I was determined to be bad, but I went straight to the Basketball Hall of Fame

Chapter 537 Shelly's Ambition

When Min Congda was eating and drinking in Chinatown with the Clippers players and grassroots employees, and went to Santa Barbara for an adventure, in a mansion somewhere in Beverly Hills, the rich area of ​​Los Angeles, the new Clippers owner Shelly Ster Lin is hosting a dinner party.

This is the most luxurious residential area in Los Angeles. Known as the city within the city, many Hollywood stars and rich people live here, which is a symbol of wealth and status.

This mansion is one of the joint properties of Donald Sterling and Shelley Sterling. After the divorce, Shelley shared the ownership of this mansion. Tonight, she hosted a banquet here as the hostess of the sports circles and the media. Many executives and responsible persons in the world and financial circles.

One is to celebrate the foundation stone laying of the new arena, and the other is that she still has a lot of business to discuss.

Although she is 70 years old, for a woman, power, wealth and fame can all be a good recipe for beauty.

Shelley Sterling is looking great this year, so she looks radiant and younger than she has been in the past ten, 20 years.

This made Shelly's ex-husband Donald Sterling very upset. He was also invited to this dinner tonight and brought his young girlfriend, but his eyes kept lingering on Shelly.

When a person reaches a certain age, appearance and figure are no longer the best packaging, but prestige, status and power are.

Donald Sterling has always been the face of the family in the past, and despite his infamy in the NBA, he is one of the most famous and wealthy tycoons in Los Angeles.

And Shelley Sterling has always been the woman behind him, and the women around him are constantly changing.

The situation turned upside down overnight, and Shelly seized the opportunity to almost send Donald to a mental hospital.

Now that the division of property has taken the ownership of the Clippers, he won the championship that Sterling could not have imagined back then.

Immediately after that, there will be a large-scale construction project to build the largest and most luxurious comprehensive stadium in the league, and it will also be the first stadium in the United States that is completely raised and built with private funds.

Shelley Sterling's limelight in the past six months has almost overshadowed Donald Sterling's prestige in Los Angeles in the past 30 years.

It's impossible to say that I don't feel uncomfortable, it's too uncomfortable, it's too unbalanced, especially the championship trophy, which can only be touched but doesn't belong to him.

During the break of the party, Sterling seized the opportunity to call out to Shelley, pretended to toast her, and said, "Well done Shelly, it's time to consider finding an excellent husband to share the joy of victory with you." .”

Donald is in his 70s, but he still treats his ex-wife as eccentric as a young man.

Shelly rolled her eyes at her ex-husband and said, "I'm not you Donald. You have dementia and you can't live without people. Besides, isn't 30 years of married life enough? If you want to get married, I advise you to make a prenuptial agreement." .”

Donald made fun of himself, waved his hand, and said, "I'm just joking, don't get angry, have a drink~"

"By the way, I heard that the naming rights of the new arena were given to a Chinese company, and the naming fee is only 100 million US dollars a year? Shelly, is this how you do business? 100 million a year? To send beggars, open What a joke."

The yin and yang qi didn't work, and Sterling began to point out some of Shelley's decisions.

The new arena has not yet started construction, but the naming rights were sold to Huawei for 500 million US dollars in 5 years, which caused quite a bit of controversy.

Not only because Huawei is a Chinese company, but also because the 5-year contract of 500 million yuan is too small.

Not to mention Microsoft and Amazon, Burger King’s offer is more than Huawei’s.

But they chose Huawei, which made many people puzzled.

You must know that although Min Congda played a vital role in the construction of the new arena.

But he was just a matchmaker, he didn't contribute a single penny, and only had a small share of the arena.

On important decisions such as naming rights, Min Congda only has the right to suggest but not to make decisions.

The real decision rests with Clippers owner Shelley Sterling.

And Shelley Sterling is different from Donald, she is not a puppet, she has her own ideas.

No one knows what kind of considerations Shelley Sterling has for agreeing to Min Congda to choose Huawei as the weakest title sponsor.

Facing her ex-husband's doubts, Shelly just sneered, took a sip of her wine and didn't bother to talk to Donald.

Seeing Shelly's expression, Donald was very annoyed, and said angrily, "500 million Shelly, 500 million! You want the 500 million naming fee, and I'll give you the money! I'll give you 500 million to name the arena. For Stirling Centre!"

Seeing her ex-husband getting angry, Shelly found it even more amused, and she said, "Donald, your idea is really good. Sterling Center, sounds nice? However, I think the name Cheryl Center sounds better. "

Donald Sterling squinted his eyes and looked at Shelly. Time had already ruined her face. They had known each other for so long that Sterling couldn't remember Shelly's appearance when she was young.

