“Adams, do you know? Even if I handled this myself, I wouldn’t be as efficient as you!”
Upon seeing Adams, Huang Hao gave him a big thumbs up.
“Haha, Boss, something like this just takes a few phone calls.”
Adams was quite humble.
“Tell me about it. I’m eager to know where our home stadium will be next season.”
“Selhurst Park.”
Adams didn’t keep him in suspense and directly gave the answer.
“Where? Crystal Palace’s home stadium?”
Selhurst Park is indeed the home stadium of EFL Championship team Crystal Palace this season.
“That’s right, Crystal Palace’s home stadium.”
“Why them? Is their pitch condition the best?”
“No, it’s because their quote was lower.”
Adams directly spoke the truth.
Huang Hao was silent after hearing this.
For Cambridge United, who are determined to build their own exclusive stadium, they truly wish they could split every pound in half right now.
“Alright, that’s a very good reason. So, what was their quote?”
“One million pounds, including matchday security and other fees.”
Huang Hao gasped. The cost of living in London is truly expensive!
However, Cambridge United still earned a box office revenue of up to 5 million pounds this season at Abbey Stadium, which only has over 8,000 seats. Selhurst Park has 26,000 seats, four times that of Abbey.
Even if Cambridge United’s fan base cannot fill the stadium, their box office revenue for the new season will not be less than 9 million pounds! Looking at it this way, let alone Selhurst Park, Huang Hao was even tempted by Wembley.
However, thinking is one thing; Cambridge United is not Tottenham, so it’s better not to dream of such a good thing.
“Actually, there’s another option.” Adams hesitated.
“Oh, which other stadium?” Huang Hao was a little interested.
“It’s London Road Stadium, and their quote is 800,000 pounds,” Adams quickly replied.
“800,000 pounds isn’t bad, why didn’t we choose them? London Road, is that Peterborough United’s home stadium?”
“Yes,” Adams didn’t dare to look at Huang Hao.
Peterborough United and Cambridge United are bitter rivals. “Forget it, let’s go to Crystal Palace. There’s no guarantee of safety at London Road.” Huang Hao decided.
“No problem, Adams. Arrange for someone to sign the contract, and at the same time, announce the news as soon as possible to start next season’s season ticket sales.”
Adams nodded, and just as he was about to leave, Huang Hao called him back. “Any progress on the new stadium?”
Adams shook his head with difficulty.
“This matter is quite thorny.”
“Most of the vacant land here in Cambridge is controlled by real estate developers, and the rest is basically for green spaces.”
“You know, this is England.”
Adams was right, this is England!
If Cambridge United were a team from a small Chinese city, perhaps the mayor would proactively approach Huang Hao to discuss the stadium expansion issue.
However, in England, there is no shortage of Premier League teams, and there are plenty of teams with more market appeal than Cambridge United. Even Arsenal, with all its fame, had to exert tremendous effort to build a stadium. Although Cambridge United enjoys the sole team advantage in Cambridge and has a broad fan base, the land here is privately owned, and transferring it is not a simple matter.
“Currently, it seems the Abbey area is the most proactive in this matter.”
Seeing that Huang Hao did not comment, Adams continued.
“What conditions did they offer?”
Upon hearing that there was a chance, Huang Hao quickly pressed for details.
“The Abbey area can assist us in applying for a loan of approximately 17 million pounds, but the precondition is that it must be placed in a dedicated fund supervision account for stadium construction.”
Huang Hao nodded; this request was not excessive. After all, Cambridge United is a club with a past record. Especially since Huang Hao is not some Middle Eastern consortium, he has no way to prove his credibility.
“Additionally, the Abbey area can only provide a small plot of land. I had the engineering department estimate it, and it can probably accommodate a small stadium for about 14,000 people.”
“What about the cost?”
“That’s right, that’s also what I wanted to tell you. A stadium of this size is more in line with our current budget, and the overall cost is currently estimated at 25 million pounds.”
Based on Cambridge United’s ticket sales, 14,000 seats should be a relatively reasonable estimate for Cambridge United.
It must be said, sometimes these Englishmen are quite good at math!
“Alright, I have to say, Adams, this really sounds like the best plan so far.”
“Do they have any additional conditions?”
“Nothing else, just that Cambridge United must not relocate, otherwise they will have to bear huge liquidated damages.”
“No problem. By the way, they didn’t request anything about the stadium’s name, did they?”
“No, they didn’t. After all, they are only providing a loan.”
Speaking of this, Huang Hao felt another headache. He had scrimped and saved, and finally, after four years, he had filled the huge hole left by the previous owner.
Unexpectedly, just one season later, Huang Hao once again became a millionaire in debt.
However, unlike the first time he was forced into huge debt, this time, Huang Hao was confident he could clear the debt within one or two seasons. After all, today’s Cambridge United is no longer the hopeless little bee struggling in the fifth tier of English League.
As the plane slowly landed at Capital International Airport, Li Jianqin rubbed his sleepy eyes and stretched widely.
He had been in China for less than a week and had already taken six flights.
Li Jianqin looked at the list in his hand; most of them were domestic giants keen on sports investment.
