Chapter 637: Burning a Golden Mountain

The second International Champions Cup in 2013 still used the East-West division format for the group stage.

The two semi-finals were scheduled to be held in the central United States.

The final championship match will still be held at the Suncity Arena in Miami.

Sixteen top-level matches between Europe's top teams, in just over ten days, once again ignited the football passion of North American fans. With sold-out stadiums, they told the world that North America is no longer a football desert.

On the contrary, here are the most enthusiastic fans with the greatest spending power in the world, and this place will become a gold-mining ground for the world's top teams!

Defending champions Southampton have been the favorite to win the International Champions Cup since it started.

This dark horse team, which was newly promoted last season and defeated Manchester United to miraculously win the Premier League championship, has considerable weight in the hearts of North American fans.

In addition, since the start of this summer transfer window, Southampton has always been the hottest team in the transfer market.

First he bought Suarez for 40 million pounds, and then he got caught up in Neymar's transfer soap opera.

Before the International Champions Cup started, Southampton first sent Neymar to Barcelona for a record-breaking price, and introduced Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona.

Then, Gareth Bale and Vidal were packaged and sent to Real Madrid for an astonishingly high price.

The two transfers, each one more shocking than the other, and the transfer fees kept rising, shocking fans all over the world. Southampton, with the help of these two transfers, suddenly stood at the cusp of the transfer market.

We have seen many teams selling players at high prices during the summer transfer window.

But how many teams sell their football teams like Southampton does, and at sky-high prices for each one?

As star teams in the transfer market such as Southampton, Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid, and Manchester City have all landed in North America to participate in the International Champions Cup, the attention of fans around the world has naturally focused on North America.

The opening match ended with defending champions Southampton defeating Barcelona 2-0.

Luis Enrique's team was blamed and criticized by fans after the game, but there was no improvement.

In the remaining two rounds, there was a draw and a loss, losing to Juventus and drawing with the Red Devils Manchester United.

After defeating Barcelona, ​​Southampton took advantage of the victory and defeated Juventus and Manchester United successively, winning three consecutive group stage games and qualifying as the group leader to advance to the semi-finals.

But the outside world was not satisfied with the Saints' performance.

In these three group matches, Southampton's offense was problematic.

Despite having powerful stars and talented newcomers such as Ibrahimovic, Drogba, Suarez, Hazard, Sturridge, Sanchez, Ravel Morrison and James Rodriguez, the Saints only scored four goals in three group matches.

Bielsa used three different starting lineups and multiple different attacking combinations in three games, but the results were not satisfactory.

Everyone believes that the Saints' offensive power has been greatly affected by the loss of Neymar and Gareth Bale.

Although Suarez and Sanchez have been introduced, it is still unknown when they will be able to work together effectively!

Sure enough, after advancing through the group stage, Southampton faced Bayern Munich in the semi-finals.

Bayern Munich, which had just changed its coach, was still adapting to the tactical system of the new coach Guardiola. As a result, the two sides played very unsatisfactory and the final score was 0-0. In the end, it was thanks to the outstanding performance of goalkeeper Neuer in the penalty shootout that Southampton eliminated Bayern Munich and successfully advanced to the final.

But in the final, Southampton lost to Real Madrid 1-2 and missed the chance to defend the International Champions Cup. Gareth Bale and Vidal, who had just joined Real Madrid, both started the game.

Among them, Gareth Bale scored his first goal for Real Madrid after joining the team and won a championship trophy.

Although Southampton failed to win the International Champions Cup, they made a big splash outside the stadium.

After signing several big contracts in North America last year, Southampton spent a year preparing and signed four sponsorship contracts with a total value of more than 100 million pounds during the International Champions Cup, which will bring Southampton at least 25 million pounds in commercial income each year.

This immediately amazed the whole world again.

Isn’t the Saints’ ability to make money a little too fast?

The contracts were signed one after another, and it felt like there were a lot of sponsors queuing up, holding contracts, waiting for Peter Kenyon to sign.

The day after the International Champions Cup ended, Mr. Bald held a small press conference in New York, USA, to announce Southampton's four new sponsorship contracts.

Strictly speaking, these are not big contracts, but small contracts of around 5 million pounds a year.

But isn’t there a saying?

That’s right, little by little can add up to a lot, and sand grains can build a tower!

Not only Southampton, but also Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Arsenal have signed more than one sponsorship contract in the United States.

This immediately shocked the entire European football world.

With the development of European professional leagues, the market has long been saturated, and opening up overseas markets has become the top priority for all European leagues and top teams.

To put it bluntly, whoever develops overseas markets better has greater development potential.

For two consecutive seasons, it has set off a boom in the North American basketball market and made a number of participating European top teams earn a fortune. Tell me, how can other European teams not be jealous?

