Chapter 218 Divine Logic

"What? Thirty million pounds?"

In the office of Adidas branch in London, England, Marcus Baumann's hands trembled and he stood up in fright.

My goodness, that's 30 million pounds.

You know, when Adidas sponsored Liverpool in the early years, it was only 12 million pounds a year.

Crazy, absolutely crazy!

"Jack, come into my office for a moment!" Marcus Bauman dialed the internal telephone code.

In less than a minute, a middle-aged German man in his thirties knocked on the door and came in.

"Have you read this morning's newspaper?" Marcus Bauman asked bluntly.

Jack nodded. "I have read it. Almost all newspapers have reported it. I even read the report in Les Echos du Midi. It is said that the sponsor is Chateau Calon-Ségur in Bordeaux."

"The Chiron family? Is it the Love Manor?" asked Marcus Bauman.

The wine label of Château Calon-Ségur is a heart, so it has a nickname called "Heart of Heart".

"That's him."

Marcus Bowman was puzzled. "This winery is well-known in the wine circle, but do they have the financial resources to sponsor Southampton? And they give 30 million pounds a year!"

"I don't know." Jack was also distressed.

"But I also noticed that there was some big news in the wine circle yesterday."

Marcus Bauman said nothing and motioned for him to continue.

"The Calon family, which has always been engaged in the en primeur wine trade as its main business, suddenly announced yesterday that it would permanently withdraw from the en primeur wine trade system. Then, it sponsored Southampton with a high-profile amount of 30 million pounds. Is there a connection between the two?"

Marcus Baumann felt very distressed. Who could tell clearly about business matters?

Besides, different fields have different worlds. Who knows what’s going on in the wine circle?

However, this time, the Chiron family’s high-profile sponsorship of Southampton is likely to become a hit.

Everyone in the wine circle knows that they don’t have this ability, but the question is, who knows outside the wine circle?

People who don’t know, just by looking at the news, would definitely think that this is the world’s top luxury brand.

They accomplished something that even Lafite and Latour couldn't do.

“There were rumors earlier that the previous owner of Calon wanted to pass the winery on to his descendants, but the inheritance tax was incredibly high, nearly 200 million euros, so he finally decided to sell it.”

Marcus Baumann looked up when he heard this. "You mean, a wealthy person bought the Chiron family and then spent a lot of money to sponsor Southampton?"

"It should be correct!" Jack also guessed.

"The £30 million sponsorship of Southampton has created an unexpected and stunning effect. Now the media across Europe, even in China, are hyping this up like crazy because it is so shocking. This is bound to make the brand value of the Chiron family soar."

Yang Huan never showed up in person to acquire the Kailong family. Who could know the twists and turns involved?

"Anyway, we are in trouble now!" Marcus Bauman felt embarrassed.

"Who said it wasn't?" Jack also smiled bitterly with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Southampton received a sponsorship of 30 million pounds, and its reputation has skyrocketed. Whoever wants to sponsor this team in the future must first consider their own weight. They sold a sleeve advertisement for 30 million, how about your chest? How about your jersey?"

Marcus Baumann shook his head and sighed, "If the Chiron family wasn't in France, I would really suspect that all this was a drama written and performed by Southampton themselves, just applying the venture capital approach to club sponsorship."

This practice of taking advantage of the situation is prevalent in the venture capital field.

When a company wants to attract investment, it will first find an acquaintance to invest a few million or tens of millions, take a pitifully small amount of shares, and raise the company's valuation as much as possible.

When real investors come in, the negotiations will be much more advantageous. What is the valuation of a certain company and how much money has been invested? At least your valuation cannot be too low, right?

Okay, I'll give you a 20% discount. It's a courtesy price, and it can't be any lower.

But the problem is, 20% off is still quite ridiculously high!

After hearing this, Jack also smiled bitterly. Who can solve this problem?

"Has Liverpool signed with Warriors Sports?" Marcus Bowman asked with concern.

