Although Min Congda is a straight-forward person like Min Congda who dares to speak and act, he also knows in his heart that the legalization of gambling is not something he can control at will.
There are extremely huge interests involved behind this, and many major NBA shareholders, gaming companies, overseas groups, and even the mafia may be involved.
During his 30 years in power, David Stern has developed the commercialization of the NBA to the extreme. The North American market, the international market, the television broadcast market, and the online broadcast market have all been basically developed.
If Silva, as his successor, wants to make his own achievements, he must find new growth points. Judging from the current level of human science and technology, it is unlikely that the NBA will develop to alien planets, so the growth points must still be placed on the earth.
The betting market is the largest piece of cake currently known. Just because of the special nature of this piece of cake, the NBA has not crossed the threshold for nearly 50 years.
Now that capital is finally ready to make a move, it has even influenced the selection of NBA successors, which proves that there is a huge force behind it, and it is by no means the whim of Silva alone.
Even Stern himself can hardly stop this force, so how can Min Congda change it so easily?
So in the face of Silva's questioning and probing, Min Congda seemed very cautious and gave an ambiguous answer.
On the issue of the "Referee Association", Min Congda reversed the situation through public opinion. In the final analysis, it was because the major shareholders of the NBA did not object to Min Congda's participation in referee affairs.
On the contrary, the NBA's major sponsors, such as ESPN and Turner TV, are very happy to participate in this public opinion carnival. They produce programs and publish news. While eating traffic, they also help Min Congda build his character.
The Referees Association, which was not popular among the fans, suffered a complete defeat in this public opinion contest, which fulfilled Min Congda's "righteousness" and made him taller and majestic. His status in the league office became more stable.
But when it comes to the legalization of gambling, the issue is not that simple. Although everyone knows that "gambling" is not a good thing, in addition to Las Vegas, there are also a small number of Indian settlements in the United States that hold licenses to legally open casinos. In addition, gambling is still illegal in most states.
It's just that this thing is really hugely profitable, and like pornography, gambling is deeply engraved in the genes of human nature and cannot be eradicated no matter how many generations pass.
Therefore, behind the gambling industry are huge interest groups and a large number of related practitioners. They have a strong voice and action power in American society, and they are by no means comparable to referees.
Just like the gun association, there have been so many shooting cases in the United States, and there are constant calls to ban guns. However, the arms dealers are so powerful that they can lobby Congress, so gun bans are simply impossible to implement.
Min Congda has a low-to-average IQ but is not a fool. Not long after he arrived in the United States, he had a deep understanding of American society. Now, six years later, he understands everything.
"Legalizing gambling" is something that cannot be touched casually. Even if you are opposed to it deep down in your heart, you must pay attention to methods and strategies.
Otherwise, if you die in the bathtub at home one day, you won’t know what happened, and there may be no one to seek justice for you.
In mid-August, the negotiations between the Referee Association and the league were still at a stalemate, and the league was threatening to delay the payment of work subsidies to summer league referees.
Faced with this situation, Min Congda persuaded Bozia to provide subsidies to young referees to ease the relationship between the league and the referees.
His move won favor and support from referees, especially young referees, and the resistance from the Referees Association was gradually weakening.
Especially young referees, they believe that star referees do not care about the lives of low-level and marginal referees for their own interests.
The new plan is obviously beneficial to the overall development of referees, so why resist it? Just because those senior referees get paid less?
But senior referees can call the playoffs, and they get more subsidies in the playoffs. Why should they be dissatisfied?
Conflicts between old and new referees have reduced the internal cohesion of the Referees Association, and their confidence to compete with the league is also getting weaker and weaker.
In addition, McCutchen was convinced by Min Congda, and even without Silva's guarantee, the Referee Association signed the new agreement on August 17.
Under this circumstance, Silva no longer blindly resisted Min Congda's new plan, but shook hands with McCutcheon, and a new agreement between the two parties was officially reached.
The reason why Silva did this was not because Min Congda supported the legalization of gambling, nor was it because he compromised, but because he happened to have something very important that Min Congda needed to do.
That is the issue of copyright of NBA resources in the Chinese market.
