Chapter 859: Chapter 279: The Road to "GOAT" and the Big Deal
Su Wan receives 45% of all advertising sponsorship profits; then "Su Wan" as the sole sneaker brand partner, has the first right to sign all players.
The executives at ESPN, upon seeing Su Wan’s two requests, couldn’t help but curse in their hearts:
Really ruthless!
But after Su Wan mentioned that he would invite Kobe and Michael Jordan to join this reality show, the executives at ESPN were also very clear that even if Su Wan didn’t cooperate with them, he wouldn’t lack partners.
It’s possible that other platforms could suddenly gain more fans through such a hugely popular basketball reality show, thus posing a challenge to them.
This is something ESPN’s executives do not want to see.
But they clearly also realized how strong the program’s subsequent money-making ability is.
Especially in the event of a breakout...
That would be even more...
They even wanted to buy "Su Wan’s" shares at a high price.
Unfortunately, Su Wan doesn’t have any spare shares.
ESPN bit the bullet and took out 1% of their equity to exchange for dividends after "Su Wan" signs popular players.
Actually, ESPN is not after such petty gains.
They want a deeper binding with Su Wan.
They’re very optimistic about "This is Street Basketball" becoming a milestone basketball reality show in history.
Su Wan is quite confident in this regard.
Just look at the original "This is Dunk", the internet-famous players like Zhang Ning, Zhou Rui, Yang Zheng who rose to fame in the first season obviously had much greater traffic than those that came later.
Other reality shows too, like "The Voice", "Rap of China", it’s always the first season that’s most memorable...
Firstly because of the program’s novelty;
Secondly, most people who come to participate in the program at this time want to change their current situation through the program or take themselves to the next level, so they work very hard during the show.
Su Wan believes there are many street ballers eager for such an opportunity to change their destiny on the streets of the United States.
Moreover...
Su Wan still has a "big move"!
After finalizing the contract, ESPN began recruiting online.
When they heard the final champion team could sign with "Su Wan", and might even release their own signature shoes with "Su Wan".
A bunch of street ballers went crazy!
It’s known that since the days of AND1, no force has tried to consolidate the street league, plus AND1 gradually weakened, the overall development of the United States’ street basketball scene has been stuck around 2002.
At that time, something major happened on the streets:
Super popular player "Cloud Ladder" unexpectedly died suddenly.
Speaking of this, it’s precisely this reason that no force has been willing to integrate the street league since.
Such leagues inherently make stardom difficult.
And the self-discipline of street ballers is far behind NBA players.
Plus the chaos on the streets...
The possibility of accidents for superstars is even greater.
Adding these reasons together led to the street basketball scene’s exposure remaining stagnant.
But now, "This is Street Basketball" imitates "American Idol", selecting the best "street ballers" through PK, instantly reducing the cost of creating stars. Plus, there’s no fear of losses, those who remain till the end are naturally "stars among stars"!
And which street baller in the United States doesn’t want to be the ultimate "star among stars"?
Besides registering, ESPN also sent invitations to globally renowned street ballers, giving them direct access to the live event.
This was Su Wan’s idea.
If you play street ball, you’re all about "face work".
As long as they feel honored, they’ll certainly accept the invitation, maybe even say to others: "I originally didn’t want to go, but there was no choice, the show sent me a direct pass, so I’ll go have some fun!"
Registration went smoothly.
What Su Wan didn’t expect was...
The sponsorship phase hit a snag!
Only less than 40 million was raised over two days.
For other shows, this would already be a decent result.
But for Su Wan, it’s certainly not satisfactory.
He gathered all the current and potential sponsors in the meeting room and announced something: "To increase audience engagement, the show will include a ’call-out’ segment!"
"The brand with the most sponsorship, we’ll link the call-out vote count with products, like Kroger Company, if you become the biggest sponsor, then fans must purchase your condensed milk or milk to support their favorite superstar, or Chris, you make napkins, fans need to buy your products to vote for their favorite superstars..."
"It’s not just popularity voting, we also have resurrection voting and other voting segments, all vote counts will be linked with your products."
"But for all this, we only choose the largest sponsor, so..."
"Everyone, if you want to seize this opportunity, I hope to see your sincerity!"
This conversation was very effective, according to information from ESPN staff, the competition among sponsors suddenly became fierce.
Su Wan then refocused his attention on the "Champion Parade" on the 15th.
Just like last year, Dolan invited the "old actor" Bomber for the "Champion Parade" opening.
Last year’s New Yorkers were already very crazy.
This year’s no less so.
The championship defense added several layers of wildness to the entire city.
In fact, since Su Wan lifted the trophy up to today, about a week has passed, and the excitement of New York fans has never stopped.
Every day the streets of New York are bustling.