"Signed!" Jack replied.

"How many?"

"Twenty-five million pounds a year!"

Marcus Bauman really had the urge to curse. Don’t these Americans consider the input and output?

After the Miracle of Istanbul, Adidas snatched Liverpool's jersey sponsorship from Reebok, with an annual price of 12 million pounds, which will expire next year.

However, in recent years, Liverpool's performance has not been ideal, but they have a big appetite in sponsorship negotiations.

Adidas originally wanted to give it a cold shoulder for a while, but unexpectedly, Warriors Sports suddenly emerged and acquired Liverpool at twice the price, which caught Adidas off guard.

"The headquarters has clearly asked us to complete the new round of layout as soon as possible. Otherwise, by next summer, we will only have Chelsea as the team!" Jack reminded.

Marcus Baumann himself knows this very well.

Nike and Adidas have always been in a tit-for-tat relationship.

But now, with the strong intervention of several American brands including Warriors Sports, this balance is gradually being broken.

"I heard that Nike is using its relationship with Umbro to negotiate with Manchester City recently," Jack reminded again.

If this matter is not handled well, Adidas may return to the passive situation at the beginning of the new century.

In those years, Adidas was almost nowhere to be seen in the Premier League, and it was all dominated by Nike, Reebok and Umbro.

This also led to a significant reduction in Adidas' influence and market share in the UK.

If Chelsea hadn't come along later, the situation would have been disastrous.

But if a year later, only Chelsea is left of Adidas, it will become a monopoly, which is too passive.

"Southampton, we must win!"

This new team is so dazzling that it may be a powerful weapon to break the situation in the Premier League next year.

If they win, even if they can't deal with Manchester City, as long as Southampton is promoted, at least there will still be Chelsea and Southampton in the Premier League next year, and Adidas will have a firm foothold.

"Raise the price!" Marcus Baumann made a prompt decision.

"Price increase?" Jack was a little surprised.

"Let's start with 13 million pounds!"

"Thirteen million?" Jack was shocked.

This is higher than Liverpool's offer.

Is there a bit of revenge involved here?

"I will tell the head office that we must defeat Southampton no matter what this time. This step is crucial!"

What Marcus Bauman sees is not money, but market share!

…………

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“Did Adidas raise its prices?”

A day later, also in London.

Bert Hoyet received this message from his assistant.

"Not only has Adidas increased its prices, but Heineken has also increased its prices. Look at today's newspapers. Southampton's official website announced that it has signed a £5 million sponsorship contract with Heineken, but the specific details were not disclosed."

"Five million pounds?" Bert Hoyet was really surprised.

"The contract between Manchester United and Budweiser is only 6 million pounds, right?"

"Um."

"It's crazy, the world is crazy!" Bert Hoyet finds it difficult to understand this market.

Isn’t the money of these people really money?

"I heard that Marcus Baumann of Adidas rushed back to the German headquarters early this morning. In addition, after Warrior Sports acquired Liverpool, it is also gearing up to sponsor Southampton. It is said that the price offered is not bad."

Compared with Adidas's bad situation, Nike's situation is not very good, but not too bad either.

They have been in very harmonious talks with Manchester City in recent days. As long as they can defeat Manchester City, they will have enough support even if one of Manchester United and Arsenal rebels.

"Mr. Hoyette, what do we do now?"

Bert Hoyet thought deeply and hesitated for a long time.

"We'll also raise our offer to £15 million!"

Football clubs are a scarce commodity, especially top-tier teams, which are even more of a luxury.

Just like teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​once they want to renew the contract, they will definitely try every means to raise the requirements.

That is something you can only encounter by chance.

If Barcelona asks for 50 million, Nike will not refuse as long as it thinks it is acceptable.

The reason is simple, there is only one Barcelona in the world!

The same is true at Southampton now.

Although this is just a Championship team, what is more important is the future.

