Chapter 716: Playing Big
Yang Huan stood on the stage, looking at the chaotic reporters below, feeling extremely proud.
You guys, what did you say when I said I would give it to you for free?
You all almost swallowed me with your saliva, but now I just want to show you, I just want to tell you, our Southampton tickets are going to be free, so what, are you going to bite me?
The reporters below were whispering and discussing among themselves, and the order at the scene was a little chaotic.
Yang Huan was not in a hurry and waited leisurely, even secretly giving a playful wink to Charlene Lahri. The latter glared at him unhappily, but she also found it funny in her heart and even a little bit of admiration.
To be honest, four years ago, Yang Huan asked for free tickets when he was interviewed by her.
But at that time, Charlene Lahri felt that this was impossible.
Because no team in the world has ever played like this. Free tickets are a huge loss for any team. Who can afford it?
Even for Real Madrid, with tens of millions of euros in ticket revenue a year, can they just say it's free?
However, at the time, some business people said in interviews that there was such a possibility, but the prerequisite was that Southampton had to find a way to make up for the team's income.
To put it simply, the wool comes from the pig!
"We are very happy to work with Citibank to launch a Saints Fan Card, which is a credit card exclusively for all Southampton fans and a symbol of distinguished status. With it, you can spend money on the artificial island, underwater hotel and all the consumption places authorized by our Southampton club."
"It's like any other credit card, the only difference is that it has a points system specifically for Saints fans. Every penny you spend with this card will be recorded as your fan points."
"When you accumulate a certain amount of fan points, you can use them to log on to our official website, mobile app, or come to our stadium to redeem your tickets and season tickets. Different points can be exchanged for different discounts or even free of charge. We will not charge any other fees except for necessary fees such as insurance premiums."
"Not only tickets, but also all souvenirs and fan supplies in our official fan shop can be exchanged with fan card points. These are all designed by famous designers we invited, and some are global limited editions!"
This time, everyone present finally understood.
So this is the pattern Southampton is going to play!
On the surface, fans’ tickets are free, but what is the reality?
Fans need to apply for a fan card, then use the fan card to make purchases in exchange for points, and then redeem tickets with the points.
So, although Southampton does not collect tickets directly from fans, in fact, fans are also paying for tickets, but this payment is not a one-time payment, but is paid in daily consumption accumulated over time.
There is everything on the artificial island, including eating, leisure, entertainment, shopping... it can be said that it has everything.
What Southampton wants to do now is to attract all fans from the surrounding areas to the artificial island.
No, no, no!
Attracting people to the artificial island is just the first step!
If other businesses outside of Artificial Island, or even businesses in London, the United Kingdom, or even other businesses on the European continent are interested, the Saints will charge an authorization fee and grant the other party authorization after review and approval.
What Southampton needs to do is to build a platform and serve as a bridge between Saints fans and businesses.
What is foreseeable is that Southampton tickets are free, and souvenirs and fan supplies are also free, but they can turn around and charge merchants for licensing fees and sales shares.
Given Southampton's cleverness, there is absolutely no way they would suffer a loss on this point. They must have made careful calculations.
Otherwise, who would do business at a loss?
As for the fans, it is very simple. You can eat wherever you go and spend money wherever you go. But if you use a fan card to spend and accumulate a certain number of points, you can also get free tickets and fan supplies, or discounted tickets. Do you think the fans will refuse?
Especially for those Saints diehards living in Southampton and South London, this is a very cost-effective thing for them, because the season ticket price saved every year is several hundred pounds.
As for Southampton, they will definitely make some money, at least they won’t have to pay tax on ticket sales.
Yang Huan was also worried that the outside world would misunderstand Southampton's move, so he gave further analysis, saying that consumption on the artificial island would not increase due to the points system, and all the goods in Harrods were exactly the same as those in Harrods in London.
At the same time, it was also stated that after careful calculations by the club, the design of the points system would not impose too much burden on the fans.
In fact, when Southampton was formulating this points system, it also conducted a very detailed and long-term investigation. It hired as many as three investigation companies and the time was as long as two years. The area covered included the area south of London and the surrounding areas of Southampton.
Finally, the results of the questionnaire sent to Yang Huan showed that Southampton fans generally support the Conservative Party, or at least are centrists, so Yang Huan is closer to Terry Matthews and Boris Johnson, and even allows Boris Johnson to publicly state that he is a Saints fan.
The fans generally work in mid- to high-end industries, such as engineering, tourism and the hotel industry. The salaries in these industries are generally high, so Southampton fans have more than one thousand pounds left every month after normal expenses, with an average of more than two thousand pounds, ranking among the top 20 Premier League teams.
