Top of the big era

March 1, London.

Two big bosses, Zhou Buqi and Lu Qi, airborne and announced three official appointments.

First, Paul Kohner was appointed as President of Ziweixing Europe.

Second, Yang Wei, a Chinese-American and close confidant of Lu Qi, was appointed as the CFO of the European region to control financial power.

Third, Douglas Merrill was appointed as the president of Ziweixing Sports Digital Media Company, and together with the company’s football consultant David Dunn, he immediately launched an investigation into several football-related companies such as ProZone, Hawkeye, Whoscored, goal, OPTA, and Perform. The acquisition of a technology company launched Ziweixing’s football digital industry plan.

It's a coincidence.

Ziweixing has yet to find a suitable person in charge of the football business.

Unexpectedly, when helping Manchester United's business search for a president, Gilbert Lawrence, the vice president in charge of copyright business, was hired from EMI Records.

When asked about the reasons for his resignation, among the many reasons, a very important point is that the current board of directors of EMI Records is unpopular. EMI Music hired CIO Douglas Merrill from Google last year with a high salary to help EMI Music digitally transform.

It took only one year for Merrill to complete the task.

It can be called a remarkable performance!

Then, because his salary is too high, he is going to be fired!

This is a typical case of killing the donkey.

It leads to great loss of people's hearts.

Then, Zhou Buqi paid attention to Douglas Merrill. Once he found out, he was British and a fan of West Ham United. He joined Google in his early years and gradually became its vice president and chief information officer. He is a veteran in the Internet industry.

Someone who understands football, understands the Internet, understands technology, and understands operations... is simply an excellent candidate for the "Internet + Football" plan.

Later, after an interview with Lu Qi, I passed in three aspects.

His formal appointment was completed.

This is such good luck.

EMI Records is really blessed. It seems that it must persuade SoftBank to join in and complete the acquisition of EMI Records to continue this good luck.

Three days later, Manchester, Old Trafford.

Manchester United has convened a new board of directors.

A series of new resolutions were announced.

First, appoint Zhen Yu as executive director of Manchester United;

Second, appoint Gilbert Lawrence as director and vice-president of Manchester United;

Third, approved the establishment of Manchester United Commercial Company, with director and vice president Gilbert Lawrence as president of Manchester United Commercial, and the appointment of Joseph Delap as vice president of Manchester United Commercial, in charge of copyright operations. Appointed Chen Wenhao as Vice President of Manchester United Commercial, responsible for commercial market expansion business;

Fourth, approve a resolution by David Gill to acquire a bottom team in the Premier League women's football team for £980,000 and reorganize it into Manchester United Women's Football Team. From next season, Manchester United will compete in the Women's Premier League;

Fifth, the new stadium plan.

This is the most important issue.

The first few decisions were basically made by Zhou Buqi in one word. Others had no right to speak and could only accept but not refute.

This fifth decision is different, and you need to listen to the opinions of professionals.

Old Trafford is a century-old stadium, so old. After a series of renovations and expansions in the past few decades, it still cannot keep up with the changes of the times.

This is the home ground of Manchester United, the Theater of Dreams.

Every season, whether it is the Premier League, the Champions League, or even the FA Cup and League Cup, the attendance rate at Manchester United's home court will exceed 99% every season.

The reason why it is not 100% is because the ticket sales cannot be too full, there must be enough space for VIPs who come to watch the game temporarily, and some fans have other things to do after buying tickets and are unable to attend the game.

Manchester United has the most popular and highest-attendance football market in the UK.

However, this is not enough.

Manchester United's football market has been in short supply over the past few years. It’s just that the capacity of the stadium is far from meeting the ticket demand of fans. There are too many fans who cannot enter the venue to buy tickets because they cannot get tickets.

Therefore, Manchester United must have a new stadium.

There are mainly three options.

First, choose a site elsewhere and build a new stadium.

Second, demolish the Old Trafford Stadium and build a new Old Trafford Stadium on the original site.

Third, renovate within the original framework of Old Trafford.

This resolution was discussed as early as last year.

The answer can only be the third one.

Manchester United's home stadium plan has affected the entire tourism culture of Manchester and cannot be changed. It is not possible to demolish and rebuild the stadium. The stadium in the past carried too much history and tradition, and contained too many traces and memories. Moreover, after the demolition, where will Manchester United's home team play?

So the answer can only be the third one, which is to renovate within the original framework.

However, there are also discussion points about the renovation.

How to renovate?

David Gill hired Populous, a well-known consulting and management company. They have rich experience in stadium development and have participated in the expansion of Leicester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and other stadiums.

However, it is also a big project to completely modernize and renovate such an ancient stadium.

Populous gave three more plans.

One, Old Trafford is completely closed.

If Manchester United plays games elsewhere, it will take about 24-30 months to complete the renovation and turn it into a beautiful and modern stadium, with a budget of 300 million to 350 million pounds.

Second, Old Trafford is semi-closed.

