Chapter 826 Are you worthy of the surname Zhao?
This high-level meeting held in Longhai lasted a whole day.
The atmosphere of the meeting was very lively, and every participant spoke freely and expressed his or her own opinions.
Those present were all experienced and powerful leaders of European clubs. What they were discussing now was closely related to their future. Therefore, everyone brought out his or her best skills to gain more benefits for their team.
This is also normal.
Although it is operated as a group, each team is an independent subsidiary.
As leaders of these subsidiaries, they naturally hope that their companies can develop better.
This would also better highlight their skills and abilities, wouldn't it?
Moreover, although each club still has considerable autonomy after group operation, there are still countless things that need to be discussed. Only managers like them who are truly involved in the front line of team management can uncover so many potential problems and quickly come up with solutions after discussion.
The busiest person during the entire meeting was the female secretary who was in charge of taking notes.
One person simply cannot handle the heated discussions and controversies among so many people.
In the end, Yang Huan had to ask Sun Yue to find someone temporarily and add three more meeting recorders.
In addition to the controversies at the competitive level, there are also great controversies at the commercial level.
With the success of the Southampton Glory Square project, several teams under Yang Huan are full of ideas about emulating the Saints' business practices.
The new stadiums of Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid are about to be completed, especially Inter Milan.
According to the promise Yang Huan had made before, the new stadium will be officially completed before the Milan Expo. By then, tourists from all over the world will gather in Milan. This will definitely be a godsend for Inter Milan.
Fassone is an expert at running stadiums. He has even begun preparing a management plan for Inter Milan's new stadium, especially in attracting investment.
But now, if we want to operate it as a group, how to distribute the management rights of the stadium is a problem.
The simplest way is for everyone to fight on their own, which is also the easiest way.
But is this a good solution?
The answer is not necessarily!
This is a bit like the difference between a large chain of home appliance stores and the small stores spread across the country.
Yes, some small stores do have booming business, and even sell better than chain stores in the area, and their products are sold cheaper than chain stores, but are they competitive?
You know, things in hypermarkets are expensive, that’s one of their strategies.
With the sales capabilities of large chain hypermarkets, when they purchase goods from channel dealers, they have strong negotiation skills that small hypermarkets will never be able to possess in their lifetime. They can lower the purchase price to an unbelievable level.
Even during holidays, they have enough power to ask channel dealers to reduce profits and cooperate with them to increase sales, thereby reducing discounts to the lowest level. This is something that small supermarkets definitely do not have.
Therefore, according to Yang Huan’s idea, since it is operated as a group, the commercial resources of each team should be integrated at that time, including the operation of sponsors and the business ecosystem inside the stadium and the surrounding areas of the stadium.
Because in this way, the group will have more say when negotiating with sponsors and merchants.
This time, Southampton, Inter Milan, Monaco and Atletico Madrid have jointly signed major sponsorship contracts with several large conglomerates including Nike and Qatar Airways. The overall sponsorship fee negotiated is higher than that of individual negotiations. Even French Ligue 1 teams such as Monaco enjoy premium treatment.
This shows that only integration can lead to competitiveness!
But from the perspective of a club operator, it is indeed a bit troublesome.
Because this time the chest advertisement and jersey sponsorship are both the main sponsorships, it is better, because there are only two or three sponsorships, the costs are relatively high, and it is easier to allocate.
But if it involves small sponsorships or brand authorizations, it would be a headache.
Moreover, how to distribute the benefits at that time will not be so simple.
Furthermore, as the operators of the club, if everything is integrated above, they will not have much autonomy, which is not necessarily a good thing for running a football team.
Yang Huan sat in the conference room, listening attentively, but also feeling overwhelmed.
Because it involves too many trivial details and too much distribution of interests.
This is not a question of who makes sense and who doesn't.
But what everyone said makes sense!
This is a very difficult thing to deal with!
Therefore, after a whole day of discussion, Yang Huan finally had to stand up and reiterate his position that group operation was imperative and integrating resources from all aspects must be done. There would definitely be difficulties, but we should not hesitate because of difficulties.
Therefore, Yang Huan proposed an integration strategy of focusing on the big and letting go of the small, starting with the easy and then moving on to the difficult.
Just like this time the main sponsors of the four teams were well integrated and the negotiations went very smoothly, so everyone is happy!
Finally, the first high-level meeting ended with Yang Huan’s strong statement.
After the meeting, Yang Huan hosted a banquet in his own hotel to entertain everyone.
…………
…………
"Oh, damn, this is even more tiring than playing a game of football!"
Yang Huan sat down on the sofa in the room and let out a long breath.
After a whole day of meetings, he had to deal with a group of guys forcing him to drink. Fortunately, he could drink a lot without getting drunk, otherwise, he would have probably passed out by now.
Sun Yue and Zhao Yuanfang both followed Young Master Huan in and sat on the sofa opposite. When they saw Young Master Huan's appearance, they found it funny, as if they were saying, Young Master Huan, you finally understand how hard we work, right?
"Master Huan, how about I press it a few times for you to perk up a bit?" Sun Yue said with a smile.
