A lot of spectators, a lot of stars, and the backside of the most spectacular ACLE of all time
A lot of spectators, a lot of stars, and the backside of the most spectacular ACLE of all time
Blog Article
The intensity of work is loose and there are no entertainment including alcohol and gambling. Because it is too hot in the middle of the day, it is common for people to get up late and walk around at night. The stands are a rare place where residents of the city can burst their energy. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was a place where foreigners could not access except for the road to Mecca, the holy site of Islam, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia. Here, the first final stage of the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE) was held.
With the launch of the 2024-2025 ACLE, AFC has taken a similar direction to that of Europe. It has the same direction as UEFA in two aspects. By expanding the types of competitions, AFC has created an international competition that allows players to participate in less competitive leagues. At the top-tier competition, the introduction of the league stage expanded the number of face-to-face confrontations between strong teams. A total of 24 teams participated in the ACLE this season, which hosted separate league stages in East and West Asia, to determine the round of 16 best teams first. The team played only the round of 16 best in a home-and-away manner with teams close to each other.
The final stage is the final stage to win and is an event organized by AFC with the idea of creating a festival. Unlike the previous tournament, which went up to the final in a home-and-away manner, the quarterfinals will all gather in one city to determine the winner with a short-term tournament. The first team to win the tournament after the reorganization was Al-Ahli. It beat Yokohama Marinos (Japan) in the quarterfinals and Saudi rival Al-Hilal in the semifinals to reach the final. It won the final match on the 4th (Korea time) by beating Kawasaki Frontale (Japan) 2-0.
▲ The Most Gorgeous Players, The Most Gorgeous Show
This year's event looked the most splendid among ACLE players, and attracted the most worldwide attention beyond Asia. The first factor was, of course, the reputation of players participating. Cristiano Ronaldo, the most famous player in the AFC Championship, as well as Marcello Brozovic, John Duran and Emrik Laport, played for Alnasr. Alhilal had Aleksandar Mitrovic, João Cancelo, and Kalidou Koulibaly. Al-Ahli, who beat them and won the championship, were also notable for their performances including Roberto Firmino, the MVP of the championship, Ibanese, Frank Kesier, Riyad Mahrez, and Edouard Mendy.
The AFC, which took the opportunity, reorganized the competition to meet its goal of "growing the club competition as much as the national competition." Major sponsors have increased the number from six to 11 this year. The money has been reinvested in the operation and grooming of the competition. The prize money has increased dramatically, reaching 10 million U.S. dollars upon winning the championship. As Gwangju coach Lee Jung-hyo said, "If you win, you will build a new clubhouse." While it costs a lot of effort and money just by holding the quarterfinals in one place, the splendor of the event was different from the past. DJ Jas, who is familiar with various soccer finals, appeared in every game from the quarterfinals, arousing audience's excitement. Special effects such as lighting shows, fireworks, and large-scale concerts were followed. In addition, the finals included laser shows before games, bands performing after games, and drone shows after award ceremonies are prepared.
▲ box office from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia
If the tournament is held in one place starting from the quarterfinals, the concentration of the tournament and short-term fun are maximized. Instead, it is a neutral stadium, not each team's home stadium, which makes it difficult to hold a box office. This was something AFC had been agonizing over for a long time. The reason why the ACL finals were often held in a home-and-away manner was because of the issue of the neutral stadium's box office success. He has set his own rules and played at home on either side a few times, but fairness was too poor.
Despite nominally hosting the games from the quarterfinals in a neutral zone, it was a huge success from the standpoint of spectators. Two of the seven games effectively drew more than 50,000 spectators, effectively filling the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium. The two games attracted 40,000 spectators. The biggest box office failure was the quarterfinal match between Kawasaki Frontale and Qatar's Al-Sad, which only drew about 2,800 spectators.
Among them, the semifinal match between Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli was the highlight of this competition. It was a match between Al-Ahli, who originally used the stadium as his home, and Al-Hilal, who flew from Riyadh. What stood out was the arrangement of the stands in which the entire stadium was divided in half without neutral seats. It was like there were only two supporters' seats, each with about 25,000 people in the middle of E-seat, and safety personnel formed a human chain. In that state, the excited spectators' cheering matches were so massive that the ground shook from a distance. It is very rare for a neutral stadium to be so full. Saudi soccer fans have added aggressive cheering. And it was European superstars such as Roberto Firmino and Ivan Toney who scored on the grass. Saudi Arabia's Salem al-Dosari and Firas al-Buraikan scored on top of the warm-up match, proving that they did not fall into a "mercenary party." Heat, process and results were all the hottest.
The success of ACLE this season is evidenced by the overall figures of the tournament as well as the Final Stage. The average attendance through the first six rounds of the league stage was 11,966. This is a 17% increase from the average attendance of 10,194 through the first six rounds of the 2023-2024 group stage. 온라인바카라
This is because strong teams representing each country in Southeast Asia also contributed to the success of the league stage. Until the sixth round, Johordarultakjim (Malaysia) had the largest average attendance of about 32,000. In terms of spectators by game, the Alnasr home game with about 37,000 people ranked first, and Johor's home game against Ulsan HD was second with about 34,000 people. An AFC official said, "The atmosphere of Johor home games is world-class beyond Asia."