The Young Lion

Throughout the day, Aldridge led Carter to officially visit the inside of the Millwall club. The two kept talking about the current situation of Millwall. Aldridge informed Carter of the information that would not be released to the public. -

For example, Millwall’s specific operating costs, sources of income, cooperative sponsors, and ongoing and future business plans.

The two came to the team's training ground after lunch. The first team training ground was empty, and the two sat on the ground.

After Carter had a general understanding of Millwall's current situation, he did not ask Aldridge's ambitions and goals for running Millwall.

Ever since they met and became close friends, Carter was able to guess the result subtly through his understanding of Aldrich.

Aldrich, half of my job is to keep the club in order, and the other half is to make the club richer.

Aldrich nodded, agreeing with Carter's words.

In fact, there is only one criterion for measuring the working ability of CEOs of 99% of the companies in the world: whether the company can become richer!

It's not about personality charm, being a big hit on the media platform and the like.

Carter continued: Football is the world's largest sport, with more than two billion fans around the world. Therefore, whether Millwall can become richer and increase the value of its commercial brand does not depend on whether the team wins the championship, just like Manchester United. The championships and achievements of Manchester United in the past ten years are completely incomparable with Millwall, but the commercial value of Manchester United is only a little lower than that of Millwall, and the gap is not obvious. There is also Real Madrid. Their The achievements on the green field are even more incomparable with Millwall. But through several years of superstar signings, their commercial brand value has soared rapidly, second only to Millwall. There is only one core, the number of fans in this club, the more the number More, the higher the value of the natural commercial brand, because the more fans, the more attention it can bring. The advertisements that sponsors place on this team will also attract more attention.”

Aldrich nodded, he understood what Carter wanted to express.

Manchester United's green field record in recent years is not too brilliant, but Manchester United is also very profitable, making profits every year. It ranks at the top of the club's wealth list. Before Real Madrid's sudden emergence, they ranked second.

The reason is that since the Edwards family took over Manchester United, they have been tirelessly making Manchester United on the road to commercialization. Their brand value has been accumulated over decades.

The core of brand value is actually the number of fans. Because fans are the group that consumes football.

Not a fan, who the hell is watching the game?

Even if it is a fake fan of star chasing. Anyway, it's also a kind of fan.

For example, the name of the sponsor printed on the chest of the jersey. If your team has only one fan and others don’t pay attention at all, then only this fan will see the name advertisement on the chest of the jersey and form an impression in his mind.

If you have ten fans, that's ten people who will remember.

This is not to deny the significance of achievements on the green field, but it is not the core part.

Champions will increase exposure and expand the fan base, which is one of the means of soaring commercial value, but this was the mainstream before the global village era. The more champions the team has, the greater the influence, but after the Internet age, different.

The sensation of the eyeball effect may be higher than the influence of a team winning the championship, such as the introduction of superstars by Real Madrid.

An important part of the club's income comes from broadcasting, match day income, and sponsors. If broadcasting fees want to increase, we can only follow the trend of the entire football environment. Millwall already has an exclusive official TV station, which is considered in this regard. It also maximized the benefits as much as possible. The game-day income mainly revolves around the development and construction of the Lion King Stadium and the surrounding commercial chain. These tasks are already on the right track and are approaching saturation. The space of the club is so big. London is very expensive. If you want to expand, the income and expenditure may not be proportional. After all, the number of local fans has reached a nearly saturated state in the past ten years of development. The growth of the new generation of fans will only be slow. , It will not suddenly skyrocket. I think the focus of work is to start from the sponsors, make the club richer, increase the value of the commercial brand, and let the sponsors increase our income and influence.

Aldrich nodded slightly. Carter's work ideas were very clear, and he knew where the focus of work would be after taking office in the future.

In the past, Carter started negotiations with Millwall as a sponsor representative.

In this regard, he has a better understanding of what sponsors need.

If no one cares about Millwall in the United States, then companies whose main market is in the United States will not sponsor Millwall. What is the use of spending money?

And those world-class companies trying to open up the European market will come to them.

