It was previously rumored that Li Ao's agent asked Gouzi for an average annual price of tens of millions of dollars, and the person in charge of Gouzi left the meeting angrily.
After being exposed, Li Ao was ridiculed for being too greedy.
O'Neal's $15 million sneaker endorsement in five years makes the brand want to cry. The money earned in five years is not enough for O'Neal's endorsement fee for one year. The shoes are good, but they cannot be sold at discounts. Neither party is willing to do so after the contract expires. Renewal.
Later, O'Neal went on to create a 'Dunkman' series of sneakers with trendy brand attributes. They no longer focused on basketball shoes, but they sold well. Victoria Adams of the Spice Girls, later known as Beckham, took a fancy to his brand. value, brought into the entertainment industry.
After Iverson was selected as the No. 1 pick, he received a 10-year, $50 million endorsement contract the next day, with the option to convert to a career contract. In 1999, he won the scoring title. Iverson’s agent had the foresight to fear that Iverson would After Iverson retired, he went bankrupt and obtained a trust fund from Reebok worth $1 million per year for 30 years, which could only be cashed out after Iverson turned 55.
After Kobe finished playing in the summer league during his rookie season, he won a six-year sneaker endorsement contract worth $48 million, setting a new record for Iverson's highest single-year endorsement fee.
The highest single endorsement contract for an active player is Penny Hardaway, with a career endorsement contract worth a total of $84 million.
Of course, these 'highest' do not include Jordan's direct 6% share of AJ's sales.
None of these people have received tens of millions of endorsement fees, but Li Ao is so open-minded!
Crazy, right?
Who knew that Gouzi suddenly changed his tune and said he was willing to continue talking with Li Ao.
People were still confused at the time, but then they understood. News broke that the Clippers had received sponsorship from more than a dozen florist brands in a few days. The Clippers' market value at the time was listed on the Forbes Sports team value list. Just flipped through it.
By the preseason, after Li Ao showed his ability to adapt to NBA games, many people were already discussing his endorsement fees, waiting for the NBA's first annual endorsement contract worth tens of millions since Jordan.
The wait was over, but unexpectedly Li Ao didn't sign a contract with Gouzi. AJ stabbed the father in the back and directly offered him a sky-high endorsement contract with an annual average of 14 million US dollars!
At this price, Iverson and Kobe can be bought together!
For a while, no one was discussing tomorrow's game between the Clippers and the Lakers. They were all discussing Li Ao, Kobe and O'Neal's endorsement income.
…
After seeing off Liam's father, Li Ao, Liam, Vivian, and Schwartz, the four of them opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate.
Liam looked at Li Ao, who was holding the contract in his hand, and complained: "You are so reluctant to let go of that contract, don't hold it, the money will go to my foundation."
"Look at you, 100 million, do you have it?"
"When old man D... ahem, when he retires, I will have plenty of money!"
"You were expecting your uncle to die soon. I will convey your message to him when I meet him in two days."
"What I'm saying is that he retired and gave up his position to me after careful consideration! Don't talk nonsense!"
After making a fuss for a while, Li Ao put the contract away.
When he heard that sneaker endorsements were expected to exceed tens of millions, he thought about 'productizing' them.
Later, I worked it out with Schwartz and Liam, and decided to entrust the Liam family foundation to open an investment company. There was nothing we could do about the team's salary, but the endorsement fee could be done this way to avoid taxes reasonably. This time All contracts are signed in the name of the foundation.
Li Ao did not expect to receive such a high endorsement fee.
He always thought that the maximum he could get was US$10 million per year for three to five years, which was already a lot.
Schwartz occasionally disclosed the contact situation with the brand, but he only talked about whether it was smooth or not, and how the progress was. He did not mention how much the contract was about.
I didn’t expect this guy to be so greedy, he made 98 million in one shot!
Both Schwartz and AJ conducted research on the florist market, and both parties discovered a situation that surprised them - florists are particularly obsessed with 'foreign brands', especially 'high-end foreign brands', and have amazing spending power .
In fact, it's not that AJ stabbed Hook in the back, it was the result of negotiation. Hook was unwilling to take so much money because they also had a lot of relatively low-priced products.
But since its establishment, AJ has focused on high-end products and can sell them at high prices.
"Your agent's vision is really vicious. Our internal price bottom line is to give you 100 million, and he directly hit our bottom line."
