In his previous life, as a middle-level executive in an enterprise, Gao Shen always attached great importance to market research.
For example, Leeds United wanted to invest in the construction of a new stadium. Although the team had conducted a detailed market survey more than ten years ago, as time passed, Gao Shen still asked the club to entrust a third party to prepare a new one.
The results obtained are very different from those obtained back then.
For example, the Trinity Shopping Center in the city center did not exist back then.
This requires Leeds United to pay more attention to differentiation when it comes to business planning and investment promotion for the new stadium.
The same goes for stadium naming.
When deciding to build a new stadium, Gao Shen had already hired a professional third-party agency through the club to conduct market assessments on stadium naming in several mainstream sports markets around the world.
The conclusion reached is that Premier League stadium naming is seriously underrated.
The most obvious example is Arsenal.
When planning to build the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal signed a package plan with Emirates Airlines. What was the result?
This did seem like a lot at the time, but as time went by, looking back now, I found that Arsenal really suffered a huge loss.
But there is no way, the long-term contract has been signed.
There are many cases like this.
For example, the Los Angeles Chargers of the American NFL.
In 1997, the Los Angeles Chargers signed a 20-year stadium naming contract with a naming fee of less than $1 million per season, but what about now?
Worth at least US$5 million.
Of course, the improvement of commercial value brought by marketing itself must also be taken into consideration.
But in this report from a third-party organization, it is clearly mentioned that many financial companies, such as banks, insurance, personal investments, etc., as well as some retail, aviation, and Internet companies, are all interested in this type of cooperation.
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"They realized early on that the benefits of sponsorship were far greater than simple brand promotion."
In the Bundesliga, stadium naming is nothing new. Many Bundesliga teams have sold their home stadiums, such as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
These two Bundesliga teams are very capable of reflecting the value of the stadium.
The cooperation between Bayern and the Allianz Arena can be said to be a model for stadium naming. The annual sponsorship fee of more than 6 million euros is not lost at all. The Allianz Arena even took this opportunity to directly bind Bayern to this stadium.
Now, when I think of Bayern, I naturally think of the Allianz Arena.
In contrast, Dortmund's situation is different.
Many people probably don’t remember the name of the Signal Iduna Park stadium, but they still remember Dortmund’s original name, West FL Stadium.
Maybe many people will find it strange, why?
This is the importance of prioritization.
The difference between Bayern and Dortmund can very well illustrate the crux of the naming rights issue in stadiums in Europe's top leagues.
All wealthy teams will basically not plan to build new stadiums in a short period of time, but naming old stadiums is too risky and the benefits are not high.
For example, in this Leeds United report, the sponsorship of Manchester United’s stadium naming rights is about 17 million pounds per year. This is not a small amount of money, but how many people will remember the name of the new stadium by then?
It is estimated that when everyone in the world thinks of Manchester United, they still think of Old Trafford.
Needless to say, this sponsorship will anger Manchester United fans.
The existence of historical baggage has led Manchester United to want to sell the naming rights early on, but has never been successful.
Manchester United's asking price is high, but companies that can afford the money are worried about profits.
On the other hand, if the offer is less, Manchester United is unwilling to sell at a low price.
This is actually the case at the Bernabeu and Camp Nou.
In order to accommodate the fans' sentiments, the two giants are not willing to move on the naming rights easily. They want to sell, but they have to retain the names of the Bernabeu and Camp Nou, which results in sponsors' willingness not being particularly strong.
This is a bit like if a scumbag gets divorced and has a girlfriend here, but still lives with his ex-wife there, who can bear it?
According to the current valuation of the Premier League, Manchester United and Manchester City are the highest. If Arsenal’s first contract is not signed well, the value will not rise. Teams such as Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and Everton are basically not very ideal.
, it is an old stadium after all.
However, preliminary estimates suggest that the value of Premier League stadium naming will at least double in the next five years.
This is because the Premier League has a huge advantage that other top leagues cannot match, and that is the overseas market.
Therefore, Leeds United's current psychological price is that if he signs for about ten years, it will be around 15 million pounds per year.
This is also the advice given by third-party consulting companies.
Of course, it is a bit early to talk about this now, as we are still in the contact stage.
After all, Leeds United’s new stadium is still being planned and there is no sign of it at all.
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After attending the meeting at Elland Road, Gao Shen and his team headed north, out of Leeds United's urban area, to the Thorpe Arch training base.
According to the team's original plan, after the new training base was completed, Thorpe Arch would still serve as the team's youth training base, but after reconsideration, the plan was canceled.
After everyone saw the plan for the new training base, they felt that there was no need to keep Thorpe Arch.
