Football giants

Chapter 714

Standing on the stage, Yang Huan looked at the chaotic reporters below, not to mention how proud he was.

You guys, what did you say when Master Ben said he wanted it for free?

One by one almost swallowed me with saliva, but now I just want to show you, I just want to tell you that our Southampton tickets are free, what's the matter, you bite me?

The reporters below whispered to each other for a while, discussing a lot, and the order of the scene was a bit chaotic.

Yang Huan was not in a hurry, and waited patiently. He even secretly gave Charlene Lahiri a playful wink. The latter glared at him angrily, but he also felt it was funny and admired him.

Frankly speaking, four years ago, when Yang Huan accepted her exclusive interview, he asked for free tickets.

But at that time, Charlene Lahiri felt that this was impossible.

Because in the whole world, no team has ever played like this. Tickets are free. For any team, it is a major loss. Who can afford it?
Even if Real Madrid earns tens of millions of euros a year from ticket sales, can it be said that it is free?
However, at the time, some people from the business community said in interviews that there was such a possibility, but the premise was that Southampton could find a way to make up for the team's income.

To put it simply, wool comes from pigs!

"We are very happy to cooperate with Citibank. We will launch a Saints fan card, which is an exclusive credit card for all Southampton fans. It is a symbol of distinguished status. With it, you can spend on artificial islands, underwater hotels and all the consumption places authorized by our Southampton club."

"It is the same as all other credit cards, the only difference is that it has a point system for Saints fans, every penny you spend with this card will be recorded as your fan points."

"When your fan points accumulate to a certain amount, you can take them, log on to our official website, mobile app, or come to our stadium, and exchange them for your ball tickets and season tickets. Different points can be exchanged for different discounts, or even free of charge. We will not charge any other fees except for necessary fees such as insurance premiums."

"Not only the tickets, but also all the souvenirs and fan supplies in our official fan shop, all of which can be redeemed with fan card points, and these are designed by famous artists we invite, and some of them are limited editions around the world!"

This time, everyone present finally understood.

It turns out that Southampton is going to play this set of modes!

On the surface, fans' tickets are free, but in reality?
Fans need to apply for a fan card, and then use the fan card to spend in exchange for points, and exchange points for tickets.

Therefore, although Southampton did not directly collect the tickets from the fans, in fact, the fans are also paying for the tickets, but this kind of payment is not a one-time payment, but is paid in daily consumption that accumulates over time.

The artificial island has everything, eating, leisure, entertainment, shopping... it can be said to have everything that one expects to find.

What Southampton wants to do now is to attract all the fans from the surrounding areas to the artificial island.

No, no, no!
Attracting to the artificial island is only the first step!
If there are other merchants other than the artificial island, or even London, or even the United Kingdom, or even other merchants on the European continent, the Saints will also charge an authorization fee and authorize the other party after the review is passed.

What Southampton has to do is a platform that connects Saints fans and businesses.

It is foreseeable that Southampton tickets do not cost money, souvenirs and fan supplies do not cost money, but they can turn around and collect licensing fees and sales revenue from merchants.

With Southampton's shrewdness, it is absolutely impossible to suffer at this point. They must have carefully calculated.

Otherwise, who will do the business at a loss?

As for the fans, it’s very simple. Wherever you go, you can eat, and wherever you go, you can consume. But if you spend with a fan card and accumulate a certain amount of points, you can also get free tickets and fan supplies, or discounts on tickets. Then you say, will the fans refuse?

Especially for those Saints fans who live in Southampton and south London, this is a good deal for them, because the season ticket price saved is hundreds of pounds every year.

As for Southampton, it must be profitable, at least there is no need to pay tax on ticket sales.

Yang Huan was also very worried that the outside world would misunderstand Southampton's measures, so he gave further analysis, saying that the consumption on the artificial island would not increase due to the point system, and all the products in the Harrods mall were exactly the same as those in London's Harrods mall.

At the same time, he also said that after careful calculation by the club, the design of the points system will not cause too much burden on the fans.

In fact, Southampton also conducted a very detailed and long-term survey when formulating this point system. It hired as many as three survey companies for as long as two years, and it targeted the south of London and the surrounding areas of Southampton.

In the end, the results of the questionnaire sent to Yang Huan showed that Southampton fans generally support the Conservative Party, at least they are also centrists, so Yang Huan is closer to Terry Matthews and Boris Johnson, and even allows Boris Johnson to publicly express that he is a Saints fan.

Fans generally work in mid-to-high-end industries, such as engineers, tourism, and hotel industry. Salaries in these industries are generally relatively high, so Southampton fans have a monthly surplus of more than [-] pounds in addition to normal expenses, with an average of more than [-] pounds, ranking among the top [-] teams in the Premier League.

