i want to be king

Chapter 755 It's all up to you!

Manchester City's City Stadium is located in the eastern suburbs of Manchester.

At the beginning of the design, the stadium was intended to be used as the main venue for the Olympic Games. After the application for the Olympic Games failed, the purpose of the venue was changed and it became the main venue for the [-] Commonwealth Games.

After the sports meeting, the original comprehensive stadium was transformed into a professional stadium, the track and field track and temporary stands were demolished, and fixed stands were built, which caused a lot of controversy that year.

Manchester City moved from Maine Road to the City Stadium in [-], and the first game was a friendly match against Barcelona.

However, since Manchester City signed a long-term lease contract with the Manchester City Government, the ownership of the venue still belongs to the city government, so it is very inconvenient for Manchester City to operate.

Is it conceivable that there is not even a fan shop at Manchester City's home stadium?
This is not only a problem for Manchester City. Serie A, where most of the stadiums are municipal facilities, is also facing this problem now. Therefore, Juventus has found another way to build a new stadium by curves to save the country. Instead, it has opened up a new road.

Manchester City Council is also more supportive of football clubs than the Italian government.

Since the acquisition of Manchester City in [-], Soriano has been communicating with the Manchester City Government, including proposing a series of ambitious plans, which were finally approved in March [-].

Manchester City has proposed a huge plan of one billion pounds, not only to expand the capacity of the city stadium from the current 5000 to 6, but also to build a world's most advanced training base and the most advanced sports medical center in the southeast of the stadium, and then move the training ground from Carrington to the urban area.

In addition, Manchester City will also renovate the stadium and its surrounding facilities, including building a fan store and a fan service center to create a leisure and entertainment area exclusive to Manchester City fans. At the same time, it will also renovate the tram and intercity railway stations on the north side of the stadium, as well as the bus station. North of the train line, there will still be a large fan parking lot.

This is because the city stadium did not consider underground parking facilities when it was built.

There is no subway in Manchester, and fans travel by tram, intercity railway, bus and self-driving. Manchester City used to do very badly in this regard, but now it has improved significantly.

……

At this moment, Su Dong is standing on the pedestrian bridge leading to the train station, bus station and parking lot in the north of the stadium.

Opposite is the huge car park and train station, and the connecting pedestrian bridge is very spacious, which can meet the needs of fans pouring into the stadium on match day.

Below the flyover is the sports and training center that Manchester City is building to serve fans, mainly for some sports training and daily sports venues, such as tennis courts, small football fields and indoor venues.

"After signing the agreement in March last year, we immediately invested in construction and renovation, so the last few home games of last season were all held on Maine Road. It is expected that all the construction will be completed before the start of this season, and we will return to the city stadium to play."

The technical director, Begiristan, led the managers of the city stadium, and introduced Manchester City's home stadium and various facilities to Su Dong.

It can be seen that Manchester City has indeed invested a lot in this area, and all of them are real money.

It can also be seen from this point that Mansur's Abu Dhabi consortium really wants to take root in Manchester, otherwise, there is no need to invest so much.

Of course, this is actually part of the deal between the club and the city government.

In return, the stadium lease contract signed by the city government and Manchester City was extended from the original 99 years to 250 years.

Compared with the huge investment in building a brand new stadium, the rent is really nothing.

In addition, Manchester City also got the right to transform and name the new stadium.

The advantage of getting the right to renovate is that not only can expansion, but also various facilities can be built in the stadium, thereby increasing the revenue of the stadium on match days. This is an essential part of all European home stadiums, such as VIP boxes, catering industry, etc.

Not to mention the naming rights. Manchester City has been attracting investment in a targeted manner since last season.

"We have sold the club's home naming rights for the next 5000 years at a high price of 15 million pounds. Starting from the new season, our stadium will be officially renamed the Etihad Stadium." Begiristain introduced with a smile.

Su Dong nodded tacitly with a smile. Ittihad is an airline from the United Arab Emirates, named after Manchester City. It must not only value the potential of Manchester City, but Mansour used this method to transfuse blood to Manchester City to help Manchester City evade the financial balance policy from UEFA.

The naming rights of the stadium were sold to Etihad Airways, and the chest advertisement of the jersey was also sold to this UAE airline, and the price was also around 500 million pounds per year.

In other words, from this airline, Manchester City can get about 3000 million pounds in sponsorship income every year.