This is also consistent with the outside world's view of Southampton, that the fans generally come from the middle and high income groups.
Fans of teams such as Arsenal and Queens Park Rangers also have monthly savings of more than 1,000 pounds, but the ticket prices of these two teams are much higher than Southampton. Although Chelsea's ticket prices are also high, their fans can afford it very little, with monthly savings of less than 150 pounds.
This just proves the saying that the real Chelsea fans are not in West London, but in Millwall.
Because Southampton fans are generally middle- and upper-class, they have relatively high demands on life. For example, a questionnaire survey shows that they are willing to pay more for good quality products. When buying clothes, they prefer comfort, but it is best if they are both fashionable and comfortable. They also like to buy carefully selected products and services.
After this series of investigations, Southampton decisively targeted the mid- to high-end fan base, so they developed a complete points system and decided to introduce Harrods and other mid- to high-end brands and merchants.
At the same time, when designing the points redemption system, the team also attached great importance to its close integration with daily life. The purpose is naturally to create a situation in which clubs, businesses and fans are all happy.
Not only that, Southampton also attaches great importance to the cultivation of young fan groups.
As we all know, the average age of Saints fans is the lowest in the Premier League, but young fans will always grow up and mature, so the team offers points discounts specifically for children and students, hoping to cultivate more fresh blood.
This is also a problem that has gradually emerged in the Premier League in recent years, that is, the home atmosphere is getting worse and worse.
Even at Liverpool's Anfield, the home atmosphere is no longer the same as it was back then.
The reason is very simple, the fans are getting older and more mature, it is impossible for them to shout and cheer throughout the stadium with full of passion like when they were young.
Today, the average age of Premier League fans is as high as 41 years old, and only 9% of fans are under the age of 16. This proportion is not optimistic. One of the important reasons for this problem is that the price of tickets is too high.
Although the attendance rates of teams like Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea seem to be very high, in fact, a large part of them are overstated. They will use various calculation methods to increase the attendance rates as much as possible, but if you pay close attention to their ticket revenue, or pay attention to the data released by other institutions, it is not difficult to see that their attendance rates are not that high.
However, Southampton has insisted on not raising prices in the past few years, and ticket prices have remained unchanged, attracting more and more fans, especially young fans, to the stadium, but this is obviously not enough.
Therefore, Southampton adopted this approach, hoping to attract more and younger fans to the stadium and the artificial island, and cultivate their sense of belonging and loyalty to the team.
At the same time, it is also to cultivate their shopping and consumption habits on the artificial island.
Everyone present was shocked and even surprised as they listened to Yang Huan speaking on the stage and introducing in detail the entire points system.
Because they found that Southampton really played big this time!
Unbelievably big!
Although Yang Huan said that it was a trial operation and had not yet been fully rolled out, everyone could foresee that after such detailed and long-term careful preparation, Southampton's plan did show the Saints' management's determination to make drastic reforms.
If it succeeds, the management of the entire European football world will probably undergo earth-shaking changes.
Because everyone will find out that football clubs are no longer just conservative, hiding in their own stadiums and waiting for fans to come to them.
On the contrary, now is the time to step out boldly and courageously, utilize the culture and brand of your own club, connect various resources in society, integrate more deeply and closely into the social system, and gain benefits from it.
If Southampton succeeds, it will open up a whole new situation for the operation of professional clubs.
Thinking of this, many people present couldn't help but feel excited.
Only now do they understand why so many brands and businesses are interested in this artificial island and Southampton's new stadium.
Because, perhaps in the near future, this will not only be a new stadium, but will also be the busiest consumer hotspot in south London, and may even attract more businesses and more brands to gather in Southampton.
At this moment, countless people in the audience raised their heads and looked at Yang Huan on the stage.
Very calm and composed, as if he had no idea what nervousness was.
But everyone's eyes were filled with admiration when they looked at him.
In the past four years, he has refreshed everyone's understanding of football clubs time and time again, and has opened up new operating models for football clubs time and time again.
When he set up a WeChat account for Southampton and required every player in the team to update WeChat every day, the players had some objections, and the outside world also felt that this was completely unreasonable.
But now, seeing that every Southampton player is worth a lot of money, even if he is just a player in the youth team, as long as he manages it properly, he can get tens of thousands of pounds in sales share from the WeChat store every year. There are even more first-team stars and big-name stars.
As a result, other teams began to follow suit, and other stars also began to flock to WeChat.
It can be said that Saints has opened up a new model of WeChat marketing and promotion.
And now, Yang Huan is going to shock the entire European football world once again!
The mere fact that the tickets are free is enough to make football fans all over the world go crazy, and make all the teams in the world feel inferior, or envious and jealous!
But, this is Yang Huan, this is Southampton!