After understanding his current situation, Zhao Xuming silently sighed.
It looked like he would have to make a wasted trip today.
Zhu Yan did not say anything but his attitude was definitely very firm. The public opinion incident this time was simply a godly assist. It would be a dereliction of his duty if he did not make good use of it and use it to cut down one or two million yuan!
Under such circumstances, the possibility of both parties agreeing on a price was infinitely close to zero. They could only delay it further.
Before leaving, Zhao Xuming asked, "Boss Zhu, may I ask what Wolf Fang Live-Stream's psychological price for the ICL broadcast rights is?"
Zhu Yan smiled and said, "Seven million yuan. However, don't worry, Boss Zhao. Wolf Fang Live-Stream will definitely invest a lot of resources to help the ICL league publicize. If this deal can be reached, you will have a lot of hidden benefits. "
Zhao Xuming chuckled in his heart.
He had offered seven million yuan at first. Now that we've spent a lot of money to publicize the ICL league, the popularity has obviously increased. Yet, you're still offering seven million yuan?
Not to mention Eric, even Zhao Xuming would not agree to it.
As for the 'publicity resources' that Zhu Yan mentioned, they were nothing more than polite words. These were things that could not be quantified. Wouldn't it be up to Zhu Yan to give more or less?
Real money was more practical.
After Zhu Yan spent a huge sum of money to buy the broadcasting rights of the ICL league, he would also use platform resources to publicize it.
Zhao Xuming knew Zhu Yan's words very well. However, the ICL league was currently in a public opinion storm caused by Tengda. Zhao Xuming was in a weaker position, so he could not say much. He could only force a smile and nod. "Alright, let's consider each other more. I hope we can facilitate the cooperation between our two companies as soon as possible!"
…
Zhao Xuming immediately rushed to the conference room after returning to Long Yu Corporation's headquarters.
He received a call on the way back. Eric was waiting for him in the conference room.
In the conference room, Eric was sulking with a straight face. The atmosphere in the room had dropped to a freezing point.
Obviously, Eric already knew about the promotional video for 'Coming Out of the Cocoon Without Becoming a Butterfly'.
He looked up and asked when he saw Zhao Xuming return, "How was it?"
Zhao Xuming shook his head slightly. "You should have seen the promotional video that Tengda released, right? Just because of this promotional video, Wolf Fang Live-Stream is still stubborn and is only willing to pay seven million yuan. "
Zhao Xuming spoke very carefully, afraid that Eric would immediately slam the table and curse, "How dare you."
However, Eric did not fly into a rage. Instead, he heaved a sigh of relief and slowly calmed down.
"Indeed, I cannot relax for even a moment when fighting with Boss Pei."
"We invested a lot of money into the ICL promotional video this time. We thought that it would be foolproof, but we didn't expect something to go wrong."
"Let's all calm down and think about how we're going to deal with this."
Eric's words had a certain effect. Originally, the conference room was lifeless, and everyone had suffered a blow. However, after Eric finished speaking, the atmosphere had obviously picked up.
That's right, we're fighting Boss Pei now!
It was normal to encounter major setbacks when fighting with Boss Pei. It would be ridiculous if everything went smoothly.
Now that things had come to this, for the sake of everyone's jobs and performance bonuses, they could only rack their brains to think of a solution.
Zhao Xuming had been thinking about this on the way back. At that moment, he already had a rough idea, so he was the first to speak.
"Boss Pei's move is too vicious. It can be said to kill people."
"The scariest thing is that he had already buried this foreshadowing when the GPL league was established. He only used it to deal with us today."
"If we want to use the ICL against the GPL, it means that Boss Pei will catch us and beat us up as long as we don't do anything well in any aspect. On the other hand, the rights and interests of the players are the easiest to trigger topics and discussions. If we ignore it, it will definitely have a fatal impact on the popularity of the ICL league. "
"Therefore, we have to make up for this shortcoming."
Eric nodded. "Yes, that's right."
That was the truth even though he was very unwilling to accept it. Such a huge piece of news had happened at the beginning of the ICL league. It was a huge blow to its popularity. If he did not handle it well, he might die before the league started. That was a risk that Eric could not accept.
Zhao Xuming continued, "Standard contract, players' basic salary, five insurances and one fund, better food and accommodation conditions, and health insurance … It would definitely not be a small number if these were to be popularized."
"On one hand, we have to protect the basic rights and interests of all players. Not only the main players, but also the substitutes and trainees. It will accumulate over time. On the other hand, the standard contract would actually restrict the club to a certain extent. It would also make them unhappy."