…………

…………

As Southampton officials announced the completion of two major sponsorship contracts in two consecutive days, it immediately caused an uproar in the entire English football world, and even attracted strong attention in European football and around the world.

Calon Ségur sponsors Southampton with £30 million!

Heineken sponsors Saints for £5 million!

Both pieces of news were shocking.

If Calon Segar is not very famous and there may be something fishy about it, then what about Heineken beer?

Heineken Beer officially announced this matter at a press conference and gave Southampton high praise.

So, the whole world has come to a conclusion that Heineken is very optimistic about Southampton.

This immediately caused Southampton's market to rise.

There are even many fans and media who believe that Southampton will sign a record-breaking jersey sponsorship.

"From all the signs in the past, it is clear that one of the important reasons why sponsors are optimistic about the Saints is the advertising effect and influence. When Calon Ségur sponsored Southampton and became famous all over the world overnight, who among the sponsors who wanted to promote their brands would not want to achieve such an advertising effect?"

But many people also believe that this is purely a hype and a bubble.

"Manchester United's sponsorship contract with Budweiser is only £6 million, but Southampton's is as high as £5 million. I find it hard to imagine that Southampton can bring Heineken the same advertising effect as Manchester United."

"The brand effect is far inferior to that of Manchester United, even on the pitch. At least Manchester United can appear in the Premier League live broadcast all over the world every week and in the Champions League, which everyone is watching. Can Southampton do that?"

These are some judgments made by professionals or media reporters.

But for ordinary fans, who cares about these messy things?

Especially for Southampton fans, does this have anything to do with them?

On the contrary, Southampton signed a number of huge sponsorship contracts, which are all the talk of the town.

Whoever sabotages their performance will have trouble with them!

"No matter how much those reporters and media say, it's all nonsense. In a word, Southampton is awesome. What do you think?"

"That's right, if you have the ability to pull out another team and beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final, I will be convinced!"

"That's right. As a third-tier league team, they created more than a hundred years of English football history, won the FA Cup, and as a second-tier league team, represented English football in the Europa League. Who says Southampton is not awesome?"

"Those who say Southampton are not good are just sour grapes."

"Manchester United, Manchester United, they are nothing, won't they be beaten down by us?"

"That's right, I'm defeated, what can I say?"

"These journalists always say that true strength is revealed on the football field, but we beat Manchester United on the football field, so shouldn't we also catch up with or even surpass Manchester United in terms of sponsorship fees?"

But soon someone came out to oppose it.

"Those of you who support Southampton, do you know what a wealthy club is?"

"They are nouveau riche. They have never been rich in their lives. How can they know what a wealthy family is?"

"Do you know how much influence we, Manchester United, have in the world?"

Southampton fans are fed up.

"We don't know how much influence you have, but we know that we will kill you!"

"Where's the Triple Crown?"

"Ferguson is so good at making excuses. When we lost to Southampton in the FA Cup final, he said it was because of the referee. When we lost to Barcelona in the Champions League final, he said it was because we fought too hard against Southampton. Damn, what a fantastic logic!"

"Understand that Manchester United fans are just like Ferguson, they are all stubborn old men."

"This is the era of young people, and it also belongs to Southampton!"

"Manchester United fans, just continue to rest on your laurels, we are going to move on!"

When everyone was having mixed feelings about Southampton, the Saints' official website made another announcement.

Aston Martin, a British luxury car brand that has just made a splash in China, will sponsor Southampton with an annual sponsorship fee of more than eight figures, which has once again shocked the entire English football world.

Soon, Sunseeker Yachts officially announced that it had reached a sponsorship agreement with Southampton, but the specific sponsorship details were not disclosed to the public.

Each piece of news has undoubtedly pushed Southampton further to the forefront of public opinion.

The world's media has shown unprecedented attention to Southampton.

And this trend is also rapidly fermenting.

It not only affects professional football, but also affects companies and brands related to Southampton.