Just when Min Congda, together with the Clippers players and grassroots employees, were eating and drinking in Chinatown and going for an adventure in Santa Barbara, in a mansion somewhere in Beverly Hills, the wealthy area of Los Angeles, the new Clippers owner Shelley Stewart Lin is hosting a dinner party.
This is the most luxurious residential area in Los Angeles, known as the city within the city. Many Hollywood stars and rich people live here, which is a symbol of wealth and status.
This mansion is one of the joint properties of Donald Sterling and Shelly Sterling. After the divorce, Shelly received the ownership of this mansion. Tonight, she is hosting a banquet for the sports world and media as a hostess. Many executives and persons in charge in the industry and financial industry.
Firstly, it was to celebrate the foundation laying of the new arena, and secondly, she still had many matters to negotiate.
Although she is 70 years old, for a woman, power, wealth and fame can all be a good way to stay beautiful.
Shelley Sterling is very beautiful this year, so she looks radiant and younger than in the past ten or twenty years.
This made Shelly's ex-husband Donald Sterling very unhappy. He was also invited to the dinner tonight and brought his young girlfriend with him, but his eyes kept lingering on Shelly.
When a person reaches a certain age, appearance and figure are no longer the best packaging, but reputation, status and power.
In the past, Donald Sterling has always been the figure in front of the family. Even if he is infamous in the NBA, he is still one of the most famous and wealthy tycoons in Los Angeles.
And Shelly Sterling has always been the woman behind him, and the women around him are constantly changing.
Suddenly the world turned upside down, and Shelly seized the opportunity and almost sent Donald to a mental hospital.
Now the property is divided and the Clippers are owned, and they won a championship that was unimaginable during Sterling's era.
Immediately afterwards, a large-scale construction project was launched to build the largest and most luxurious comprehensive stadium in the entire league, and it was also the first stadium in the United States to be built entirely with private funds.
Shelley Sterling's popularity in the past six months has almost eclipsed the reputation Donald Sterling has gained in Los Angeles over the past thirty years.
It's impossible to say that I don't feel uncomfortable. It's too uncomfortable and too unbalanced, especially the championship trophy, which can only be touched but does not belong to him.
During a break in the party, Sterling took the opportunity to call Shelly, pretended to toast her, and said: "Well done Shelly, it's time to think about finding a good husband to share the joy of victory with you. .”
Donald is already over 70, but he still has the same yin and yang attitude toward his ex-wife as he did when he was young.
Shelly rolled her eyes at her ex-husband and said, "I'm not you, Donald. You have Alzheimer's disease and you can't live without people. Besides, haven't you been married for more than 30 years? If you want to get married, I advise you to complete the prenuptial agreement." .”
Donald asked for trouble, waved his hand and said: "I was just joking, don't get angry and have a drink~"
"By the way, I heard that the naming rights of the new arena were given to a Chinese company, and the naming fee is only US$1 million a year? Shelly, is this how you do business? One million a year? You're just sending a beggar, What a joke."
The yin and yang conspiracy didn't work, and Sterling began to criticize some of Shelly's decisions.
Construction of the new arena has not yet started, but the naming rights were sold to Huawei for US$5 million over five years, causing considerable controversy.
Not only because Huawei is a Chinese company, but also because this five-year, 5 million contract is too small.
Not to mention Microsoft and Amazon, Burger King’s price is higher than Huawei’s.
But the choice of Huawei has left many people confused.
You must know that Min Congda played a vital role in the construction of the new arena.
But he was just a matchmaker. He didn't contribute a penny and only had a small share of the stadium's equity.
On important decisions such as naming rights, Min Congda only has the right to make suggestions but not to make decisions.
The real decision lies with Clippers owner Shelley Sterling.
Shelley Sterling is different from Donald. She is not a puppet. She has her own ideas.
No one knows what considerations Shelly Sterling had in agreeing to Min Congda and choosing Huawei as the weakest title sponsor.
Faced with her ex-husband's doubts, Shelly just sneered, took a sip of wine and didn't bother to talk to Donald.
Donald was very angry when he saw Shelly's expression and said angrily: "Five million Shelly, five million! You want the five million naming fee, but you might as well pay it for me! I'll give you five million, Name the arena the Sterling Center!”
Seeing her ex-husband angry, Shelly felt even more amused. She said, "Donald, your idea is really good. Sterling Center, does it sound nice? However, I think the name Cheryl Center sounds better." "
Donald Sterling narrowed his eyes and looked at Shelly. Time had already destroyed her appearance. They had known each other for so long that Sterling could no longer remember what Shelly looked like when she was young.
But recently, he saw a side of his wife that he had never shown before, an ambitious woman.