As a result, the second International Champions Cup had just come to an end, and European teams were calling Miracle Media one after another to inquire about the schedule and qualifications of the International Champions Cup next season.

Some teams even called for a halving of appearance fees, just to make a name for themselves in the International Champions Cup in North America.

While Sun Yue was patiently dealing with this group of enthusiastic owners and senior executives of the wealthy football teams, he secretly admired Young Master Huan's wisdom.

Is the International Champions Cup profitable now?

Really no profit!

Although we signed sponsorship contracts and TV broadcast rights, the fees were not high and there was not much income.

But the eight teams coming to North America, their food, drinks, accommodation and entertainment are all paid for by Miracle Media, and they are all treated with the highest standards. How much money does it cost?

But after two International Champions Cups, the International Champions Cup has become famous, not only among sponsors, but also among Europe's top teams, and has established prestige because it can bring them value and benefits.

During the International Champions Cup, the eight teams successively announced more than a dozen sponsorship contracts. All of them were negotiated within the past year, but were not announced to the public until the International Champions Cup. As a result, a huge advertising effect was created.

With the development of this event to this point, let alone no profit or loss, even if there is a loss, so what?

Who wouldn't want to create a mountain of gold by spending money?

If we can create a flagship event like the European Champions League after spending a few years in compensation, it will be worth it!

Just as Sun Yue was laughing happily, someone knocked on his office door from outside.

"Come in!"

Then an American girl with a hot body, wearing a standard OL uniform but showing extremely curvy figure, walked in. She swayed gracefully and did not forget to throw a seductive glance at Sun Yue.

"Mr. Sun, the mayor's office in Miami just called and said they want to invite you to dinner."

Sun Yue looked at his secretary unscrupulously and said with a grin, "I'm not interested in having dinner with an old man. I'm more interested in having dinner with you, especially dinner!"

The female secretary gave him a coquettish look, as if to say, you damned bastard, you've already done this to me seven times last night, isn't that enough?

After a while of whispering, Sun Yue quickly returned to his composure, "He asked me to have dinner now, it must be about the International Champions Cup final. Tell him I'm not here. If he asks where I went, just say I went to the Middle East!"

"Middle East?" The American girl obviously thought of the scorching hot Sahara Desert.

"Don't ask so many questions, just answer according to what I say!"

The beautiful secretary seemed a little depressed. She pouted, spun in her high heels, and turned to leave.

But then she heard a snapping sound and felt a pain on her buttocks. It turned out that she was ambushed by her boss.

But she was not angry at all. Instead, she turned around, giggled at Sun Yue, and walked away quickly.

"What a charming little devil that is willing to kill people!"

Sun Yue sniffed his right hand, and it seemed as if he could still smell the lingering fragrance between his fingers.

But after the secretary closed the door and left, he picked up the mobile phone from the table, found a number, calmed himself down solemnly, took a breath, and then called.

"Master Huan, it's me, Old Sun."

"Old Sun, what's the matter?" Yang Huan's voice came from the phone.

Even though Sun Yue was always trying to flatter Young Master Huan and was even quite frivolous at times, deep down, he admired Young Master Huan to the core and was extremely loyal to him.

Three years ago, when he walked out of London Heathrow Airport with Master Huan, Zhang Ning, and Long Wu, who knew them? Who knew who these four guys were?

But three years later, who in the world doesn’t know Master Huan? Who doesn’t know Zhang Ning? Who doesn’t know Sun Yue?

All of this is thanks to Young Master Huan!

Moreover, Young Master Huan was never stingy with him. He gave him the salary and benefits he deserved, and even gave him shares in the company. Do you think that Sun Yue would not devote himself to Young Master Huan until his death?

"Master Huan, we got another call from Miami. Qatar, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, Australia in Oceania, and some countries, cities, and regions in Asia have contacted us. I wonder what you think..."

Yang Huan also hesitated for a while on the other end of the phone, "What do you think?"

Sun Yue thought for a moment, "I personally think that the development momentum of our event in North America has been very strong in the past two years, especially this year, it has completely overwhelmed the North American Invitational held by RS. There is news that European teams including Chelsea and AC Milan have clearly stated that they will not continue to participate in this event."

Yang Huan just said "hmm" indifferently on the phone and didn't say anything else.

"I think we should continue to focus on North America for the time being."

The entire North American sports market is indeed so huge, so huge that it is unimaginable!

So, it only took two years for the International Champions Cup to barely gain a foothold.

If we rashly give up this piece of fat meat at this time, it is difficult to guarantee that someone else will not take advantage of the situation.

Besides, you have to eat one bite at a time, you can't rush.

"Okay, I'll leave this matter to you."

"I understand, Master Huan!" Sun Yue replied calmly.

With Master Huan's words, he can handle many things with confidence! r1148