When Manchester United has a home team game, they can enter the stadium to play, but the stands can only open to about 30,000 people. It's half refurbished and half used. The project period is expected to be 45-50 months, with a budget of 350 million to 400 million pounds.

Three, Old Trafford is fully open.

The renovation of the stadium will hardly affect Manchester United's home team games. From the end of May to the end of August every year, Manchester United will enter a summer window break period of about three months.

Divide the large project of renovating the Old Trafford Stadium into 10-12 small projects, and complete one small project every summer. It will take 10-12 years to completely complete the renovation of the stadium, with a budget of 380 million to 420 million pounds.

This matter cannot simply be decided by the board of directors.

In the past two months, David Gill has contacted Manchester United's fan organizations, player celebrities, management and grassroots employees through various relationships and listened to their opinions extensively.

The feedback is very obvious.

The support rate for Option 1 is only 3.5%;

The support rate for option two is 34.8%;

The support rate for option three is as high as 61.7%!

The board of directors approved the choice of the third option!

This plan is also in the interests of the new boss.

If the first two options are adopted, Manchester United does not have that much funds and will have to apply for a loan of at least 300 million pounds from the bank to maintain the normal operation of the club.

But the "loan" is too scary for Manchester United.

Because of the Glazer family, Manchester United fans are already afraid, fearing that the new owner will treat Manchester United as a cash cow and continue to suck blood from Manchester United.

The third option is very safe and does not require a loan.

It is enough to spend about 35 million pounds per year on engineering costs. This little money is nothing to Manchester United. Even if Manchester United's current commercial capabilities are not fully developed, it can still maintain profits of more than 50 million pounds each year with a guaranteed transfer budget of 30 million pounds.

Manchester United's earning power is now second only to Real Madrid and Barcelona. When Manchester United Commercial is established, its earning power will be further improved, and there will be no need to worry about money at all.

Therefore, the board of directors approved the sixth proposal proposed by Zhu Jun last week.

Manchester United will renovate the Carrington training base and build a new simple stadium that can accommodate 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Zhu Jun said: "I have a club in China called Shenhua. The football level is of course far inferior to Manchester United, but the training facilities are much better than Manchester United. Our gym is more than 1,200 square meters. However, Carrington's gym is It’s less than 200 square meters. There are also training grounds and various training facilities, which are all too old and need to be updated.”

Zhou Buqi said: "The renovation of Old Trafford is the most important thing, but the three-month construction period every summer... may not be able to be completed on time. This requires us to have a plan in case the construction period cannot be completed as scheduled. , the question of where Manchester United is going to play."

Zhu Jun said: "So, we are going to build a new, larger reserve stadium with a capacity of 20,000-30,000 people. It can be used for reserve teams, youth teams, and Premier League women's football games. In special circumstances, it can also be used for reserve teams, youth teams, and Premier League women's football matches. Adult team emergency.”

San Dezi worked part-time as the secretary of the board of directors and distributed the materials.

In terms of materials, the budget sheet has been prepared.

A new home for the women’s team, £30 million; renovation of the Carrington base, £8 million; purchasing new training equipment and adding new training venues to the youth training base, £2 million.

This construction period is relatively short. If we start construction now, it will be ready for use next season.

The budget totals £40 million.

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "Everyone, take a look and pass if there is no problem."

This is something that will be of great benefit to the future development of Manchester United. It is also a decision made jointly by the big boss and the second boss. Who can object?

Passed unanimously.

As a result, Manchester United will spend 75 million pounds on infrastructure projects this summer alone.

In addition, David Gill also said that he would move the railway tracks next to the South Stand and buy a large piece of land there. The budget is 5 million pounds. This is being done and is expected to be completed in the summer. Finish.

The total budget has been increased again, reaching £80 million.

Zhou Buqi asked: "There is no pressure on cash flow, right?"

David Gill smiled and said, "As long as you don't repay the debt, there won't be any problems."

There was laughter in the boardroom.

Debt-free and light-hearted.

So happy!

Old Trafford was expanded before the Glazer family took over. But after the arrival of the Glazer family, the expansion and renovation work was completely over.

Now, it has finally started again, and it is a grander and more ambitious plan!

The development of Manchester United is about to enter a new era.

I’m really looking forward to it!

However, there is bad news.

Ferguson said: "I know an agreement about Ronaldinho."

"oh?"

"Florentino is running to become the president of Real Madrid. He has signed a betting agreement with Cristiano Ronaldo's agent. If he gives up joining Real Madrid this summer, he will pay 30 million euros. This The agreement... is exactly the same as when he poached Figo from Barcelona."

"30 million euros..."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

In this way, Ronaldo's transfer to Real Madrid is a certainty.

Zhu Jun said grandly: "The greatness of a club does not lie in the gains and losses of one player. Without Ronaldinho, we can introduce more outstanding players!"

Santoku understood and said with a smile: "I think we can bring Beckham back. He is our legend..."