Li Ao thought of what Jordan said teasing him.
As for why the final price was US$98 million, it was because the remaining US$2 million was Schwartz's personal signing fee.
This is what Schwartz deserves. The hook killed him for 70 million. He relied on his ability to pry out 30 million more from AJ. If his vision was not vicious enough, AJ could have only quoted 70 million, or 75 million or 80 million. .
Li Ao thought of something and asked curiously: "Jeff, didn't you say that 14 million a year is not the limit, and there is room for growth in the future? Why not sign a short-term contract? 3 or 5 years?"
Schwartz responded: "Three years is too short, and you can't sign for this price. I don't think there is much difference between signing for 5 years and 7 years. It is difficult for your sneaker endorsement price to continue to rise in a short period of time, even if there are flower growers." The market is also affected by many other factors. If you sign for 5 years and renew or change brands after expiration, the price should still be the same. If you sign for 5 years, after 5 years, if you want to sign a two-year short-term contract, you want such a high price. The endorsement fee is very difficult.”
"Renewal in 2007? What's the special meaning?"
"Didn't we speculate before that there is a high probability that your flower-growing capital will get the right to host the 2008 Olympics? I later went to find out more and found that there is a high probability that this will happen. When the contract expires in 2007, we can borrow We are trying to bite the brand owners hard during the Olympics, but they can only give us money willingly.”
"oh……"
Li Ao forgot about this!
Or is it the agent who has a keen eye for money?
His agent just had to put 'I love small money' on his forehead.
Li Ao now has another goal - signature shoes.
It is said that it will be ready within three years. If he performs well enough and has enough fans, he will not be able to use it for one year. AJ will come up with a series of sneaker development plans for him in a few seconds.
But if market expectations are not met, then it will be three years, three years, and three years, and the contract may not end.
Suddenly, Li Ao thought of another thing: "By the way, Jeff, you took me and Liam to drink. If someone finds out, will you stay in trouble?"
"..."
Schwartz wanted to know why his boss had so many weird ideas!
wrong! He pointed at Vivian and asked: "It's not me who takes you drinking alone, Vivian opened the wine!"
"No! You are talking nonsense. My Vivian will not do such illegal things. She has just arrived."
"..."
Schwartz raised his hands in surrender, he was defeated!
…
The next day, November 6, the game day came between the Clippers and the Lakers.
At around 8 o'clock in the morning, Li Ao came to the Memorial Stadium, and his teammates congratulated him one after another. Odom, Big Q, O'Neal and others all expressed their intention to treat him to celebrate his signature shoes.
Why did Li Ao get a sky-high endorsement deal, but it was these three brothers who treated him?
As the saying goes, if a person achieves enlightenment, a chicken or a dog will ascend to heaven.
There are many domestic brands that want to capitalize on Li Ao's popularity, but when I asked about Li Ao's endorsement fee, my goodness, he got a minimum of 2 million US dollars in endorsement fees before he signed a contract with an NBA team.
However, if Li Ao can't sign, he can fall back and look for teammates with whom Li Ao has a good relationship.
After many inquiries, I learned that Big Q and Li Ao have the closest relationship. Odom is the player Li Ao trusts the most and communicates with the most, and O'Neal is rumored to be the one Li Ao asked for.
So they approached them for endorsements. Although the unit price was low, they could not support the high volume. After a wave of signings, their endorsement fees almost exceeded NBA salaries.
They had wanted to thank Li Ao for a long time, but they had no chance, but now they have the chance to help Li Ao invite the whole team to a dinner to celebrate signing a sneaker endorsement.
Li Ao wanted to treat himself, but he couldn't win over these three people and didn't force it.
Anyway, if he eats meat, the people next to him can always drink the soup, so it’s okay to accept the thanks.
As the saying goes, friends must be given a chance to express their gratitude.
After the morning preparations were over, Li Ao went to the bank to wire a sum of money to his mother and signed a big contract.
Later, when the Pitt Charitable Foundation established the company entrusted to him, he would seize some opportunities in his mind and buy some stocks to keep for retirement.
At this stage, his focus is completely on what he loves to do - play basketball!
…
At 7:40 pm, Li Ao was the first to enter the stadium from the away player tunnel.
Playing an away game at his home court felt more awkward than he imagined.
To his surprise, he came again - many fans were cheering for him!
