SPL's built on Chinese ideas they've had for their football leagues. Some euro players went to China but their league wasn't good so it's failed. SPL isn't like them they're trying to be competitive. They've made the SPL famous because they want to host the football world cup.
To be honest the difference is made by some clubs in the Saudi Pro League investing a lot of money, meaning they have bought many European Player so we think it's because of them that this league is more popular than China's. The steps they have taken in football in an increasingly dramatic way really surprise us because they are now willing to pay a lot of money to keep a player like Ronaldo. At the moment, it seems that the Asian super club is building on their success at the moment as they have brought good performances through many Latin American players in the Club World Cup. In fact due to the popularity of this league, Al Hilal now has many Brazilian players who were able to score goals in the CWC tournament against Manchester City. Maybe it is through all these pioneering players that this SPL can become more popular.
Mmmm the only common is both of them use a ton of money to buy european top players who are old or with not so much space in europe, but Saudi go one step further and start to own players who were already in top condition, plus Saudi football is way advanced than chinesse one, you can see it on the National team, and one last thing is they are more closer to europe in travel distance and, a lot of players who are muslims wants to go there because of religion.
The Chinese don't have the strategy to make their league famous because they don't understand how to go about it. Saudi Arabia has the money and was ready to spend it in other to make their country also among the top countries that would be mentioned in football. This was why they use their money to buy Ronaldo who was the world best several times. So that he can be a motivation to other European players who Ronaldo is better than. You buy the best if you need attention.