Professional sport leagues are both commercial products and public products. As China’s sports leagues transition from state-governed properties to a more commercial model, professional sports are facing a crucial turning point on balancing stakeholders pertaining to its commercial/market value and social value. How to develop a sustainable business and management model of professional sports teams, fitting Chinese culture and the calls on free economy, has become a major challenge to scholars, practitioners and entrepreneurs in China’s sport industry. Every organisation has its relationships with many groups ("stakeholders") that affect and are affected by its decisions, which are dynamic in a constantly changing world. Stakeholder theory was developed through concerns regarding the nature of these relationships in terms of both processes and outcomes for both organisation and stakeholders, and the changing nature of the environment.