Soliciting sponsorships and sponsorships is actually mutually beneficial. Both parties get what they need, not whoever gives to whom.

Carter continued: I think Millwall has a lot of materials that can be used in this regard. As long as the number of our fan base grows and the radiation area of ​​fans continues to expand, our brand value will naturally rise. You naturally understand that you have greater confidence, but as for how to do it, I think the key lies in how to use the material that Millwall can hype for promotion.”

for example?

Aldridge is very interested in this topic. He also hopes that Millwall’s fan market will grow bigger and bigger, but how to expand it, in his opinion, may depend more on playing commercial games and the team’s maintenance of top competitions. A good record, a good record, means a high exposure rate, and the media will naturally help promote it.

Carter said with a smile: Millwall has spent a successful decade in the past. I think there is a lot of hype in this decade, the team's record, the loyalty of the stars, the influence of the flag, we can use Internet resources, Condensing the past season review into a documentary, which can be downloaded for free by fans, and can also be sold to all interested fans around the world, so as to expand and deepen the influence of Millwall. At the same time, Millwall is in Europe, Also in Asia, we have already set up our football schools, why not use these football schools as outlets to sell our fan souvenirs? Also, when it is appropriate, we will go to some areas where the number of fans is low. Commercial competitions, even if those places are poor and backward, it is impossible to give me millions of pounds in appearance fees, but as long as we create a sensation in that area, our sponsors will be willing to increase the sponsorship fee to expand their product sales in that area, Also, we need to learn how to package our own stars. How many commercial resources does Manchester United get from a Beckham? We should also keep up with the pace in this regard, to highlight the personal charm of our stars and make them cross-border stars.

No, no, no, I don't want to have David Beckham in my club, endless commercial activities, thick money interests, it's not good for the team in the long run.

Then we are wasting resources virtually.

Aldrich agrees with many of Carter's ideas, but he also has his own ideas.

After a moment of silence, Aldridge said in a deep voice: In the past ten years, I have learned a truth. It is good to have pursuits, but not too much. The limit, I think this is impossible, because this balance point is too fragile, we must have the bottom line of running the club, if we tend to be commercialized to the extreme, once the situation collapses, there may be consequences that no one can control anymore.”

Carter was thoughtful after hearing the words, and finally said: It sounds reasonable, so this point can be given up. Next, I want to talk to you about team construction.

Aldrich laughed and said, What? Do you want to be a staff officer?

Carter shook his head solemnly and said: In terms of player selection, no one in the world can compare with you. It is self-defeating to discuss this topic in front of you. What I want to say is that the signing of Millwall for Adam Due to the leakage of the shortlist, Millwall needs to adjust its development strategy in the future.

Aldridge put away his smile and said, I would like to hear more about it.

After sorting out his thoughts, Carter said: In ten years, Millwall drove low and walked high, step by step to the top of the world. The competition within the club has become increasingly fierce, and now it has reached the cruelest level. Like Rooney, Ronaldo Such a talented player who has a place in the national team can only wait for an opportunity in Millwall, and their departure should be inevitable.

Aldrich nodded without denying it.

The current Millwall is no longer the year when he could promote four or five players to play the main force in a season.

Even like Kaka and Ronaldo, the previous De Rossi, Alonso took the lead, it takes a while to endure.

Those who can't stand it can only leave.

The core of the problem is that we may only have a handful of talented players who have living space in the team on average for two or three years, so unless there are special circumstances, such as a talent gap within us, players of a certain type or position If there is a shortage, we will introduce talented players and give them opportunities. Under normal circumstances, even if there are fancy talented players, we may not be able to bring them to the team. Under the negative influence of Robben and Rooney leaving the team, there may be many talented players Players are unwilling to come to us and wait for an opportunity, because it is too difficult, just like Rooney and Henry, choose one of the two, now 100 rational people, maybe 90 will choose Henry instead of Rooney, I think Rooney himself Know that too.

Aldridge sighed: The world is changing. Football players can earn a lot of money and get rich overnight. The younger the talented player is, the more he wants to be famous early. There is nothing wrong with that. (To be continued continued..)u

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