (US$1.39 to US$2.78), the event had attracted 20 sponsors by Tuesday – up from six in the first round – with the minimum cost of a sponsorship reaching 3 million yuan. Tickets to a match between Nanjing, the provincial capital, and Changzhou this weekend sold out quickly after they were released on Wednesday, the organiser said, with 760,000 people having sought to reserve them. Professor Liu Dongfeng, from Shanghai University of Sport’s school of economics and management, said the secret behind the league’s popularity lay in its integration of sport with culture, tourism and commerce. Calling it an entertainment product that started as a sports product, he said: “It shows that China does not lack fans or purchasing power; what it lacks are high-quality products and services that deliver joy and emotional values.” Last year, China’s sports and entertainment product sales surged by 11.1 per cent year on year, significantly outpacing the 3.5 per cent growth in overall retail sales of consumer goods reported by the National Bureau of Statistics. Pan, the coach, said the tournament’s success was partly down to the balanced economic development among Jiangsu’s cities, with disparities significantly smaller than those seen in much of China. “Each city has sufficient economic strength to support team development, while their similar development levels foster an intense competitive spirit,” he said.