NBA-level wooden floors, LED large-screen viewing experience in the inner ring field of the stadium, the on-site audience with full sense of presence, the magnificent in-court vision and opening music... All of this, which was originally only a game element of NBA teams, will now become a stage for a group of Chinese Taipei players to perform.
Chen Jianzhou, the "black" who brought Lin Zhijie to the Guangsha team, will not be unfamiliar to fans familiar with the CBA. Today, determined to become a Taiwanese Yao Ming-like figure, he has single-handedly created a new professional basketball league that is at least in Asia and has achieved No.1 in visual effects - Taiwan's P. League + League.
Sell tens of millions of sports cars to raise funds
Chen Jianzhou's development plan began in May this year. At that time, the Taiwan men's basketball team SBL had just ended, and he began to plan to establish a new professional league.
Previously, the SBL League, which represented the highest level of basketball in Taiwan, was nothing more than a semi-professional league. This league nature not only results in low player incomes, but also very limited returns for investors in the league. It is understood that the annual investment budget of SBL public-run teams is only 7.5 million to 15 million yuan; the monthly income of local top-paid players is 120,000 Taiwan dollars, or about 26,000 yuan.
The SBL league level is limited, subject to semi-professional and insufficient packaging, and it is difficult to attract enough spectators to the scene. A strong team like Taiwan Beer has an average of only two or three thousand people per game, and even if it is the final of the championship, there are generally only five or six thousand people to watch the game.
It is precisely out of multiple considerations such as enhancing operational capabilities, improving influence, and inviting more spectators back to the stadium that Chen Jianzhou began to prepare for a new professional league. After more than five months of preparation, Taiwan P. The League+ is scheduled to kick off on December 19 and build momentum on a three-week warm-up run.
The two warm-up matches in Hsinchu and Taipei were hugely acclaimed, attracting more than 30,000 spectators. Especially in the competition held in Taipei, the well-known art Jay Chou and Kunling couple came to the scene to watch the game and supported this newly created league.
"We want to make a significant difference in the whole business model, or even in one experience that comes into the market." Chen Jianzhou talked about the taiwan P. League + League Outlook.
New things are always full of unknowns and uncertainties, and Chen Jianzhou has a clear understanding of this. "When you're going to do something, the information that's being out there is important. I'm not just giving this message to the fans, it's to the team owners, and to my partners. He sees the new league as a startup that gives investors enough confidence to practice it.
To this end, Chen Jianzhou made a surprising move - selling his beloved sports car worth tens of millions of dollars as part of the league's start-up capital. "It is expected that there will be a capital of 50 million, and the team and the boss cannot pay for it all," said Chen Jianzhou, who was responsible for 30 million of it. "When I'm in charge, I want to let everyone know that I don't need [sports cars] and other things, put the money I sold directly into the alliance, and find a partner." Chen Jianzhou said confidently.
The start-up Taiwanese P. League + League, the first season is smaller, currently consisting of only 4 teams: Taixin Dreamers, Taipei Fubon Warriors, Taoyuan Pilot Apes and Hsinchu Siege Lions. The league, which has "#是时候了" as the slogan of the first season, will implement a complete home-and-away format. This is also the world's first basketball league that allows spectators to enter the game on a large scale after the epidemic.
Although there were only four teams initially, Chen Jianzhou's goal is to make it a transnational league after three years. At an official press conference on November 11, Chen Jianzhou revealed: "Professional teams including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau and Hong Kong have been contacted before and hope to join this year. But out of the idea of playing steadily and managing Taiwan's local teams first, Chen Jianzhou said that this situation is expected to be achieved in three years.
Regarding the naming of the league, Chen Jianzhou can be described as painstaking. The "P" in the league name represents multiple meanings, covering the five elements of People (fans), Players( Passion), Professional (Professionals), plus (bonus points). This is exactly what Chen Jianzhou hopes to "let basketball not only play basketball", but to build it into an important platform for the local tourism economy, players, teams, and fans to create a new situation.
NBA-level venue experience
The P. League + League is taiwan's second time after 20 years that there is a local professional basketball league. Compared to the SBL league, which has been operating for many years, its rules have changed significantly.
The SBL League is in line with FIBA and is divided into four quarters of 10 minutes in the first quarter, with a total of 40 minutes in the whole game; The League+ league showed its professional side, on par with the NBA and CBA, with each quarter extended to 12 minutes and a total of 48 minutes in the game, nearly one more session than the original. This is undoubtedly a new test for the physical distribution of players, the lineup allocation of coaches and tactical arrangements.
Tan Jielong, a mixed-race player who joined the Treasure Island Dreamers this year, said that he had never played a full 48-minute game, but the team's usual training and friendly matches have switched to 48 minutes mode to adapt in advance. Such a change is also a new experience for fans who watch the game on the treasure island.
Correspondingly, the number of fouls a player has committed has increased from 5 to 6. In addition, the league also stipulates a final 2-minute tiebreaker period in the 4th quarter, with one additional 30 short timeouts per team, as well as one chance to challenge.
