I build a giant in the Premier League

Chapter 76: It’s All Because of the Tickets

"Hello, Adam, welcome to Bayswater Chinese!"

Three days later, when Yang Cheng welcomed Adam Crozier at Bayswater Stadium, the British public servant with the highest annual salary had a look of sorrow on his face.

This was his first time at Bayswater Stadium, and the simplicity of the stadium was a little beyond his expectations.

Yang Cheng laughed secretly in his heart.

What a hypocritical guy!

"Okay, just make do with it for now. You haven't even been to Chelsea's warehouse yet. It's worse than ours."

Yang Cheng pointed to the distance and said, "At least although we are small, we have everything we need and the facilities are very complete."

This is not Yang Cheng bragging.

He has introduced a lot of facilities in the two years he has coached the team.

Among them, the three-person data analysis team spent a lot of money.

There were also various facilities, hardware, equipment, software, etc. Yang Cheng spent all the money he should have, not a penny less.

Since the lease of Loftus Road, the current Bayswater stadium has been used as a training ground for the first team, including the half-built stadium.

The club's office facilities are also located within the stadium.

However, from the outside, it looks like an unfinished building.

Adam Crozier, who usually goes in and out of London's upscale CBD, frowns when he thinks about having to work in such a place.

But when Yang Cheng took him around the training ground, especially to see the various departments and facilities inside, Adam Crozer was immediately impressed.

Gianni Vio's data analysis team made him even more impressed.

Wasn’t the goal that defeated Chelsea in the League Cup final a result of a free kick?

According to Yang Cheng, the data analysis team will also be deeply involved in the team's games and training.

From the outside, the office looks like an unfinished building, which is indeed not very nice.

As for the stadium, it has not been built yet and the facade cannot be renovated, so we can only make do with it.

But the interior is nicely decorated.

At least, the office atmosphere is there.

"We currently have 17 staff working here. This is the finance office. Your office is over here."

Xia Qing led the way and introduced.

"Don't get me wrong, I just came over to take a look." Adam Crozier hurriedly explained.

Yang Cheng laughed and patted his shoulder like a brother. "Okay, you're still pretending. I'm afraid you've even completed the handover procedures. Do you really think I don't know?"

Adam Crozier was a little embarrassed.

It’s speechless to think about it.

He has a long-standing conflict with some of the Royal Mail's directors.

Reform always offends people.

Especially with such large-scale layoffs and reforms, how many people's cakes have been affected?
The Royal Mail's turnaround has left many people feeling angry.

Previously, the media kept hyping that Adam Crozier was the highest paid public official, which was simply a way of putting him on a pedestal.

The subsequent continuous strikes were just a constant roasting of his buttocks.

When Adam Crozier went to Cardiff Stadium to watch the game and was caught by reporters, those who opposed him began to attack.

In fact, these are just small things.

Adam Crozier didn't take these people too seriously, he just felt that this kind of working environment was too tiring.

But considering the high salary, he endured it.

Unexpectedly, Yang Cheng was right.

The British government decided to break up the Royal Mail's monopoly starting in January 2006.

Now the Royal Mail’s biggest bargaining chip is gone.

Adam Crozier knew very well what kind of company this was. After losing such a large part of its business, it would be like Wang Xiaoer's New Year, getting worse every year.

In addition, those who opposed him continued to make trouble, and outside employees also kept causing trouble for him.

So he took the opportunity to get a severance pay and left.

……

"I don't plan to reduce my annual salary, which is £100 million before tax."

After walking around, Yang Cheng, Xia Qing and Adam Crozier talked behind closed doors in the CEO's office.

Adam Crozier was not the kind of person who would shy away, so he went straight to the point and put forward his request.

Yang Cheng was also very straightforward, "Okay."

"Don't worry, if I take your money, I will guarantee to provide you with sufficient returns."

Yang Cheng smiled confidently, "I never doubted this."

"The current team is rather simple, and I need to recruit some people."