The summer of 2015 was indeed a year for Adam Silva to show off his talents.
He officially launched his strategic plan for the future development of the alliance, and a very important one is about the development of the Chinese market.
This is a valuable part of David Stern's legacy.
The NBA claims to be the best at internationalization among the four major leagues, but some critics claim that the so-called internationalization of the NBA is actually Chineseization.
Because the Chinese market has a huge population and the rapidly developing economy means that a large number of young people have strong consumption demands for sports and culture. The marketization of China's professional leagues happens to be very imperfect, which has resulted in a huge market vacuum, which the NBA has taken advantage of. opportunity to enter.
In comparison, in Europe, which also has a large population and a developed economy, professional football has already firmly occupied a dominant position.
Even in basketball, the professionalization and marketization of European basketball are also very good, and it has local European characteristics. Although the level is not as good as the NBA, it is enough to compete with the NBA in the market.
There is also India, a country with a large population. This former Commonwealth country does not like football or basketball. People's favorite is cricket. The NBA cannot find a large audience at all.
Only China has a very good basketball market and mass base, and its local professional league is quite popular.
Stern began to deploy in China as early as the 1980s and cultivated a group of NBA basketball enthusiasts.
With Wang Zhizhi, Yao Ming and others entering the league, the Chinese market has become a big piece of cake that the NBA cannot ignore.
However, although the NBA has been working in China for 30 years, from a monetization perspective, this market is still an incompletely developed virgin land.
Because China's TV consumption habits are completely different from those in the United States, Chinese people do not have the habit of watching pay TV, so they can only rely on advertising to provide revenue.
Advertising revenue is unstable and is not conducive to cultivating die-hard fans. With Yao Ming's retirement, the NBA's popularity in China has been declining.
The NBA very much hopes to find a strategic partner to take over the entire development of the NBA in China, integrate the resources and influence that the NBA has left in China in the past, and provide monetized income for the league.
As a Chinese, Min Congda's Asian Youth Basketball Development Foundation has been operating for more than five years and has great influence in China.
Silva believes that allowing Min Congda to participate in the operation of this matter will help the NBA find a correct path.
"Smart, if possible, the position of NBA Asia President is always open to you."
During the conversation between the two, Silva still did not give up the idea of sending Min Congda to the Far East.
Min Congda has no interest in the Asia president, but he is very interested in cooperation.
Previously, China had the rights to broadcast NBA games, including the well-known CCTV, TV stations in Guangdong, and Sina Media on the Internet.
The problem with TV stations is that they only purchase the rights to broadcast a small number of key games. Although in the past TV era, they played a major role in the spread of the NBA in China, in the current Internet era, the influence of CCTV and local TV stations has declined significantly.
As for online media, Sina's broadcasting can be said to be poor. Whether it is the clarity of the broadcast, the professionalism of the commentary, or the development of surrounding content, it can be said that it is the Caotai team among Caotai teams.
The effect of Sina's live broadcast of the game is worse than some hot links. It is not high-definition and has lags. The viewing experience is very bad.
Therefore, the NBA does not plan to cooperate with Sina anymore. The current potential partners are Tencent and Alibaba.
2015 is an era of great development for Chinese Internet companies. Tencent and Alibaba, one relying on social software and the other relying on shopping Taobao, have used this as their basic base to launch attacks on various industries.
As an important part of the sports entertainment industry in the tertiary industry, the big brand NBA has caused fierce competition between the two major companies.
The prices on both sides are constantly rising, with one paying higher than the other.
Silva told Min Congda, "Tencent has already raised the price to US$500 million over five years, which is a very high price. If we can win this deal, the referees' increased subsidy for the playoffs will be nothing more than drizzle." That’s all.”
The price of US$500 million over five years is indeed a sky-high price. The broadcast contract signed by the Premier League in China in 2013 was only US$15 million over six years, which is completely incomparable to US$500 million over five years.
Min Congda listened to this price with a calm expression on his face. He knew in his heart that 2015 was the beginning of the era of "big money throwing" by Internet companies, and the prices of various entertainment assets were subsequently speculated higher and higher.
