LRAB Chapter 254 253 Three Carriages
Chapter 254 253 Three Carriages
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Without a doubt, football is the undisputedly number one sport in the United States, with commercial value and market share far ahead of the competition, virtually without any rivals.
Not to mention the Super Bowl, which easily garners viewership in the hundreds of millions, let's just talk about the annual draft—
On the first day of the draft broadcast alone, viewership easily surpasses that of the NBA Finals and MLB World Series.
According to statistics, in 2016, out of the top fifty programs in the United States' annual TV ratings, football claimed a whopping forty-seven spots.
A dominant position that no one can challenge!
However, compared to football's popularity and influence, the income of its players is indeed a bit embarrassing and causes one to blush.
The top star players in the NFL only have an annual income of thirty million US dollars; in the NBA, these figures are commonplace and only considered average.
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At present, Nike's highest endorsement contract for football players is only two and a half million US dollars a year, including Manning and several other top league players with similar contract numbers.
This is the top standard. In the face of LeBron James' one billion dollar contract, it is simply the difference between a baby and a giant.
Why is this so?
Why, despite football being North America's number one sport, with team and league revenues and broadcast rights values all leading far ahead, are players' incomes so meager?
From a theoretical standpoint, this isn't scientific and even goes against the norm, and the disparity between NBA and NFL players has often been publicly discussed.
But from a market perspective, it couldn't be more normal.
The reason is actually quite simple:
There are just too many players.
On the basketball court, there are only five players, and a team has at most fifteen players; but in a football team, there are fifty-three players, with at least twenty-five starting players and over forty players swapping in for each game.
As one can imagine, in a football game, fifty-three people sharing the commercial space is naturally incomparable to the fifteen people in a basketball game.
When a brand tries to establish a connection with consumers through endorsements from professional players, baseball and football end up with too many players, leading to a decrease in contract numbers; basketball players and individual sports players, especially in tennis and golf, always get a higher price.
Even if Li Wei became a starter, what if he got injured after a few games? Or, what if, like in the preseason, he shone brightly in one game and then faded away?
For numerous reasons, the brand sponsorships did not show enough sincerity.
Donald didn't respect any of them.
Although the figures of NFL sponsorship deals were far from those in the NBA, annual sums of fifty thousand, one hundred thousand US dollars seemed more like speculations; after all, such sponsorship deals would have seemed meager even in the NBA of the 1980s.
Donald kept waiting, remaining patient. He believed in Li Wei's abilities and value, which was also why he had been willing to make "Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage" initially.
Sure enough, Donald's patience paid off.
At the season opener, Li Wei's brilliant performance caused an uproar across the league, and brands couldn't restrain themselves, contacting Donald immediately; but Donald still wasn't in a hurry, he was waiting for other competitors to emerge.
After the second game ended, Donald's office phone was bustling.
Nike. Adidas. Under Armour.
All three titans of the NFL stage had arrived, not one missing.
Even so, Donald still seemed very calm, with everything under control—
Donald knew that Li Wei's greatest distinction from other football players was his Chinese heritage.
Especially considering that Commissioner Goodell was set on cracking the Asian market, Li Wei effectively had the privilege of exposure backed by the League's official endorsement.
This also meant that Li Wei's value could only go up, not down.
Donald needed to handle this opportunity well:
Creating momentum was the first step.
At this moment, LeBron had come knocking at the perfect time, and Donald certainly wasn't going to be polite; even if LeBron had his own requests, it didn't matter, as Donald had his own calculations.
Having thrown a bombshell, Donald kindly inquired.
"What about you personally? What are your preferences?"
"If you have a particular preference for a brand, we could tilt the negotiations a bit more in their favor during talks."