The P. League+ league also accommodates as many players of all identities as possible, and in addition to local players and foreign aid, foreign graduates and Chinese players have also been qualified. However, the use of foreign aid is limited to 4 sessions and 7 person-times, and the fourth section can only use a single foreign aid.
In anticipation of the upcoming league, some of the venues were deliberately renovated. Taking the home of the Hsinchu Siege Lions as an example, the team and the local government jointly spent about 15 million yuan to renovate the Hsinchu County Gymnasium, and the specifications of the stadium were upgraded to a professional level. The renovated new facilities include wooden floors, side mats, basket frames, home and guest lounges, team offices and more.
In order to run the league well, the venue part of the stadium has introduced an NBA floor, and will be painted with the team's main visual for a second renovation before the official start of the season, so as to improve the visual consistency of the stadium. For the safety of players, stickers will not be used. A 300-inch LED scoreboard was installed on the site of the game, and its viewing texture was comparable to that of the NBA Arena.
The players' lounge is another highlight of the renovation of the venue, and the lounges of the main and guest teams have been redesigned and decorated by professional interior designers. Each player in the lounge is equipped with an exclusive locker and a custom sofa area in the central area. Such a comfortable space is conducive to the players to better prepare and recover.
Chen Jianzhou also made great efforts in the promotion of the league and the incentive of outstanding players. In Taipei's most important business district, Xinyi District, on the side of the bustling Neo 19 mall, Chen Jianzhou wrapped up a large screen. When the season officially begins, any player named the best performer of the week will be on the big screen to commemorate it, which will encourage players to work hard for this glorious moment.
Chen Jianzhou for P. The continuous construction of the League+ league has made this league more influential and attractive. At the official press conference, Fubon Warriors coach Xu Jinzhe revealed that the participants included Lin Zhijie, Cai Wencheng, Wu Daihao and other 5 members of the "Golden Generation" of Chinese Taipei. We are very touched that these people were able to provide such a stage late in their careers and continue to work this stage. Xu Jinzhe said.
Lin Zhijie, who played in the CBA Guangsha team for 10 years and is now returning to play for the Fubon Warriors, said: "If I can play until I retire in such a happy and hard-working league, it will be more honorable and happier for me." In addition, Chinese Taipei's long-time naturalized player, 37-year-old Quincy Davis, will also compete. Despite having undergone two intervertebral disc surgeries, this newly created professional league still has enough charm to attract the retired veteran.
The road to survival is a long way to go
The high-profile and smooth start of the P. League+ League has made many people optimistic about its development prospects. But this newly created professional league still has many problems to be solved.
In the first season, only 4 teams competed, and the league was too small to constrain P. The expansion of the influence of the League+ League. Too few teams means fewer players, and fewer stars with outstanding performance and popularity. In the initial stages of the league, fans will also be attracted by the new viewing experience such as home and away formats and 48-minute matches; once the freshness is over, it is easy to produce aesthetic fatigue in the face of familiar faces with only 4 teams and repeated appearances.
The P. League+ league is too small and limits the cap on the profitability of the entire league. Of course, all this is still in the initial stage of exploration, with the process of the league and the expansion of influence, Chen Jianzhou and other operators may have new countermeasures.
About P. The long-term plan of the League+ League to build a transnational league in the next three years will also face new problems. The frequent exchange of players between different countries and regions is bound to involve a series of problems of entry, and the cultural and value differences between teams and players can be reconciled and integrated?
Chen Jianzhou's plan to attract professional teams from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries or regions is also facing challenges in its home-and-away arrangements. If it is set up in the home of each team, the distance between them is too far, which is extremely unfavorable to the operating costs of the team and the schedule of the league; if the foreign team is invited to taiwan, similar to the Sina Lions who have joined the CBA League to settle in Suzhou, it is bound to have another problem - how to make such foreign teams win the identity and sense of belonging of local fans? Once the soil of fan support is lacking, such a professional team will inevitably have difficulty surviving for a long time. The Sina Lions have only played the CBA for two years before exiting the league, which is a lesson for the past.
At this stage, P. From the perspective of the operation of the League+ League, it stands side by side with the SBL League, facing the test of league exposure and the diversion of the fan market. In the 1996-97 season, the early days of the CBA, a professional league called cnba was also established, which was running side by side with the CBA at that time, and its situation was similar to that of today's P. League+ leagues have many similarities.
CNBA also initially attracted the attention of fans through some new element design. For example, at that time, each team could introduce 4 foreign players and an American head coach, which changed the CBA's rules of play following the FIBA system of attacking for 30 seconds and 40 minutes for the whole game, and completely introduced the rules of attacking 24 seconds, 48 minutes of the whole field, 8 seconds of the half, canceling the joint defense and adopting the rule of human-centered defense. As a result, the pace of attack and defense in the game has been accelerated, and the foreign aid performance is very enjoyable, allowing fans to get close to the NBA's stadium culture. The league was quite hot at the time and quickly seized some of the fan market that originally belonged to the CBA.
Former National Sun Fengwu once competed in CNBA
However, the CNBA League did not last long, and soon after only one season of suspected infringement and poor management, it collapsed and disappeared completely, becoming a small episode on the road to professionalization of Chinese basketball. Today's rise of P. League + league, more need to take a warning from it.