"Oh, no need!" Yang Huan woke up immediately, "With your rough hands and feet, if I let you press it, wouldn't that be torture?"
When I said that, I couldn't help but think of Xiaobu at home. If she were here, how comfortable would it be to just press her a few times?
"By the way, Lao Zhao, how is your progress?"
As soon as Sun Yue heard Young Master Huan call him Lao Zhao, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Zhao Yuanfang felt depressed. He felt as if Sun Yue was teasing him. Are you worthy of having the surname Zhao?
"Master Huan, next time, just call me Yuanfang!" Zhao Yuanfang said with a look of grievance.
"Damn, do you think I'm Di Renjie or Yuan Fang?" Yang Huan laughed and scolded again.
This time, Sun Yue laughed even more unscrupulously.
But this was just a private joke. After laughing, we got down to business.
"Master Huan, we have basically cleared out all the shares of Benfica and Ajax. Now there are only a few major shareholders left. In addition, we are also actively contacting the Amsterdam City Government, hoping to acquire all the remaining shares of the Arena Stadium, which will also facilitate our future renovation."
Contrary to what many people think, Ajax's home stadium, the Arena, is not entirely owned by Ajax.
In fact, Ajax only holds 13 percent of the Arena Stadium.
The real major shareholder is the Amsterdam City Government!
Moreover, a prosperous business circle has been formed around the Arenal Stadium, and the surrounding supporting facilities also belong to the Arenal Stadium. Therefore, according to Yang Huan, they must all be taken over.
"Very good, it must be completed as soon as possible!" Yang Huan still has great confidence in Zhao Yuanfang's ability.
"Oh, by the way, we also need to acquire the land around Detoxmost. The expansion of the training base is imperative."
Ajax's training base is near the Arena Stadium, but it is not large and no outstanding players have emerged in recent years. Once Yang Huan takes over, Ajax will inevitably become an important base for the group to train young players.
In this case, the expansion of De Tokmost is imperative.
Moreover, after Zhao Yuanfang's field investigation and research, he felt that a piece of vacant land between the Arenal Stadium and De Tokmost, along both sides of the main road in the city, had great development potential and could be used for development.
In the past few years, the windmill kingdom of the Netherlands has always been a very popular destination for Chinese tourists. The number of tourists has been increasing year by year. In 2013, about 250,000 people visited the Netherlands, and the number of tourists is still growing rapidly.
In recent years, Chinese companies have been investing in the Netherlands quite frequently, especially this year. It is estimated that nearly two hundred companies will invest in the Netherlands, and more than five hundred Chinese companies will settle in the Netherlands.
It is entirely foreseeable that in the coming years, the number of Chinese tourists visiting the Netherlands will increase.
Although the Netherlands has several airports, long-haul flights only stop at Amsterdam International Airport.
The Arena Stadium is not far from the international airport and is located in the south of Amsterdam city, with very convenient transportation. It has a very good geographical location and development potential.
"In addition, the acquisition of Benfica is almost complete, with only one or two shareholders still in the negotiation. But I believe the problem is not too big, because Benfica itself has agreed to be acquired by us, so..."
Zhao Yuanfang's words gave Yang Huan peace of mind.
Because of the Portuguese language, the Portuguese Super League has a natural attraction for players from South American countries.
Taking over Benfica is undoubtedly a great addition to Yang Huan's European football map.
What's even more interesting is that among the teams under Yang Huan's control, in addition to Southampton, Monaco and Atletico Madrid, Anderlecht of Belgium, Sparta Prague of the Czech Republic, Basel of Switzerland, Benfica of Portugal, and Ajax, which is about to be acquired, have all made it to the Champions League.
Except for Sparta Prague, which needs to play in the fourth qualifying round, all other teams will directly enter the group stage.
In other words, at least 10 or 20 million euros were spent!
This is also what Yang Huan heard many managers mention at the meeting just now, that is, how to ensure the team's competitiveness in their respective leagues and continue to advance to the group stage of the Champions League.
Yang Huan also promised that the group will invest a sum of money to improve each team's training base, stadium and supporting commercial facilities around the stadium. It will also invest a considerable transfer budget to enhance the competitiveness of each team.
Therefore, after the implementation of group operations, it is thriving overall.
"Good, very good!" Yang Huan nodded continuously after listening to Zhao Yuanfang's report.
"Yuan Fang, you need to complete this as soon as possible. It's already the beginning of August, and there's not much time left before the end of the transfer period, so you have to hurry up. Ask each team to submit a list of players to recruit, and tell them to focus on young players."
Yang Huan’s positioning for teams like Ajax was originally to focus on training young players.
Therefore, he does not expect these teams to achieve good results. In fact, to a certain extent, whether or not they can enter the Champions League is not the point. The key is how to control the team's operating costs and cultivate more talents.
As for funds, the sale of one player in the top league is enough for them to operate for a year.
Therefore, Yang Huan didn't take it seriously at all.
Just then, someone rang the doorbell outside the hotel room.
"Who is it?" Sun Yue was a little surprised. He immediately stood up and walked over to open the door.
It’s so late, who else is coming?