Yang Cheng looked at Xia Qing, who took over the conversation, "Our club has strict salary control. I will cooperate with you when the time comes."

Lin Zhongqiu returned to China, and Xia Qing is now the chief financial officer of Bayswater Chinese.

Although he was very optimistic about Adam Crozier, Yang Cheng was worried because there was no one he trusted watching him.

After all, human nature is the thing that cannot stand the test.

Yang Cheng’s attitude was very clear. The personnel rights of the administrative office were given to Adam Crozier, but all the financial rights of the club were given to Xia Qing, including the first team and the youth training academy.

Both of them are directly responsible to Yang Cheng.

As early as on the phone in Ukraine, Yang Cheng had talked a lot with Adam Crozier.

For example, in the new season, the goal of Bayswater Chinese in the Premier League is not to avoid relegation, but to strive for the top.

He is very confident about this.

If it weren't for the League Cup final, Adam Crozier might be worried, but now he is looking forward to it.

However, the first difficult problem Adam Crozier encountered when he took office was ticket sales.

In the past two seasons, the ticket price for Chinese people at Bayswater was £30.

Since the stadium was not full, there was no trouble.

But in the second half of last season, every game was sold out, causing a lot of trouble for ticket sales. There were even many fans protesting, saying that Bayswater Chinese's ticketing was a mess.

"This is the advice given by the third-party ticketing company we work with." Xia Qing handed over a document.

"I haven't even officially taken office yet, and now you want me to start working?"

Adam Crozier complained, but reached out to take the document.

The ticketing business of Premier League clubs is basically contracted to third-party companies, who also help formulate some sales strategies.

This time their suggestion is to adopt the tiered ticketing system commonly used by English clubs.

The events are divided into three levels: A, B, and C, with Level C having the lowest ticket price and Level A having the highest.

Different ticket prices are then set according to the location of the stadium.

Of course, the club will package the home league tickets for each season into so-called season tickets for sale, so that fans do not need to book every game.

Some clubs will offer a certain discount on season tickets, but some clubs will not.

For example, London teams generally do not offer discounts, or offer very small discounts.

According to calculations by a third-party company, the average cost of a ticket is still about 30 pounds.

Of course, this is a suggestion.

Generally speaking, when a team is promoted to the Premier League, ticket prices will increase.

"What do you think?" Yang Cheng asked.

This was the first difficult question he posed to Adam Crozier.

"It should indeed be divided into different categories," Adam Crozier replied, but then shook his head. "But we suffered a great loss by following their suggestion."

"How to say?"

"According to my understanding, the lowest ticket price for Arsenal's lowest C-level matches is £30."

Arsenal's cheapest tickets are in the lower tier behind the goals.

The upper tier is more expensive than the lower tier.

"And their highest ticket price for Category C is £54 and their highest ticket price for Category A is £71."

"I also received news that after the Glazer family took over Manchester United, they would immediately increase the ticket prices for Manchester United. On average, each ticket would increase by £3, and the normal ticket price would be £39."

"For clubs like West Ham United and Sunderland, although they were relegated, their ticket prices didn't actually drop much, especially West Ham United, whose ticket prices in the Championship are similar to those in the Premier League, except for a slight discount on season tickets."

If we follow the third-party company's advice and the average is £30, then the minimum fare must be very low.

This will certainly please the fans, but the club will suffer a huge loss in revenue.

"The stands at Loftus Road are very small. Some are double-decker, but in reality the capacity is even smaller than a single-decker stand."

"The goals are on the east and west sides. I suggest that the price of ordinary tickets for these two stands remain at £30, unchanged, to ensure that the cost of watching the game does not increase for fans who are more sensitive to price."

It turns out that those who complain about high ticket prices are often these price-sensitive fans.

It’s normal to think about it.

With a family of at least three people, a game of football costs 3 pounds, and if you buy food and drinks for the children, 90 pounds is gone.

Once or half a time is okay, but once a week, or even twice a week, it is really too much for the working class with lower incomes.

