capital Airport.
The national team was surrounded by reporters as soon as they got off the plane.
Breaking the Asian record, being the first Asian to run under 10 seconds, the first yellow race to run under 10 seconds, breaking the Japanese monopoly on Asian sprints, etc. are enough to attract the attention of the media, although the time of 9.99 seconds is not enough. Competing with those European and American big names, it can also be called the biggest breakthrough in sprinting in the 21st century.
However, the national team learned the lesson from the Philippines and did not let Zhang Guan participate in the interview at all. The national team was worried that Zhang Guan would be passive again if he spoke unobtrusively and said something like "breaking the world record." Therefore, both Director Ma and Director Yu agreed that Zhang Guan should be trained before letting him face the media. At least Zhang Guan should know what not to say.
Director Ma briefly introduced the competition at the airport and did not answer reporters' questions. Afterwards, the Field Management Center will hold a special press conference for the Asian Track and Field Championships, and that will be the time to officially face the media.
To achieve breakthrough results, recognition is indispensable. The sports association gave Zhang Guan a bonus of 300,000 yuan. However, Zhang Guan only received 100,000 of the 300,000 bonus.
It was not until 2010 that the General Administration of Sports issued the "Interim Measures for the Management of Prize Money for National Team Athletes' Prize Competitions", which clearly stipulated the distribution of prize money. Before the "Measures" were promulgated, one-third of athlete bonuses were handed over to the association as a sports fund, one-third was given to coaches and other meritorious personnel, and the remaining one-third belonged to athletes. The sports funds will be allocated proportionally by the management center and local associations. Fortunately, the prize money that broke the Asian record this time is national-level and is one of the few prizes that do not require tax. Otherwise, a portion of personal income tax would have to be deducted.
The Provincial Sports Department rewarded Zhang Guan with a house with a construction area of more than 120 square meters, which is not very large. Although house prices have not skyrocketed these days, a 120-square-meter house in the provincial city is worth about 300,000. Moreover, Zhang Guan’s registered unit is the Provincial Sports Department. This house is regarded as a reward for its employees by the Sports Department. It follows the employee welfare process and does not require secondary distribution, so it is much more affordable than the 300,000 reward from the sports team. .
The day after returning to China, the Athletics Association held a commendation meeting. After that, the national team was temporarily disbanded and the participating athletes would return to their respective units.
Athletes are registered with the sports authorities of various provinces. After being selected for the national team, they will participate in regular training camps organized by the national team, and will also be recruited for international competitions. In normal times, athletes mainly stay in their respective provincial teams for training. A few big-name athletes can always enjoy the benefits of national team training.
However, many athletes will stay for an extra day or two before returning, mainly to deal with exclusive interviews from some media. For example, Zhang Guan has been arranged to have several exclusive interviews with the media. For this type of interview, the draft is prepared in advance and then read out according to the draft.
When Zhang Guan packed his luggage and was about to leave the athletes' dormitory, he met Director Yu at the door.
At this time, Director Yu was obviously in a very good mood, and the usual dark circles under his eyes were gone. His historic breakthrough in the Asian and Field Games allowed Director Yu to have a good sleep with peace of mind, so Director Yu seemed very relaxed.
Director Yu called Zhang Guan aside and said: "Xiao Zhang, there is something special about staying here this time. I have to remind you first. You broke the Asian record this time and ran within 10 seconds. , you are considered a celebrity in China, I believe it won’t be long before someone asks you to shoot advertisements or endorse products.”
Director Yu paused deliberately and then said: "The country does not have clear regulations on the commercial development of athletes. According to past management, the Tianjin Management Center will definitely take the initiative to find you and be responsible for the development of your commercial value. Domestic athletes Basically, this method is adopted. For example, Liu Feiren, who competes in the 110-meter hurdles, signed a contract with the Athletics Association, and the association is fully responsible for the development of its commercial value."