He heard there wouldn't be many Clippers fans attending the game because of the huge price difference.
The groups that buy tickets for Lakers games are mainly tourists, students, wealthy people, international students, and businessmen.
The people who buy tickets for Clippers games are mainly working-class people.
In terms of ticket prices, for the same seat, this season, the Lakers ticket price is almost three times that of the Clippers.
Moreover, in previous years, the Clippers had lower ticket prices and sales were not as good as the Lakers.
When Sterling was the boss, his favorite games every year were the two games against the Lakers. He set the ticket price for their home game against the Lakers to more than double the price for the Lakers' game against them. , still no worries about selling, but the consumer group is Lakers fans.
Over the past decade or so, Clippers players have hated playing the Lakers at home more than away games.
So when he heard so many fans cheering, Li Ao's first reaction - were the Clippers fans excited? Spending that much money on Lakers tickets?
The actual situation is - Lakers fans only like Li Ao, the most successful college genius basketball player in Los Angeles University basketball in recent decades, based on his identity as a Los Angeles basketball fan.
With 33 consecutive victories and winning the NCAA Basketball Championship, Li Ao successfully entered the professional basketball world and immediately made his mark. Li Ao is already the pride of basketball fans in the greater Los Angeles area.
In addition, there is another reason-Lakers fans don't take the Clippers seriously.
They do not feel that this cross-city team will threaten the Lakers' status in the Los Angeles basketball world.
It even feels like the Clippers are just a temporary foothold for Li Ao.
After the players from the two teams entered the stadium, O'Neal took the initiative to find Li Ao for a chat.
O'Neal sighed: "I didn't expect you to enter the NBA so quickly, but your ability can be maximized in the NBA. The college game will limit your performance, just like me back then, so strong, but limited by my teammates being too weak. , I can only come to the NBA and partner with better teammates."
"Whether I will be restricted from playing is not important. What is important is that I can no longer find a goal in college and can only play in the NBA."
"Fake, I didn't expect you to be a stinkier person than me."
"Each other."
"By the way, why don't you tell me if you want a signature shoe? I'll sign it for you!"
"Can you afford the endorsement fee?"
"I can't afford it, but you can become the boss together with me."
"Being a boss earns 14 million a year?"
"Why do you only see money? Don't you have dreams?"
"I give you 100 million or continue to be the boss of Dunkman, which one do you choose?"
"I want 100 million...hahaha..."
After chatting for a few words, Li Ao understood why the popularity gap between O'Neal and Kobe was so big.
This fat guy is very talkative and sounds nice.
In O'Neill's view, although Li Ao's mouth is a bit damaged, he is a bit similar to the high school student he is familiar with, but the difference is that Li Ao can joke and retaliate if he is damaged, while the high school student gets angry when he disagrees. , unable to communicate at all.
While chatting, the two of them talked about blocking shots.
O'Neal said: "You seem to be very good at blocking shots. I want to see it tonight."
"I'm also thinking about how many times I'm going to slap you today."
"You're hating me? Hahahaha, are you kidding me? You're just going to bully the old dream. If you want to hat me, you're just dreaming. You'd better wait to be hated by me!"
"I'm floating in the middle distance, can you catch me?"
"Dare you make a bet! Let's see if you blame me or I blame you!"
"What to bet on? How to bet?"
O'Neal thought for a while and said: "Whoever blocks the opponent less times will wear the opponent's jersey in the next game!"
Li Ao nodded: "It's interesting, I'll bet!"
After making a bet, the two said a few harsh words and each returned to their bench.
Li Ao, let's bet on this. If you can win, win. If you lose, it doesn't matter. You don't take it to heart... But... the mission came as soon as you returned to the bench!
“The Bet with the Sharks:
Goal 1: The number of times the host blocks Shaquille O'Neal in this game must be higher than the number of shots blocked by Shaquille O'Neal.
Reward: If you win the bet, you will be awarded 1,000 achievement points for each block on Shaquille O'Neal.
Goal 2: The host’s total number of blocks in this game must be higher than Shaquille O’Neal’s.
Reward: 1 bullet speed basic attribute point. "
Sharks are poisonous!
Li Ao didn't expect that casually chatting with the other party would trigger the task.
He took back his previous thoughts, it didn't matter what he meant by losing, he would never admit defeat!
…
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(End of chapter)
