Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 209 An Intriguing Team
This is a rich toy for himself, Tang Huan smiled, but there seemed to be some deceitful elements in it.

There are four major professional sports leagues in North America, which are listed in order: the National Football League NFL, founded in 1920, began cooperation in 1903, and the Major League Baseball League, which was officially established in 1920, was founded in 1946 The American Professional Basketball League NBA, founded in 1917 the National Hockey League NHL.

For a long period of time in the original time and space, in terms of overall profit comparison, in order, NFL, MLB and NBA are the three most profitable sports leagues in the world.

Although the National Hockey League has limited popularity in the southern United States, the NFL still generates more market revenue than most other professional sports, and is only slightly behind the English Premier League as the fifth most profitable league in the world.

The revenue brought by the four major leagues is more than a hundred times that of other professional sports combined. At the same time, the four major leagues have also brought a great cultural impact. Usually, the stars who become famous in the four major leagues will become the talk of people. A hot topic and even became a tag for some.

In his previous life, Yao Ming, who became famous in the NBA, gained fame and fortune in mainland China, which illustrates this influence.

Its function is sometimes subtle and silent, just like the abbot of a monastery who opens his mouth and keeps his mouth shut to inherit culture all use iPhones, bowing from the upper class. .

Tang Huan is not interested in the NHL. It is too cold and he doesn't know much about MLB.

As for the NFL, he has heard of the Super Bowl. After all, it has been involved in a big scandal, that is, in the No.2004 Eighth Super Bowl in 30, Janet Jackson performed in front of hundreds of millions of spectators during the halftime break of the Super Bowl. The bare right breast caused a lot of controversy in the United States. In the end, Jackson had to apologize, and Viacom, the parent company of CBS, which broadcast the game at the time, also paid a huge fine for it.

Tang Huan is relatively familiar with the NBA. "Magic" Irvin Johnson and "Big Bird" Larry Bird have played for the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics respectively since 1979. Since then, black and white have jointly created the glory of the NBA in the 80s. The Los Angeles Lakers entered the finals 9 times and won the championship 5 times. The Boston Celtics reached the finals 5 times and won the championship 3 times.

And this monopoly pattern has now quietly begun to take shape and cannot be shaken.

The rich man Jerry Buss, that is, Jerry Buss, spent $1979 million from another rich man, Jack Kent Cooke, in 6750 to buy the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL and the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. posture.

In fact, this is also the case. Bruce Lee's apprentice, "Skyhook" Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, has already come to the Lakers in 1975. He just won this year's NBA championship with Johnson, who was still a rookie.

In more than ten years from now, the Lakers will enter the Finals 9 times. Now Wilson is lobbying to buy a team to make a toy. Isn't that just waiting to be trampled to death by others?

He once mentioned to Hawkins that if EA, the money-absorbing monster, had enough energy, it would buy an NBA team, but it was not limited to local teams from the beginning. After all, the influence of himself and the company should not be limited to San Francisco and California.

Instead, the naming rights can be agreed directly. In the original time and space, the commercial operation of the stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area has been involved in the Silicon Valley company from time to time. Named Oracle Arena, or Oracle Stadium, the stadium built in San Jose in the 1990s has also experienced the naming era of Compaq, HP, and SAP, and even Sybase once invested in San Jose, an NHL ice hockey team. West Sharks and SAP have sponsored the Tennis Open.

Tang Huan, who quickly calculated the gains and losses, rubbed his brows, "Mr. Mayor, since the stadium is not well maintained due to funding problems, then I will let EA company talk to you about the naming rights. Actually, the fundraising The idea seems to be quite good, and the management department can carry out public bidding, so why bother your boss to lobby hard."

"Under the combined effect of various reasons, this idea can only stay at the level of discussion, otherwise, it will not wait until the gymnasium has been in use for almost 15 years, and the disadvantages are becoming more and more obvious before starting to make up for it." Wilson shook his head with a wry smile, and asked tentatively Said: "Tang, you seem to like sports very much, and you really don't plan to buy a team."

"Mr. Mayor is so enthusiastic, he must have something to think about, why not speak up directly." Tang Huan looked at the other party patiently.