"The north and south stands have the largest number of people, the best view of the game, and the most comfortable experience. The prices of these two areas can be increased."

“Especially the second floor of the North Stand, where there are 312 VIP cushioned seats, we can book them for £100.”

"100 pounds?" Xia Qing was surprised.

"Is it too high?" Yang Cheng was also a little hesitant.

"It's simple, we can offer them a better package." Adam Crozier said confidently.

Yang Cheng had a feeling that this guy didn't seem to worry at all about not being able to sell the 312 VIP seats.

This is just the VIP seat with the fans. If it is a VIP box, the price will be higher.

"I haven't calculated it in detail, but I think our average ticket price can be raised to 40 pounds, because after Manchester United's price increase in the new season, the average ticket price will definitely exceed 40 pounds."

Generally speaking, average fares in Manchester are lower than in London.

With that said, even if the average price for Chinese in Bayswater rises to 40 pounds, it is not considered expensive.

Yang Cheng calculated in his mind.

Based on the 1 tickets, if the game is full, the total revenue would be 8 pounds. Add the 72 pounds for the VIP seats, and the total revenue would be 3 pounds.

There are 19 league games in a season, which means 1425 million pounds.

If you factor in the food and drinks on match days, £1600 million is no problem at all.

According to the bonus distribution of the Premier League last season, Southampton, which was relegated from the bottom of the league, also received 1400 million pounds.

That is to say, from ticket revenue and Premier League bonus sharing alone, Bayswater Chinese's revenue can exceed 3000 million pounds.

This does not include ticket and supplies sales, commercial sponsorship, etc.

With this calculation, it seems possible that it will exceed 4 million pounds.

After Yang Cheng calculated this result, he couldn't help feeling a little dazed.

When he first took over the team, he was still worried about 100 million pounds and was even close to bankruptcy.

What now?
The revenue has the potential to exceed £4 million, which is unbelievable.

But this level of income is nothing in the Premier League, and may even be very poor.

If you deduct some operating costs, player and employee salaries, daily expenses, etc., there won't actually be much left.

This is especially important considering that the team is currently heavily in debt.

Now that the team has been promoted to the Premier League, the team's salary structure must also be adjusted accordingly.

Xia Qing carefully prepared an incentive-based salary system for the team.

This is in full consideration of the fact that the team's players are relatively young, and the basic salary offered is not high.

The highest salary is £6000 per week.

This is very, very low in the Premier League where weekly wages are tens of thousands everywhere.

But the club's bonus is high.

According to Xia Qing's statistics, as long as the team successfully avoids relegation, every player will be able to get a generous bonus.

If the team's performance continues to improve, the bonuses they receive will become higher and higher.

The purpose of this is to motivate players to train harder and work harder to win the game.

It’s not a loss for the club.

In the Premier League rankings, every place you move up is worth £50.

Not to mention that the more live broadcasts you have, the more prize money you will get.

In theory, the better the club's performance, the higher its ranking, the more live broadcasts there will be, and the higher its income will be.

Xia Qing did the math for Yang Cheng. Just based on weekly wages, the Chinese expenditure at Bayswater was about 500 million pounds.

This figure is definitely at the bottom in the Premier League, as the lowest West Bromwich Albion has exceeded 10 million pounds.

As a newly promoted team, Sunderland also broke the 10 million mark.

But if the club can achieve the expected mid-table results, the players' bonuses and weekly wages combined will be close to £1000 million.

This way the gap isn't that big.

Considering that the salaries of Chinese players in Bayswater have always been low in the past, the current increase to the maximum salary of 6000 pounds is reasonable.

Combined with the high bonuses, it is enough to motivate players to work harder.

Yang Cheng is still very confident in Xia Qing's abilities.

When the new season starts, he will hand over the management of the team to Xia Qing and Adam Crozier, and he will focus on football.

He believed that with Adam Crozier's ability, as long as he could bring out good results, his income would surely increase steadily.

After returning from Ukraine with a full load, he is more confident about the new season!

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(End of this chapter)