In England, stadium naming rights are not a particularly rare thing.
Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium both had their naming rights acquired by Middle Eastern consortia.
Every season, just the stadium naming rights alone can provide tens of millions of pounds in financial support to the club.
In comparison, Cambridge United’s annual naming fee of 1 million pounds seems very insignificant.
However, it cannot be ignored that Cambridge United is only a newly promoted Premier League team, and its popularity is far from comparable to the aforementioned giants.
Currently, Cambridge United has secured a government-promised special loan of 17 million pounds, and there is still a funding gap of 8 million pounds for building the new stadium.
Therefore, the outcome of Li Jianqin’s trip to China became crucial.
However, this offer, which seemed very fair and reasonable in England, repeatedly hit a wall for Li Jianqin in China.
Although Li Jianqin used his connections to successfully meet with the heads of the business departments of most companies, his offer was politely rejected. A 10-year naming right for 10 million pounds, equivalent to about 85 million RMB, is not a small sum for most companies.
Moreover, Cambridge United’s current commercial value is not as high as depicted.
In desperation, Li Jianqin even used his trump card.
Before his departure, Huang Hao allowed him to include jersey advertising in the negotiations to increase the value for domestic companies.
After all, in the past season, some of Cambridge United’s matches could be watched live in China, and the two prominent characters “Huili” on Cambridge United’s chest were exceptionally eye-catching.
What Li Jianqin and Huang Hao didn’t expect was that the jersey chest advertisement indeed attracted the interest of many companies, but it was limited to jersey advertising sponsorship.
The current market value of Cambridge United’s jersey advertising is approximately 800,000 to 1 million pounds. Unless a row of advertisements on the chest is allowed, it is far from enough to cover the funding gap for stadium construction.
Seeing the negotiations at a standstill, Li Jianqin was at a loss.
Today was Li Jianqin’s ninth day back. If there was still no result, Li Jianqin would probably have to return to Cambridge United empty-handed and face Huang Hao’s sarcasm. After all, foreign betting companies were very interested in this sponsorship.
If it weren’t for Huang Hao’s special preference for domestic companies, he wouldn’t have had to come back to China to suffer this.
Just then, Li Jianqin’s phone rang.
Seeing it was an unfamiliar domestic number, Li Jianqin hesitated for a moment before answering the call.
“Hello, may I speak with Mr. Li?”
Although the voice on the other end was a girl’s, it sounded very capable.
“That’s right, who is this?” After receiving Li Jianqin’s affirmative answer, the woman’s tone became more cordial.
“Hello, Mr. Li, I am the head of Wanda Sports’ Business Department.”
Upon hearing Wanda Sports, Li Jianqin’s eyes lit up!
The reason Li Jianqin didn’t list Wanda as his primary target was that after they withdrew from the Chinese League in 2000, they hadn’t made any major moves, only focusing on their youth training.
He had thought that a man who had been hurt would no longer invest in football.
Unexpectedly, someone from Wanda Sports actually contacted Li Jianqin on their own! What kind of divine luck was this?
“Hello, hello, how may I address you?”
“You can call me Monica.”
“Hello, Miss Monica, how can I help you?”
It must be said that ever since Li Jianqin abandoned his casual attitude and officially joined Cambridge United Club’s operations, he had become much more serious. He handled things methodically.
“Hehehe, I wouldn’t dare to give advice. Our boss heard that your club seems to be looking for a stadium naming sponsor in China, so he wanted to arrange a meeting with Mr. Li to discuss this matter in person. I wonder if Mr. Li has time.”
Upon hearing Monica’s words, Li Jianqin was already overjoyed!
“No problem, no problem, the one thing I have plenty of is time.”
Hearing Li Jianqin’s words, Monica laughed again.
“Then, Mr. Li, please wait a moment. I’ll confirm the schedule with the boss’s secretary and will tell you the exact time shortly.”
Upon hearing this, Li Jianqin couldn’t help but feel envious.
Look at them, they have assistants and secretaries. Even their schedule needs to be confirmed. And he, at least, was a director, and Ouyang, who used to be by his side, had been taken by Huang Hao to work on the stadium budget.
Huang Hao, that skinflint, oh no, Huang Skinflint! When I get back, I definitely need an assistant too! I must have that kind of presence!
Li Jianqin, who was secretly cursing Huang Hao in his mind, soon received a text message.
Seeing the content, Li Jianqin was beaming with joy! If all went well, Huang Hao’s task might be successfully completed tomorrow!
Without another word, Li Jianqin immediately drove to the airport. After more than 4 hours of flying, Li Jianqin went directly from Beijing to Guangzhou.
Although the temperature was not much different from Beijing, as soon as he exited the airport, Li Jianqin still felt a humid heat wave washing over him.
He couldn’t care about that now; he quickly hailed a taxi and headed towards a hotel near Wanda Sports.
On the way to the hotel, Li Jianqin didn’t care about the time difference and directly called Huang Hao.
Hearing Huang Hao answer the phone in an extremely lazy voice, Li Jianqin was immediately annoyed.