Because of the rapid economic development and the rapid expansion of social assets, first come, first served, every link is making a lot of money. Major Internet companies are spending money like water, and they are making mergers and acquisitions.
But Min Congda, who was working in a bank at the time, had already felt the signs of an economic downturn from the perspective of industry and traditional industries. However, the Internet industry was at its peak and he had not noticed it yet.
In the following years, in Min Chongda's distant memory, the NBA's influence in China did not grow further, which showed that Tencent's operation was not very successful - of course, one of the reasons was that Yao Ming retired and the NBA had no Chinese spokesperson.
500 million in 5 years is certainly a very attractive number, but starting from 2016 when the new broadcast contract takes effect, the NBA expects total revenue in a year to be around 6 billion US dollars.
The weight of US$100 million is not as heavy as it seems, and it is by no means the upper limit of the potential that the Chinese market can burst out.
Min Congda thought for a while and said, "Mr. President, do you know what David did to open up the Chinese market?"
Silva said: "Of course I know. He waited in the cold wind for a long time at the door of our national TV station just to send a few game tapes to the TV station for free. From then on, he opened up the Chinese market and has dozens of people. Years of cooperation. This story has become a classic part of NBA history."
The classic operation of capitalists is to give away products for free, develop consumption habits, form a market, and then start harvesting.
Min Congda asked again: "Adam, do you think it's time to harvest the fruits?"
Silva nodded and said: "Yes, I think so, it's time to harvest, isn't it?"
Min Congda shook his head and said: "If you do this, you are still eating the leftovers left by Stern, which is not smart enough."
Silva hated it when people said that to him, but when Min Congda said this, he held back his anger and asked, "What do you think? How long has it been since you last returned to China?"
Min Congda said: "I will not go back to China, but I know China very well. Stern planted a tree thirty years ago, and now it bears fruit. But I want to say that he planted a tree for the television broadcast industry. , it is also the fruit of the television broadcast industry. In China, the development of the television broadcast industry has come to an end. This fruit is not as sweet as you think."
Silva said: "I know, but Tencent is an Internet company, and their broadcast will be carried out on the Internet, just like YouTube. You have developed cooperation with YouTube, you should be very clear."
Min Congda said: "Yes, Tencent is an Internet company, but they are not an Internet company like an Internet company. I know this very well. In the era of online live broadcast, it does not mean that the location of the live broadcast is moved to mobile phones and computers, just like TV Live broadcast is completely distinguished. The core meaning of online live broadcast is actually decentralization, freedom, dismantling of monopoly, resource sharing, and allowing everyone to participate in the sharing and secondary creation of basketball games. The live broadcast room is moved from When a TV station moves to an online channel, it is not truly online. If you want to rely on channel payment to expand the market, it will not work in China, I can guarantee it."
Silva was deep in thought, and after a while he asked: "Then what do you think we should do?"
Min Congda said: "We want to choose a real Internet company and cooperate with it to open the era of online NBA live broadcast in China and truly expand the international influence of the NBA. My Asian Youth Basketball Development Foundation fully supports it."
Silva frowned and said, "Then you mean, we should choose to cooperate with Alibaba?"
Min Congda quickly waved his hand and said: "Alibaba is not as good as Tencent. I know an emerging technology company. You know, I have been paying attention to and investing in some emerging technology companies when I was at the Clippers. I am very optimistic about this company. They are spreading on the Internet. , the algorithm has very strong advantages.”
"What's the name? It can't be Huawei, right? The naming company of the Clippers Arena, they are going to be in trouble, do you know?"
"I know, it's going to expire anyway. It's not Huawei, it's ByteDance."
"How much can they pay?"
"Adam! Why do you only care about money? They are still developing and cannot make much money. But we can cooperate with them at a low price and use their future development to promote the spread of the NBA."
Silva frowned. When he heard that he couldn't tell how much money it was, Silva frowned. How could he explain this to the shareholders' meeting?
500 million in five years is not a high proportion, but the absolute amount is really quite a lot.
Seeing Silva's hesitation, Min Congda said: "Adam, I think you should put aside the tree planted by Stern and plant a tree of your own."
(End of chapter)
