Left: Soccer fans cheer for the players during a match of the 2025 Jiangsu Football City League in Jiangsu on May 31, 2025. Right: Players engage in a fierce competition on the field. XIA CHENXI/FOR CHINA DAILY

Global Times-While the English Premier League, La Liga, and other top leagues are renowned worldwide, a grassroots league in East China's Jiangsu Province that kicked off just a month ago has captured the hearts of millions, evolving into a sensational cultural and sporting phenomenon. The league's rapid rise is a result of the deep convergence of the vitality of local economies and the sports spirit of friendly competition among cities.

The Jiangsu Football City League, dubbed Suchao, which was launched in May, features 13 teams, each representing a prefecture-level city in the province. Unlike its professional counterparts, Suchao draws players from all walks of life, ranging from professional athletes to college students and office workers.

The numbers best illustrate its explosive popularity. During the fourth round of the tournaments over the weekend, there were more than 25,000 spectators per match, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The attendance even surpassed that of some established professional leagues.

The league's appeal extends far beyond the pitch. Over the past weekend, the number of tourism orders in Jiangsu soared to the top spot nationwide on the Meituan Travel platform, with a week-on-week rise of 50 percent. Nanjing, the provincial capital, led the country in tourism orders, while Suzhou and Yangzhou also made it into the top 10, according to Yangzi Evening News. Apparently, Suchao has become a potent lever for boosting regional economic growth.

Since Jiangsu is not the first or the only province to hold provincial-level football leagues, its success has sparked intense discussion. Some online voices attribute it to fiscal support, but the reasons for the league's popularity are far more complex.

For starters, the success of Suchao can be attributed to a model that integrates top-down design at the provincial level, municipal autonomy, and grassroots social promotion. The Jiangsu Provincial Sports Bureau, the organizer of Suchao, collaborates with city governments and local football associations to jointly establish a non-profit framework. It delegates sponsorship rights to each tournament zone, fully stimulating market vitality.

Suchao's success is closely tied to Jiangsu's robust economic fundamentals. As an economic powerhouse ranking second in GDP nationwide for many years, Jiangsu boasted a per capita disposable income exceeding 55,000 yuan ($7,656) in 2024, according to thepaper.cn. This balanced development has led to the building of high-quality sports venues and other infrastructure facilities and activated the regional competitive "gene" among Jiangsu's cities.

Also importantly, it fosters a powerful culture of regional pride and competition. Residents, with a sense of identity with their hometowns, enthusiastically travel to support their cities, turning matches into civic celebrations. Playful slogans such as "Match comes first, friendship fourteenth" perfectly capture this spirited, friendly competition and cultural resonance.

The mutually beneficial relationship between enterprises and the league is a microcosm of Jiangsu's vibrant private economy. After the league delegated sponsorship rights to the tournament zones, enterprises vied with each other to gain sponsors for the honor of their cities, with single-seat sponsorship fees soaring to 3 million yuan, according to thepaper.cn. Sponsors gain massive local brand exposure, while the league secures vital funding for better operations. This virtuous cycle, powered by Jiangsu's vibrant private sector, creates a sustainable commercial ecosystem that's rare in grassroots sports.

Jiangsu's solid economic foundation and market-oriented operations have provided fertile ground for Suchao's popularity. However, does replicating the "Suchao model" merely hinge on economic fundamentals? Not necessarily. Each region has its own unique economic and cultural advantages. Only by finding the right combination of economics and sports can grassroots football leagues truly become a new engine for regional development.

After Suchao's explosive popularity, football leagues in other provinces have also attracted much attention. Recently, the Guangdong Provincial Football Association's official website announced that the 2025 season of the Guangdong Super League would be held from July to October, which will also show the vitality of the local economy.