Zhang Guan recalled it carefully, and he still had an impression about Liu Feiren's endorsement of the brand. In 2003, Liu Feiren began to endorse commercial brands. In this year, Liu Feiren signed two endorsement contracts, namely Coca-Cola's annual endorsement contract of 350,000 yuan and Nike's annual endorsement contract of 500,000 yuan. The Nike endorsement contract also includes equipment, Clothes, shoes, etc. are worth 200,000 yuan, which means that the value of the products provided by Nike for Liu Feiren is also included in the 500,000 yuan endorsement fee. The actual endorsement fee is only 300,000 yuan.
These two endorsement contracts can be said to be very profitable, because the following year Liu Feiren won the Athens Olympics championship, and his net worth increased dozens of times. Later, Liu Feiren's endorsement contracts all started at 5 million, and the highest he ever received was 15 million endorsements.
Zhang Guan knows that since he has embarked on the path of athletes, commercial value will always be an unavoidable topic, and on this issue, the superior association is a peak that he must face. Regarding the development of the commercial value of athletes, the first step is to determine who will develop it. If it is placed abroad, it is easy to determine. The athletes can just find a sports agent or package an economic company, but the domestic situation is much more complicated.
In commercial sports such as football and basketball, although there are restrictions from higher-level management associations, athletes can have their own agents. For example, some national football players and players not only have their own agents, but many of them have great backgrounds. In other non-Olympic sports, athletes can also have their own agents, such as snooker's Xiao Ding.
However, in other sports, especially Olympic sports, it is difficult for athletes to have their own agents. The management association or management center is almost always responsible for their own business development. Just like Liu Feiren, such a big-name athlete can have a team of agents dedicated to serve him, but he didn't even have a serious agent during his time as an athlete, so all the activities were arranged directly by the field management center. of.
In terms of laws and regulations, there are no clear requirements and regulations for athletes to use agents, but many associations have internal regulations that do not allow athletes to use their own agents. The management association will be solely responsible for the development of the athletes' commercial value. This Sometimes this kind of internal regulation does not even have a written formal document. It can only be regarded as an unspoken rule, but it requires athletes to abide by it.
In Zhang Guan's view, if the association is fully responsible for its own business operations, it will be equivalent to signing a contract of betrayal. There may not be much economic loss, but freedom will definitely be lost. Shooting advertisements and even participating in some commercial activities will be restricted. You can't do whatever you want, everything is decided by the management department. Just like Liu Feiren in the 2008 Olympics. He was actually injured and could not run, but he still forced himself to play for the sake of a contract worth 500 million. That heartbreaking scene occurred.
At the same time, after you join the association, you lose your autonomy, and you must obey the association's instructions on many things. Once you disobey, the Athletics Association will not only suspend you, but also use hiding methods to directly ban all your business activities. It will cause you to directly lose your source of income and force you to continue to be a good baby. Of course, this is one of the reasons why many sports associations do not allow athletes to use agents. Athletes are prone to corruption and become disobedient when they have money. This is a consensus in the sports world. At present, the domestic athlete management system is still the same as that of the last century. It has no technicality or humaneness, and is simple and crude. Administrative penalties and money deductions are the most important methods of managing athletes.
However, there are also many benefits to signing up for a track and field association. The first and most direct one is that you can enjoy the shade against a big tree. There are many hidden rules in the business star circle. Even big-name stars often encounter unfair treatment, such as oppression by some companies, coercion by certain bad forces, or slander by the media, etc. Compared with this, the celebrity's fame is nothing. . The above-mentioned injustices must be bowed to the government departments. Under the protective umbrella of the Athletics Association, no oppression, coercion, or smearing is a problem.
Secondly, if the Athletic Association is solely responsible for commercial development, it can save a lot of money. You must know that hiring a special agent or an agent team requires payment, and the price is not low. For example, for endorsement fees, the agent will take 4% to 6% from the star, and the advertising fee may even take more than 10%. . Considering that sports stars can only get 50% of the endorsement fees and advertising fees, the rest must be turned over to the association as a sports development fund and distributed to coaches and other related personnel. If the commission is further collected, sports stars will lose a lot of income. If the supervisory association is responsible, there is no need to pay the broker's commission. From another point of view, since everything that should be handed over will eventually be handed over, signing up for the association is equivalent to making a lot of money in vain.