But recently, he has seen a side of his wife that he has never shown, an ambitious woman.

"Cheryl Center...do you want to take full control of this gym one day?"

"Why not? Don't you think it would be fun to leave an iconic building in Los Angeles named after yourself?"

The smile on Shelly's face became brighter and brighter. She did have a grander plan of her own.

Although companies such as Microsoft and Amazon provide extremely generous sponsorship fees, the corresponding conditions are also very harsh.

Take Microsoft as an example, they gave a huge contract of 1.5 million US dollars, but the contract period is a long 25 years.

And the 1.5 million also includes the Clippers' possible future jersey advertising sponsorship, the right to lease hundreds of advertising spaces in the arena, the right to supply and maintain all software and hardware systems in the arena, and so on.

To put it bluntly, Microsoft wants to use the 1.5 million US dollars to acquire most of the rights and interests of this arena, and the man behind it is naturally Ballmer.

Ballmer really wanted to enter the Los Angeles sports market, but he couldn't buy the Clippers. He wanted to save the country with curves and started with the stadium.

With Ballmer's asset size, it will not be a problem to directly include the stadium in the future.

For Shelley Sterling, money is the number one priority, but not the only one.

After becoming the owner of the Clippers, the rapid success of the Clippers made her feel the thrill of standing at the top.

For women in their 70s, who can no longer enjoy themselves in the bedroom, and don't want to waste their last days in the kitchen, garden, and nursery, it is a huge temptation to come to the stage to show off.

Of course, Xie Li would not agree to Microsoft's all-inclusive cooperation.

The rest, such as Amazon, General Electric, etc., have long contracts and harsh conditions.

After all, these big companies know that this stadium has a lot of debt and has sold a large number of long-term season tickets for the team, so there is a risk of unfinished business.

Once it is unfinished, they can use the terms in the contract to grab equity, and even have the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and take control of the assets.

After the financial crisis in 08, although US real estate once collapsed, the value of high-quality assets often rose instead of falling after each crisis.

This kind of large-scale comprehensive gymnasium is definitely a high-quality asset among high-quality assets. Who can't be envious?
Shelley Sterling did not communicate with Min Congda in private, but she found that Min Congda seemed to resist the entry of these giant companies.

So she followed Min Congda's wishes and rejected these attractive but trapping big contracts. Instead, she chose a little-known Chinese company and signed a five-year short contract without any additional clauses.

And this contract will be implemented from the date of signing, that is to say, the arena has not been built yet, and it will start to count in 5 years.

The construction of the arena takes about two years, so according to the contract, Huawei will name the arena for about three years.

According to Shelley Sterling's plan, when the arena is successfully completed, the Clippers should become the league's leading dynasty team.

If the assets are sufficient and the goal is achieved, Shelley Sterling will spend huge sums of money to buy out the naming rights of the stadium and name the stadium the Cheryl Sports Center.

There is no ordinary prestige in naming iconic buildings after people.

In the United States, some famous buildings named after people are often well-known political figures.

Such as Kennedy International Airport, Kennedy Library, Thomas Jefferson Building and so on.

There are also cases where a businessman names a building after himself. For example, Trump, a famous rich man, bought the Manhattan Bank Building and named it Trump Tower.

Trump is also well-known in the American business circle, and belongs to the top group.

After all, you have to name a grand building, and you don't deserve it if you don't have any contribution, performance or reputation.

Donald Sterling never expected that his ex-wife would have such a huge ambition to set a monument for herself,
The expression on his face changed from surprise to disbelief. He shook his head and said, "Shelly, Shelly~ Are you in a daze? You're just a woman... You don't want to run for president anymore, do you? God Hey, it’s just a championship, what have you become so obsessed with? Think you’re omnipotent? Is this due to you?”

Shelley Sterling said: "Is it your credit? Yes, when you do nothing, it is the greatest credit to the team."

Sterling was at a loss for words for a while, and thought for a while: "Then...Na Smart was excavated by me and brought the Clippers! He is the biggest contributor. If the arena is to be named, it should also be called the Smart Center."

Shelley said: "It's a pity that Smart is not interested in this. I think he really loves basketball. The reason why he uses a Chinese company is to better promote basketball in his home country. I fulfill his wish and respond accordingly. , he will also satisfy my ideas. But Don, it's really amazing that you can take a fancy to him and let him be the general manager of the team. I still don't know how you did it and how you found him ?”

Speaking of this, Sterling's mind seemed to be in a state of shutdown. He rolled his eyes for a while, and finally raised his glass and said, "Smart Center, it's actually pretty good." Then he walked away.

Shelley Sterling thought, "Old man, dementia again?"

(End of this chapter)