Not to mention comparing it with giant teams like Bayern, Manchester United and Real Madrid, even compared with some Premier League teams, Manchester City is far behind. The reason is that there is really not much value at all.

In the past few years, Manchester City has been hovering in the middle and lower reaches. The team's own commercial operation ability is very poor, and it can even be said to be almost non-existent.

After Soriano and Begiristan took over the team, they wanted to make efforts in this area, but the foundation was too weak. Did the team have any outstanding results and stars? Although there was Robinho before, the Brazilian's commercial appeal was pitifully weak, so the progress was very slow.

With Sudong joining this season, Manchester City plans to make great efforts in this regard, but for the time being, it still needs to rely on the blood transfusion of the Abu Dhabi consortium.

This summer's North American training camp is a bold attempt by Manchester City's commercial department.

…………

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Accompanied by Begiristan, they visited the City Stadium. Oh, no, it should be renamed the Etihad Stadium in the future. The group drove from the eastern suburbs of the city to the western suburbs of the city, passing Manchester United's Old Trafford Stadium on the way.

Sitting in the back row with Su Dong, Begiristan sighed with emotion: "I hope the new season can avoid the embarrassing ending of encountering a strong team last season and repeatedly defeating them, and strive to break into the European theater."

"It's all up to you to accomplish this!"

Su Dong looked at the much older Begiristan, gave him a confident smile, and said nothing.

He came to Manchester City to lead the team to rise, win the Premier League championship, and even win the Champions League, to reproduce the legend of Maradona in Naples.

There is no need for Begiristan to say that, Su Dong will do his best for this.

……

City's training base at Carrington is next door to Manchester United's.

Ronnie said at the beginning that he could kick the ball from Manchester United's training base to Manchester City's training base.

This is not the first time Su Dong has come, but this time is obviously different from before.

Soriano, Guardiola and others all greeted Sudong at the Carrington training base, which can be said to have given them enough courtesy.

Coming to the Carrington base again, Su Dong's trip is not only as simple as a visit, but also cooperates with Manchester City to conduct a medical examination, which is also a routine for all new players to join.

As for the so-called unveiling ceremony for Su Dong, there was actually no such thing.

In European football, apart from Real Madrid holding an appearance ceremony for superstars, other teams basically do not have such a tradition.

After players join, they usually hold a press conference, show up in jerseys, and take some photos.

If it is an influential star, media reporters will be invited to the scene. If it is an ordinary player, even the club will take pictures by themselves and send them to major newspapers.

Su Dong will invite media reporters to the Carrington training base for this appearance.

The main reason is that the Etihad Stadium is still under construction and renovation, which is inconvenient, so Carrington was chosen for the unveiling ceremony.

The medical examination process is also very simple.

Accompanied by the team doctor, Su Dong went to a nearby cooperative hospital for a detailed physical examination. After confirming that there was no problem, the two sides returned to the Carrington training base. It was already afternoon.

Su Dong's appearance attracted more than 100 media reporters to Carrington.

Witnessed by the media and the management, Su Dong formally signed a professional contract with Soriano. The specific conditions were not disclosed, but the media were also able to dig out a lot.

What is really special is that in subsequent interviews with the media, many reporters asked why Su Dong joined Manchester City.

Obviously, many people think that Su Dong is doing it for money.

"This is only part of it, but more importantly, Soriano, Begiristan and Guardiola are my very good friends, we are very familiar with each other, I am very much looking forward to working with them."

Regarding the prospects of Manchester City in the new season, Su Dong expressed his optimism, "So far, we have a very competitive player lineup. The next key is to run this lineup and form combat effectiveness. This is the task of all of us."

Coach Guardiola was questioned a lot last season. Some people thought that he blindly copied Barcelona's tactics and couldn't play well in the Premier League. Su Dong expressed his opposition to this.

"I have played in Barcelona for three years, and even these years I have played against Barcelona. I don't agree with this view. On the contrary, I look forward to Guardiola's success in the Premier League and firmly believe that he will succeed. This is why I joined Manchester City!"

Su Dong also believes that Manchester City is not as weak as the outside world sees, and there is not only one Su Dong.

"We have a group of young players who are very capable and have great potential. This is our biggest bargaining chip. I believe that in the new season, we will let everyone see a brand new and completely different Manchester City!"

In the end, Su Dong said that he has only one goal in coming to Manchester City, and that is success!
"I have no doubt that we will impress the whole world and reach the top of Europe in the foreseeable future!"

(End of this chapter)