"Well, that's the thing." Wilson coughed lightly, "Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders is determined to move the team to Los Angeles. You should know that this move will definitely affect the already depressed The economic situation in China has a certain degree of negative impact, and the Oakland Raiders team was established in Oakland at the beginning, and the officials have made great efforts. How can they leave now and abandon the local fans.”

Wilson was obviously annoyed by this, and explained the cause and effect in a dissatisfied tone.

There are two major leagues affiliated to the NFL: the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). Before their merger in 1970, the two were named NFL and AFL respectively. In other words, the NFL actually annexed the AFL and then separated. NFC and AFC were established.

In 1961, the owner of the Minnesota Vikings accepted the invitation of the NFL and jumped from the AFL to join the NFL. As a result, the AFL vacated a team spot.

At that time, Oakland had almost no conditions to build a professional football team. It didn't even have a stadium for games. The nearest stadiums were in Berkeley and San Francisco. At the same time, the San Francisco Bay Area already had a team that had a firm foothold in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers. .

However, the owner of the Los Angeles Chargers threatened to withdraw from the league if there was no second team on the West Coast, so the AFL owner was forced to choose Oakland.

Therefore, Oakland picked up a bargain, officially became the eighth member of the AFL in 1960, and got the draft pick.

As Wilson said, with membership, Oakland city leaders at the time began actively looking for some business people to help invest in building a new team.

Finally, a joint-stock institution, the Oakland Raiders, was established led by real estate businessman Y. Charles Soda, and also included Ed McGah, F. Wayne Valley and several other limited partners.

Because Oakland does not have its own stadium, the team chose the "Kezar Stadium" in San Francisco as their home stadium. As a result, the results in the first season were not satisfactory, with less than 1 spectators and a loss of US$50.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Soda gave up his status as a partner.The leader ran away, and the gang was about to break up. Valley stepped forward, loaned $40 and bought the remaining shares, becoming the largest shareholder.

Valley threatened Oakland to move the Raiders elsewhere if another stadium wasn't built.

After the 1962 season, Valley hired San Diego Chargers assistant coach Al Davis as head coach and general manager. At age 33, Al Davis became the youngest person in professional football history to hold both positions. , and the results of the Oakland Raiders also began to improve.

In 1966, Al Davis bought a 18000% stake in the team for $10, becoming the third largest shareholder and operating owner.

As a result, in 1972, while Valley was away for a few weeks at the Munich Olympics, Davis changed the partnership contract to give him full control of the team's operations. McGah became a supporter of Davis, signed the contract, and teamed up to kick Valley out of management.

As the saying goes, one beauty covers one hundred ugliness. Under the control of Davis, the Oakland Raiders won their first Super Bowl in 1977.

Naturally, Davis hoped that his wallet would also grow with the results. He asked Oakland to expand the stadium, especially the luxury boxes, but failed, so he began to plan to move to Los Angeles, which has a better market prospect.

What Davis did, obviously provoked the dissatisfaction of the Oakland officials. You moved the team. We have worked so hard to build it. What should we do with the stadium that has been used for more than ten years? The interests of the people have never been considered from the perspective of Oakland at all.

"At present, Davis is the largest shareholder of the team, holding about 25% of the shares in his hand. With your strength, there is no problem in winning this team." Wilson stared at Tang Huan, "Other shareholders, I Contact can be made."

Damn, it's just a team, and it's so intriguing, Tang Huan raised his legs and fell silent.

To be honest, relying on the mature business operation mechanism of the United States, the teams of the four major professional leagues are indeed of great investment value, and gaining social prestige is just a natural gift.

"Don, the fans in Oakland will only love your intervention, and no one will gossip." Wilson continued to lobby, "Once you join the team, Oakland will provide all kinds of convenience as much as possible."

Seeing that Tang Huan was still hesitant and didn't speak, Wilson simply revealed his details, "Tang, my term of office is coming up soon, and I still want to fight for re-election. If this matter is done well, I will undoubtedly get more support Rate."

"Okay, Mr. Mayor, I can give it a try." Tang Huan couldn't help but express his opinion after talking about this point, "I'm really busy recently and I'm going to go to Europe. In this way, let me My business partner, Mikhail Kogan, the director of Shennong Fund and EA, will run this matter in detail.”

Hearing this response, the dry-mouthed old Wilson heaved a sigh of relief, and took a few sips from his cup regardless of his image.

(End of this chapter)