So, after the team is completed, the team will all move to the new base.
It is human nature to like the new and dislike the old.
As Leeds United continues to grow, Thorpe Arch is indeed becoming more and more crowded, with more and more people.
From the data center to the scouting team, to the methodology department, as well as the coaching staff, equipment team, medical room, etc., Leeds United is becoming more and more complete, and the Thorpe Arch seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
Now, everyone in the team is eagerly looking forward to the new base being completed and put into use as soon as possible.
Gao Shen and his team visited every department to inspect.
Under Borrell's management, there is not much of a problem.
After all, Borrell was a veteran of Barcelona's youth training and was in charge of Leeds United's training base, so there was basically no problem.
More importantly, Gao Shen has always adhered to professional principles, so every department of Leeds United has gathered various professional talents from the European continent.
With an annual investment of over ten million pounds, Leeds United's youth training strength is also increasing day by day, and now it is a youth training force in England that cannot be underestimated.
Of course, there are also many people who criticize that Leeds United's youth training is built on money and they poach people from all over the world.
Gao Shen didn't think there was any problem with this at all.
Even when meeting with scouting director Steve Walsh, Gao Shen repeatedly told him to improve the layout of the South American scouting network as soon as possible and work closely with South America, especially Brazil, Argentina and other talent bases.
Leeds United's positioning is very clear, that is, it is a transfer station for stars.
Before the journey, many people criticized Real Madrid for spending large sums of money to sign Vinicius, Rodrigo and Reinier in Brazil, but no one understood why?
According to conventional practice, Brazilian players should first make a name for themselves in the country and be valued by mid- and lower-tier teams in Europe's top leagues, or by teams in sub-tier leagues such as the Eredivisie and the Portuguese Super League. After performing well, they have proven their strength.
With potential, the wealthy teams take action again.
This progressive model can ensure that the signing risks of wealthy teams are minimized.
Therefore, it can be seen that wealthy teams are willing to pay a lot of money to grab people, because it is safe and the risk is not high.
Of course, those like Barcelona and Manchester United who wantonly grab people and have no rules at all are exceptions.
But as Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, and especially more wealthy teams poured into the four major leagues, everyone found that this path no longer worked.
When this player proves himself in the European leagues and emerges, he will become very popular and everyone will be grabbing him.
This is very outrageous.
There are even some little-known players who can easily earn over 100 million. Isn’t this outrageous?
As a result, people like Real Madrid began to choose lottery tickets and went to the Brazilian league to search for talents in person. They would rather pay a higher price, but also identify the talented young players in advance and train them personally.
There are transfers like Vinicius, Rodrygo and Reinier.
Of course, there are also high-quality and cheap cases like Uruguay's Valverde.
But not all teams are Real Madrid. Even Real Madrid is not very willing to take this path because the risk is indeed very high.
Just like before the time travel, many people saw the success of Vinicius and Rodrigo, but Rainier was not very successful, and the former genius Odegaard was also unsuccessful.
Behind success, there are often a lot of losers, but they fail and are not known.
If given the choice, Real Madrid would still want to pay a high price to grab players in the European leagues.
For example, in 2017, they wanted to sign the 18-year-old genius Mbappe from Monaco for a sky-high price of 160 million euros, plus floating clauses that could reach up to 180 million euros.
But it is a pity that in the end, they still failed to win over Paris.
When Gao Shen came to Thorpe Arch this time, the focus was on the methodology department. He held a meeting with two experts, Paco Cerullo and Juan Vera, to discuss Leeds United's youth training.
In the past two years, they have been investing in research on youth training. From teaching players in accordance with their aptitude to daily training programs, etc., these are their key research projects, and they have achieved very fruitful results.
For example, this season, Leeds United's U21 team, also known as the reserve team, performed well in the Premier League reserve team. Among them, local players Calvin Phillips and Dele Alli performed well, and they often come back to play in the reserve team.
Young players such as Martial and Kimmich in the league have made Leeds United perform very well in the reserve league.
The Methodology Department also focuses on cultivating these U21 players, tailoring training programs and plans specifically for them, including everything from diet to training to other aspects, and is doing its best to cultivate them.
Luis Ramis, the head coach from Spain, led the team to launch an offensive storm in the reserve league. The players performed well and their strength improved significantly.
Behind this, the methodology department plays an important role.
Moreover, in the past two years, they have been working hard to create a youth training system for Leeds United that is full of English characteristics and in line with the development trends of European football.
Now it has basically taken shape and is starting to see results.
Gao Shen came here to inspect and accept the results.
