Chapter 283: Confidence is blocked

The aroma of coffee permeates the conference room, and the golden sunlight penetrates the glass windows and fills the entire space, as if you are flying above the clouds. You can inadvertently see the grandeur and magnificence of the entire city from the window. The towering buildings give people the illusion of controlling the world.

No wonder everyone loves tall buildings. Who can resist the charm of overlooking New York?

"...After signing Yao, the entire basketball market in Houston has experienced an explosive reaction. Not only the sales of basketball jerseys, but their market share in China has also shown a soaring trend..."

"...so much so that NBA teams have begun to sign Chinese players one after another, from Wang to Ba, and then to Yi, Sun, and Zhou. The NBA even held a special nationwide live broadcast for Yi. Was it really because his strength had reached the top of the pyramid in the entire field? The answer is obvious..."

"It's not just us. Look at the five major European football leagues..."

In the conference room, Tobias was giving an impassioned speech. Six people were sitting neatly in front of him, all listening attentively.

From this point, we can feel that at least Adidas has attached enough importance to it.

"…In competitive sports, strength is undoubtedly the most important factor; however, when considering the prospects of the commercial market, strength is not the only factor. Especially for the Asian market, identity and emotional resonance play an important role, so it does not matter even if the strength is relatively inferior…"

"Li Na and Kei Nishikori are the best representatives."

"But I believe that Gao can have both market and court aspects. By signing with Gao, we are signing for market prospects, and more importantly, for the future of tennis."

After a brief pause, Tobias looked at everyone in the conference room with confidence.

"Do you know who won the first championship trophy for a Chinese male tennis player in history?"

Those present were senior executives from Adidas' marketing, publicity, and tennis player departments, but they were not true tennis professionals and naturally had no knowledge of these historical records.

They looked at each other in confusion, and no one could answer. However, there was a hint of curiosity in their eyes, as if they were attracted by Tobias' question.

Tobias's mouth curled up.

"It's high."

There were rustling sounds and some unexpected things happening in the meeting room.

A middle-aged man with a big belly asked in great surprise, "Are you sure? You mean all levels of professional tours?"

Tobias nodded slightly in agreement.

"In fact, I didn't realize this until yesterday, when Gao won the Challenger Championship for the second week in a row. Then I looked it up out of curiosity and found that Gao is the first and so far the only Chinese male player to win the championship in all levels of the ATP professional tour."

According to historical records, the first championship title for a Chinese male player in all levels of the ATP Professional Tour was not won until Wu Di at the 2016 Hawaii Challenge.

Then, at the San Francisco Challenger the following year, Zhang Ze won the championship. This was his first title in his career and also the second title for a Chinese male player.

Now, Gao Wen's sudden emergence has rewritten history, bringing the time of the Chinese male player's first championship forward by two years; moreover, Wu Di was born in 1991, and was already 25 years old when he reached the top in Hawaii, but Gao Wen was only 18 years old, and a bright future was unfolding before his eyes.

However, after Gao Wen won the Binghamton Challenge, he was simply happy about winning the championship. He had no time to celebrate at all, and for a while he did not think about the feat of "making history".

He then rushed to Lexington without stopping, and then to Aptos without stopping. The busy competition schedule required him to stay highly focused, and he had no idea that he was making history.

Gawain didn't say anything, and Tobias didn't think about it.

It was not until Gawain topped Lexington for the second week in a row that Tobias was unable to make a breakthrough in the sponsorship negotiations. So he wanted to increase his bargaining chips and took the initiative to investigate. Only then did he realize that Gawain's significance to Chinese tennis was actually beyond his imagination.

Tobias was full of confidence about today's meeting.

"Moreover, Gao not only won the first Challenge Championship for a Huaxia male player, but also won the second in a row."

"Believe me, Gao can become the second Yao. Houston had the courage to choose Yao as the No. 1 pick, but Nike missed him because of its arrogance. Instead, Reebok won Yao's sponsorship contract. Now Adidas will not want to repeat the same mistake."

Simple and straightforward, straight to the point.

One thing Tobias always emphasizes is:

The cake of the Chinese market is there, and professional football and basketball teams have also signed many Chinese players for market considerations - it doesn't matter even if their strength is lower than expected, because the market value is there.

Gao Wen not only has market value, but also has outstanding strength and huge potential. Adidas has no reason to miss Gao Wen, even if Gao Wen only has two Challenge Championship titles in his hands, it is already sufficient.

Tobias believes Adidas will make the right judgment.

In the conference room, the senior executives did not give an answer immediately, but exchanged pleasantries. The lively atmosphere with everyone smiling and chatting was truly harmonious.

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But Tobias was slightly anxious.

As an excellent agent, Tobias has his own unique way of interpreting attitude, tone, expression, and atmosphere. He can detect the key points behind roundabout words.

If Adidas needs to discuss and consider something, that is perfectly normal, and Tobias does not expect to finalize everything in just one meeting.

However, the attitude of the senior executives in front of him was noisy and lacked sincerity. Although they had been actively asking about Gao Wen's situation and caring about Gao Wen's plans for the next North American season, as if showing strong concern, however, the seemingly lively scene was actually all roundabout and formal words.

That is, they were not interested, or at least not impressed, by Tobias.

But why? Tobias didn't understand.

Tobias's speech today has hit the nail on the head. In particular, the impact brought by the two Challenge Championships is enough to be comparable to the NBA's scouting report on Yao/Ming. Coupled with the precedent of Nike and Yao Ming's contract incident, shouldn't Adidas be eager to seize the opportunity?

What are they thinking? Is their head caught in the door?

Thoughts were surging in his mind, but on the surface he still had to pretend to be nice to these senior executives, at least not to break up with them. It was not until he left the meeting room and headed for the elevator that a trace of solemnity appeared in his eyes.

Or was there something wrong with my strategy?

As a top agent, Tobias needs to reflect on himself all the time to avoid ruining his work with arrogance. He needs to re-examine himself.

(End of this chapter)