"Cheryl Center... do you want to take complete control of this stadium one day?"
"Why not? Don't you think it would be fun to have an iconic building named after you in Los Angeles?"
The smile on Shelly's face became brighter and brighter. She indeed had a more ambitious plan of her own.
Although companies such as Microsoft and Amazon provide extremely generous sponsorship fees, the corresponding conditions are also very demanding.
Take Microsoft as an example. They gave a huge contract of US$150 million, but the contract period was a long 25 years.
And this 150 million also includes the Clippers' possible future jersey advertising sponsorship, the leasing rights of hundreds of advertising spaces in the arena, the supply and maintenance rights of all the arena's software and hardware systems, etc.
To put it bluntly, Microsoft wants to use the $150 million to acquire most of the rights to the arena, and the man behind it is naturally Ballmer.
Ballmer really wanted to live in the Los Angeles sports market, but he couldn't buy it with the Clippers. He wanted to save the country through curves and start with the stadium.
With Ballmer's asset size, it will not be a problem to directly acquire the stadium in the future.
For Shelley Sterling, money is of primary importance, but not the only one.
After becoming the owner of the Clippers, the Clippers' rapid success made her feel the pleasure of standing at the top.
For women in their 70s, who can no longer find happiness in the bedroom and who do not want to waste their last years in the kitchen, garden or nursery, it is really tempting to come to the stage and show off their talents.
Of course Shelly would not agree to Microsoft's all-encompassing cooperation approach.
The remaining contracts, such as Amazon, General Electric, etc., are also very long and the conditions are very harsh.
After all, these big companies know that this stadium is carrying a lot of debt and has sold a large number of long-term season tickets for the team, so there is a risk of unfinished business.
Once it goes unfinished, they can use the terms in the contract to seize equity, and even have the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and gain control of the assets.
After the 2008 financial crisis, although U.S. real estate collapsed for a time, the value of high-quality assets often rose instead of falling after each crisis.
This kind of large-scale comprehensive stadium is definitely a high-quality asset among high-quality assets. Who can not be envious of it?
Shelley Sterling did not communicate with Min Congda privately, but she found that Min Congda seemed to be resistant to the entry of these giant companies.
So she took advantage of Min Congda's wishes and rejected these attractive but trappy big contracts. Instead, she chose an unknown Chinese company and signed a five-year short contract without any additional terms.
And this contract will come into effect from the date it is signed, which means that the arena has not been built yet, and it will start in 5 years.
The construction of the arena takes about two years, so according to the contract, Huawei will only have about three years to name the arena.
According to Shelley Sterling's plan, when the arena is successfully completed, the Clippers should become the league's premier dynasty team.
If the assets are sufficient and the goal is achieved, Shelley Sterling will spend a huge sum of money to buy out the naming rights of the arena and name the arena the Cheryl Sports Center.
Naming an iconic building after a person is no ordinary prestige.
Some of the famous buildings named after people in the United States are often well-known political figures.
For example, JFK International Airport, JFK Library, Thomas Jefferson Building, etc.
There are also cases where a businessman names a building after himself. For example, the famous billionaire Trump bought the Manhattan Bank Building and named it Trump Tower.
Trump is also well-known in the American business community and belongs to the top group.
After all, a grand building needs to be named after your name. If you have no contribution, performance or reputation, you are not worthy of it.
Donald Sterling never expected that his ex-wife would have such huge ambitions to establish a monument for himself.
The expression on his face gradually turned from surprise to disbelief. He shook his head and said: "Shelley, Shelly~ have you been carried away? You are just a woman... You don't still want to run for president, do you? God. Now, it’s just a championship. How does it confuse you? Do you think you can do anything? Is this your credit?”
Shelly Sterling said: "Is it your contribution? Yes, when you do nothing, you are the biggest contributor to the team."
Sterling was speechless for a moment, thought for a moment and said: "Well... I dug out Smart and brought him to the Clippers! He is the biggest contributor. If the arena needs to be named, it should be called the Smart Center."
Shelly said: "It's a pity that Smart is not interested in this. I think he really loves basketball. The reason why he uses a Chinese company is to better promote basketball in his homeland. I fulfill his wish and accordingly , he will also satisfy my ideas. But Tang, it is really amazing that you can take a fancy to him and let him be the general manager of the team. I still don’t know how you did it or how you discovered him ?”
At this point, Sterling's mind seemed to be in a state of shutdown. He rolled his eyes for a while, finally raised his glass and said, "Smart Center is actually pretty good." Then he walked away.
Shelly Sterling thought to herself, "Is this old guy suffering from Alzheimer's disease again?"
(End of chapter)