The third advantage is that the Athletics Association is a national-level organization after all, and it is very serious about the choice of commercial brands. This can be seen from Liu Feiren’s endorsements and advertisements, all of which are well-known domestic and foreign brands, as well as small companies with no-name brands. It is also conducive to maintaining and improving the image of the star.
"There are advantages and disadvantages! How to choose?" Zhang Guan hesitated and asked: "Besides letting the association be solely responsible for commercial development, are there any other methods?"
Director Yu smiled slightly. He seemed to have noticed what Zhang Guan was thinking, and said, "You can also not sign a contract with the center, and then find a professional agent yourself, but if you do this, I think the boss may not be so Agree easily."
"Above?" Zhang Guan asked with some confusion.
"I mainly refer to the association. The Field Management Center is only the department responsible for specific business and is only responsible for execution, but the decision-making power of major matters still lies with the Athletic Association." Guidance Yu continued to explain.
"You mean, they will wear small shoes for me?" Zhang Guan asked immediately.
"Although it's not 100%, the possibility is very high." Director Yu sighed. Young people have their own ideas, which he can understand, but no matter what the matter is, when specific interests are involved, it becomes very complicated.
"The management is really lenient. Anyway, the points that should be handed over will not be less. Why does the association still worry about it?" Zhang Guan complained.
"Well..." Director Yu didn't know how to explain it for a while.
But Zhang Guan said: "I understand this. Athletes are actually a kind of resource. The higher the quality of the resource, the more popular it is. Just like those countries in the Middle East that sell oil. The higher the oil production, the better they are. In the eyes of ordinary people, they are Oil is not sold the same to anyone, as long as you pay more. But the actual situation is like this. Many countries still have to beg them to sell, and they manipulate oil to obtain more benefits from buyers."
"Uh... you understand well, it seems like this!" Director Yu felt that Zhang Guan was going too far, and he didn't react for a while.
"Coach, what do you think I should choose?" Zhang Guan asked.
Director Yu shook his head, and then said: "Don't ask me, I have never participated in the decision-making of this kind of thing, and I won't even give you any advice. You still have a long way to go in the future, and you still have to choose how to go. . If I help you choose, if you regret it in the future, wouldn’t you blame me, Lao Yu!"
…
Sitting in the car, Zhang Hang looked at the scenery flying by outside the window and fell into deep thought.
In his heart, Zhang Guan did not want the Athletics Association to represent his commercial value development rights. This had nothing to do with economic interests, but he did not like others to decide his own affairs. He felt that this was his own rights, so he decided Find ways to protect your own rights and interests.
But to protect your own rights and interests, you cannot rely solely on the law. The most important thing is to look at your strength. This is the reality of society. A common man, with no power or money, can only swallow his anger and survive when he suffers injustice; but if he is a big star, if he curses a few words and the media pays attention to it, things will become very serious. Get resolved soon.
"I'm not a big-name athlete yet. What should I do if the Field Management Center comes to me now? If I refuse directly, I'm afraid it won't be good. The best way is to delay it first. Wait until I become a sports superstar in the future. , naturally have the right to speak, and maybe we can talk to them then." Zhang Guan thought for a while, and suddenly found a good excuse.
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I just took a look. The average daily update in the past seven days is 6,500 words. Although there are two chapters a day, it should be more than the three chapters a day of many KKK members. Excluding my few nonsense words, this chapter has more than 3,800 words. Speaking of which, in the new book issue, the number of clicks will be higher, and the clicks will be higher. However, I think the quality of the work is the key. If the quality of the work is high and readers like to read it, the clicks will not matter, so I still work hard to write the book. . However, recommendations are still needed. Recommendations for new books are very important, so I beg you for recommendations! Please support! Thanks.
(End of chapter)