"All in all … we can use money to solve it, but we will definitely spend a lot of money. We have to invest a huge sum of money in the beginning to improve the environment of the training base and replace all the equipment. In the future, we have to continue to pay for the players' basic salary, food expenses, insurance, and other expenses. I'm afraid we won't be able to win without twenty to thirty million yuan in the first year. "
Eric was very unhappy after hearing this number.
"Of course we can fork out twenty to thirty million yuan, but it's too ridiculous to take money for this reason!"
"If this money is spent elsewhere to publicize the ICL, how much popularity can it create?!"
"We have to spend twenty to thirty million yuan on these clubs and improve their training environment just because of a video by Boss Pei? Why! "
"Did Boss Pei fork out the money?"
Zhao Xuming hesitated for a moment and answered, "Er … he did, but he didn't."
Eric: "?"
Zhao Xuming explained, "It's like this. The GPL slots were open for bidding, and the prices were very high. A single slot was sold for 20 million yuan. Shenhua Real Estate was the king at that time and raised the GPL slot to 26 million yuan."
"The bidding results were even on the news at that time. The total price reached a sky-high price of 180 million yuan."
"Then … Boss Pei transferred all the money back to them.
"A large portion of it was returned to these clubs so that they could use it for special purposes to improve the treatment of players and establish a youth training base."
"Therefore, Boss Pei paid for this money in name, but it was actually the money of the various clubs. These clubs might be very grateful to Boss Pei even though the money of the various clubs was transferred from left to right."
Eric: "…"
Eric had already been fired by Finger Games and replaced with Chrétien when all of this happened. He was far away in the United States, so he did not know much about these things.
Now that he heard Zhao Xuming's words, Eric finally understood what kind of situation he was facing.
Boss Pei's operation was equivalent to offering Buddha with borrowed flowers. He did not spend a single cent of his own money to improve the treatment of the players. At the same time, the club could improve the training environment and obtain real popularity. They were extremely grateful to Boss Pei.
However, Eric could not do such a thing!
The ICL slots were basically half-bought and half-given. They basically did not earn much money.
At the moment, there were only a few strong clubs with IOI branches in the country. What's more, they were not very rich. Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation needed their support. Thus, they did not ask for much money. They gave very low friendship prices and cabbages.
What's more, even if Eric wanted to strangle them and make them spend more than ten million yuan to buy a slot, he probably would not be able to squeeze out the money given the financial situation of these clubs.
On the other hand, the GPL had actually relied on Boss Pei's connections to attract a lot of capital. It was equivalent to 'creating something out of nothing'. Everyone paid together to organize the GPL league.
However, how could Eric and Zhao Xuming have so much power?
What's more, GOG first became extremely popular in the country before they started to organize the GPL. It was a natural act. On the other hand, IOI's game was far from popular. The ICL was held to promote the game. It was the complete opposite.
Eric's idea was to only open a limited number of slots in the early stages and only let in six or seven teams. Once the competition was held, they would sell the slots one after another every season. That way, they could maximize the benefits.
However, this also meant that Finger Games basically did not earn much money from the ICL league when it first started.
ICL could not play with GPL's gameplay.
At the end of the day, this huge sum of money could only come from two places: either the club or Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation.
The club would definitely not pay. Why would they fork out an additional two million yuan a year to improve the treatment of the players? It would not benefit the club much.
Thus, at the end of the day, Finger Games could only fork out this money!
ICL would always be at a disadvantage if they did not fork out this money. Boss Pei would definitely have to use this repeatedly. However, Eric would feel too aggrieved if he were to fork out this money!
Eric's expression was dark as he fell into a dilemma.
However, after much thought, he still did not have a good solution. This was like a dead end. He would either lose money or lose popularity.
After much thought, Eric could only choose to lose money.
That was because popularity was equivalent to money for the ICL league. If he ignored it, it would cause the popularity of ICL to decline. The effect of all the investments in the early stages would be greatly reduced, and the actual losses would be even greater.
On the contrary, if he spent money to maintain the popularity, there was a possibility of earning back the money in the future.
After much consideration, Eric gritted his teeth and said, "We'll fork out this money!"
"Communicate with the various clubs in ICL immediately and ask them to cooperate with us. Then, spend a sum of money to publicize it. Before the public opinion storm completely ferments, let everyone know our efforts to regulate the ICL ecology and protect the rights and interests of the players! "
Eric knew very well that since he had to do this sooner or later, the earlier the better.
If he hesitated and allowed everyone to discuss it, it would definitely hurt the popularity of ICL.
If he reacted quickly and let everyone see enough sincerity, it might turn the crisis into an opportunity and leave a good impression on the audience.
Zhao Xuming quickly nodded. "I understand. I'll arrange it now!"
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