Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1394 Entering a New Era

March 3, London.

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

First, Paul Kona was appointed as the president of Ziweixing Europe.

Second, appoint Lu Qi's confidant, Chinese-born Yang Wei as the CFO of the European region, and control the financial power.

Third, appoint Douglas Merrill as the president of Ziweixing Sports Digital Media Company, and together with the company's football consultant David Dunn, immediately conduct research on ProZone, Hawkeye, Whoscored, goal, OPTA, Perform, etc. The acquisition of a technology company started Ziweixing's football digital industry plan.

Coincidentally.

Ziweixing has not found a suitable person in charge of the football business for a long time.

Unexpectedly, when helping Manchester United to find a president, Gilbert Lawrence, vice president in charge of copyright business, was hired from EMI Records.

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

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

It can be called outstanding performance!

Then, just because his salary is too high, he should be fired!

This is a typical unloading and killing a donkey.

lead to loss of heart.

Then, Zhou Buqi paid attention to Douglas Merrill. After inquiring, he was an Englishman and a fan of West Ham United.He joined Google in the early years and gradually became Google's vice president and chief information officer. He is a veteran in the Internet industry.

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

Later, after the interview by Lu Qi, he passed on three sides.

Completed his official appointment.

What a stroke of luck.

EMI is really blessed. It seems that they must persuade Softbank to join in and complete the acquisition of EMI, so as to continue this good luck.

Three days later, Manchester, Old Trafford.

Manchester United convened a new board of directors.

A series of new resolutions were announced.

First, appoint Zhen Yu as the executive director of Manchester United;
Second, appoint Gilbert Lawrence as director and vice president of Manchester United;

Third, approve the establishment of Manchester United Commercial Company, with director and vice president Gilbert Lawrence as the president of Manchester United Commercial, and Joseph Drape appointed as the vice president of Manchester United Commercial, in charge of copyright operations.Appointed Chen Wenhao as vice president of Manchester United Commercial, in charge of commercial market expansion;
Fourth, approve David Gill's resolution to buy a bottom team of the Premier League women's football team for £98 and reorganize it as Manchester United women's football team.From next season, Manchester United will play in the Premier League women's football field;
Fifth, the new stadium plan.

This is the most important issue.

The first few decisions were basically made by Zhou Buqi. Others have no right to speak and can only accept but not refute.

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

Old Trafford is a century-old stadium, too 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 Manchester United's home stadium, the Theater of Dreams.

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

The reason why it is not 100% is that the ticket sales should not be too full, there must be enough space for the distinguished guests who come to watch the game temporarily, and some fans cannot come to watch the game because of other things after buying tickets.

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

However, this is not enough.

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

Therefore, Manchester United must have a new stadium.

There are mainly three options.

First, go to another place to choose a site and rebuild a stadium.

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

Third, refurbishment within the original framework of Old Trafford.

This resolution was discussed as early as last year.

The answer can only be the third.

Manchester United's home plan has affected the entire tourism culture of Manchester, and it is impossible to change it.It is not enough to demolish and rebuild the stadium. The past stadium has carried too much history and tradition, and there are 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 under the original framework.

There are talking points for refurbishment, though.

How to renovate?

David Gill recruited the well-known consulting management company Populous, who 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 such an ancient stadium.

Populous gave three more options.

One, Old Trafford is fully closed.

Let Manchester United play games elsewhere, and the renovation can be completed within a project period of about 24-30 months, turning it into a beautiful modern stadium with a budget of 3-3.5 million pounds.

Second, Old Trafford is semi-closed.

When Manchester United has a home team game, they can enter the game, but the stands can only open about 3.It is half refurbished and half used.The project period is expected to be 45-50 months, with a budget of 3.5-4 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 of about 5 months.

把老特拉福德球场翻新这个大项目细化切割成10-12个小项目，每年夏天完成一个小项目。利用10-12年的时间，彻底完成球场的翻新，预算是3.8亿-4.2亿英镑。

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 legends, management and grassroots employees through various relationships, and has listened to their opinions extensively.

The feedback received was very evident.

The support rate of Option 3.5 is only [-]%;

The support rate of option two is 34.8%;

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

The board of directors passed, choose the third option!
This plan is also in the interests of the new boss.

If the first two plans are adopted, Manchester United does not have so much funds, so it will have to apply for a loan of at least 3 million pounds from the bank to maintain the normal operation of the club.

But "loan" is too scary for Manchester United.

Because of the Glazer family, Manchester United fans are already scared, for fear that the new boss will use Manchester United as a cash cow to continue to suck blood from Manchester United.

The third option is very safe, no loan required.

It is enough to spend only about 3500 million pounds on construction costs every year.This amount of money is nothing to Manchester United.Even if Manchester United's current commercial capabilities are not fully developed, they can still maintain a profit of more than 3000 million pounds per year under the guaranteed transfer budget of 5000 million pounds.

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

Therefore, the board of directors failed to approve 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 2-3 people.

Zhu Jundao: "I have a club in China called Shenhua. The level of football is of course far inferior to Manchester United, but the training facilities are really much better than Manchester United. Our gym has more than 1200 square meters. However, Carrington's gym, It is less than 200 square meters. There are also training grounds and various training facilities, which are too old and need to be updated."

Zhou Buqi said: "The renovation of Old Trafford is the most important thing, but the construction period of 3 months every summer... may not be on time. This requires us to have a plan, that is, if the construction period cannot be completed on schedule , where Manchester United are going to play."

Zhu Jundao: "So, we want to build a new and larger reserve stadium, with a scale of 2 to 3 people. It can be used for the reserve team, youth team, and Premier League women's football matches. In special cases, it can also be used for football games. The senior team is in emergency."

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

The budget table has been prepared on the materials.

The new women's home stadium, £3000 million; the renovation of the Carrington Base, £800 million; the purchase of new training equipment, and the addition of new training grounds for the youth training base, £200 million.

The construction period is relatively short, starting now, and it will be ready for use next season.

The budget totaled £4000 million.

Zhou Buqi said indifferently: "Everyone have a look, it will pass if there is no problem."

This is a matter of great benefit to the future development of Manchester United, and it is also a decision made by the big boss and the second boss. Who can object?

unanimously.

As a result, Manchester United will spend 7500 million pounds on infrastructure projects alone this summer.

In addition, David Gill also said that he would remove the railway tracks next to the South Stand, and then buy a large piece of land there. The budget is 500 million pounds. This matter is being done, and it is expected to be completed in the summer. Finish.

The total budget has increased again, to £8000 million.

Zhou Buqi asked, "Is there no pressure on cash flow?"

David Gill smiled, "As long as the debt is not repaid, there will be no problem."

Laughter came from the boardroom.

Debt free.

I'm so happy!

Old Trafford had been expanded before the Glazers 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 more grand and ambitious plan!

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

I'm really looking forward to it!

However, there is also bad news.

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

"Oh?"

"Florentino is going to run for the chairmanship of Real Madrid. He has signed a gambling agreement with Cristiano Ronaldo's agent. If he gives up joining Real Madrid this summer, he will pay 3000 million euros. This The agreement...is exactly the same as when he poached Figo from Barcelona."

"3000 million euros..."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

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

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

San Dezi understood, smiled and said: "I think we can bring Beckham back, he is our legend..."

(End of this chapter)