This is also in line with the outside world's perception of Southampton. Fans generally come from the middle and high income class.

Fans of Arsenal, Queens Park Rangers and other teams also have a monthly surplus of more than 150 pounds, but the ticket prices of these two teams are much higher than Southampton. Although the ticket prices of Chelsea are also high, the affordability of their fans is very low, with a monthly surplus of less than [-] pounds.

This is just in response to that sentence, the real Chelsea fans are not in the West End of London, but in Millwall.

Because Southampton fans are generally middle-to-high class, they also have relatively high requirements for life. For example, according to the questionnaire survey, they are willing to pay more for high-quality products. Their first choice for buying clothes is comfortable, but it is best to be fashionable and comfortable, and they like to buy selected products and services.

After a series of investigations, Southampton decisively aimed at the mid-to-high-end fan group, so they formulated such a set of points system and decided to introduce Harrods and other mid-to-high-end brands and merchants.

At the same time, when designing the points redemption system, the team also attached great importance to the close integration with daily life. The purpose is naturally to create a situation where clubs, businesses and fans are all happy.

Not only that, Southampton also attaches great importance to the cultivation of young fan groups.

As we all know, the average age of Saints fans is the lowest in the Premier League, but young fans will always grow up and mature one day, so the team has specially provided points discounts for children and students, hoping to cultivate more fresh blood.

This is also a problem that has gradually emerged in the Premier League in recent years, that is, the atmosphere at home is getting worse and worse.

Even in Anfield like Liverpool, the atmosphere at home is not the same as it was back then.

The reason is very simple. The fans are getting older and more mature. It is impossible for the audience to shout and cheer like they did when they were young, full of passion.

Nowadays, the average age of Premier League fans is as high as 41 years old, and only 16% of the fans are under [-] years old.

Even though Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and other teams seem to have a high attendance rate, in fact, there are a lot of false reports. They will use various calculation methods to increase the attendance rate as much as possible. However, if you pay attention to their ticket sales or pay attention to the data released by other organizations, it is not difficult to see that their attendance rate is not so high.

However, in the past few years, Southampton has insisted on not increasing the price, and the ticket price has remained unchanged, attracting more and more fans, especially young fans, into the stadium, but this is obviously not enough.

Therefore, Southampton has adopted such a method, hoping to attract more and younger fans into the stadium, into the artificial island, and cultivate their sense of belonging and loyalty to the team.

At the same time, it is also to cultivate their shopping and consumption habits on the artificial island.

Everyone present, listening to Yang Huan on the stage, talking with eloquence, and introducing the situation of the entire point system in detail, was full of shock, even surprise.

Because they discovered that Southampton really played big this time!
Unbelievably large!

Although Yang Huan said that it is a trial operation and has not yet been fully rolled out, everyone can predict that after such detailed and long-term preparations, Southampton's plan does show the courage of the Saints management to make drastic reforms.

If it succeeds, I am afraid that the management of the entire European football world will undergo earth-shaking changes.

Because everyone will find that football clubs are no longer just conservative, hiding in their own stadiums, waiting for fans to come forward.

On the contrary, now is to boldly go out, use the culture and brand of your own club, connect various resources in the society, integrate more deeply and closely into the social system, and benefit from it.

If Southampton succeeds, it will open up a whole new situation for the operation of professional clubs.

Thinking of this, many people present were a little excited.

It is only now that they understand why there are so many brands and so many merchants who are attracted to this artificial island and the new stadium in Southampton.

Because, perhaps in the near future, this place will not only be a new stadium, but will be the busiest consumer hotspot in South London, and may even attract more merchants, and more brands will gather towards Southampton.

At this moment, countless people in the audience raised their heads and looked at Yang Huan on the stage.

Very calm, very calm, as if completely unaware of what nervousness is.

But the eyes of everyone looking at him were full of admiration.

In the past four years, he has refreshed everyone's understanding of football clubs time and time again, and opened up new business models for football clubs time and time again.

When he set up a WeChat account for Southampton and required every player in the team to insist on updating WeChat every day, the players had some objections to some extent, and the outside world felt that this was completely unreasonable.

But now, seeing that all Southampton players are worth a lot of money, even if it is just a youth team player, as long as they are managed properly, they can get tens of thousands of pounds in sales from the WeChat store every year, and there are even more first-team stars and big-name players.

As a result, other teams began to follow suit, and other stars also began to flock to WeChat.

It can be said that the Saints have opened up a new model of WeChat marketing and promotion.

And now, Yang Huan is about to shock the entire European football world again!

The free handball ticket alone is enough to make fans all over the world feel ashamed, or envy and hate all the teams in the world!
But, this is Yang Huan, this is Southampton!
(End of this chapter)