Dominate the Super Bowl-Chapter 254 253 Three Carriages

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Without a doubt, football is the undisputedly number one sport in the United States, with commercial value and market share far ahead of the competition, virtually without any rivals.

Not to mention the Super Bowl, which easily garners viewership in the hundreds of millions, let's just talk about the annual draft—

On the first day of the draft broadcast alone, viewership easily surpasses that of the NBA Finals and MLB World Series.

According to statistics, in 2016, out of the top fifty programs in the United States' annual TV ratings, football claimed a whopping forty-seven spots.

A dominant position that no one can challenge!

However, compared to football's popularity and influence, the income of its players is indeed a bit embarrassing and causes one to blush.

The top star players in the NFL only have an annual income of thirty million US dollars; in the NBA, these figures are commonplace and only considered average.

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At present, Nike's highest endorsement contract for football players is only two and a half million US dollars a year, including Manning and several other top league players with similar contract numbers.

This is the top standard. In the face of LeBron James' one billion dollar contract, it is simply the difference between a baby and a giant.

Why is this so?

Why, despite football being North America's number one sport, with team and league revenues and broadcast rights values all leading far ahead, are players' incomes so meager?

From a theoretical standpoint, this isn't scientific and even goes against the norm, and the disparity between NBA and NFL players has often been publicly discussed.

But from a market perspective, it couldn't be more normal.

The reason is actually quite simple:

There are just too many players.

On the basketball court, there are only five players, and a team has at most fifteen players; but in a football team, there are fifty-three players, with at least twenty-five starting players and over forty players swapping in for each game.

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As one can imagine, in a football game, fifty-three people sharing the commercial space is naturally incomparable to the fifteen people in a basketball game.

When a brand tries to establish a connection with consumers through endorsements from professional players, baseball and football end up with too many players, leading to a decrease in contract numbers; basketball players and individual sports players, especially in tennis and golf, always get a higher price.

Furthermore, the huge disparity between NFL and NBA endorsement prices is indeed shocking; basketball players might receive contracts worth hundreds of millions, but football players can't even secure ten million dollar contracts, and part of the reason lies in the characteristics of the athletic footwear market.

Football cleats, like soccer cleats, are very specialized and singular in purpose, which means the general audience can't wear them in everyday life, contrasting with basketball shoes, which are accessible and can be worn freely in daily life, hence giving rise to a fundamental difference in market base.

In this context, the "Air-Jordan" series, a partnership between Michael Jordan and Nike, plays a significant role in making basketball shoes a fashion trend that has thoroughly infiltrated everyday life.

Thanks to this, Jordan is able to receive at least a hundred million US dollars from Nike in dividends every year; and this is just Jordan's dividend, one can imagine how staggering Nike's profits must be.

Thus, there is a world of difference in the numbers of endorsement contracts.

In fact, not only in sponsorships and endorsements, NFL players' salary levels are also far below those in the NBA, due to not only the large base number of players but also the issue of the salary cap—

The NBA has a soft cap, with plenty of exceptions; the NFL has a hard cap, with no room for flexibility.

But that is another story.

Let's shift our focus back to brand sponsorships.

Nike is the official sponsor of the NFL, with all team jerseys and equipment supplied by Nike, but Nike does not fully monopolize the market—players have the freedom to choose their own sponsors for accessories such as gloves, cleats, undershirts for jerseys, and personal training wear outside of games.

Currently, another major official sponsor of the NFL is Under Armour, a brand founded by a professional football player, which has been collaborating with the league since 1998, responsible for all non-competitive sports apparel sponsorships.

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Off the field, brands like Adidas and Puma were also in fierce competition, continuously seeking partnerships with players, hoping to get a slice of the action from North America's number one sport, despite not being able to partner with the NFL officially.

Then, the focus all fell on Li Wei.

As the first Asian-American player in NFL history to be picked in the first round, the topics and discussions surrounding Li Wei never ceased; yet, two weeks into the regular season, Li Wei still had no sponsorship deals.

Clearly, this was not normal.

The truth was, it wasn't that there were no brand sponsorships, but Donald was waiting for the right moment.

Ever since Li Wei announced his participation in the draft, brands had gradually started contacting Donald, but they lacked sincerity and were purely looking to ride on the hype.

First, Li Wei was a rookie, his professional career too short. If he ended up as a substitute or a rotation player after entering the league, brand sponsorships wouldn't be effective—

Wang Kai, the first Chinese-American player to enter the league in 2010, was such a case; as a lineman, Wang Kai always played in rotation, which limited his exposure.

Second, Li Wei was a running back, whose commercial value simply didn't match that of quarterbacks, wide receivers, or linemen, not to mention the high risk of injuries.

Even if Li Wei became a starter, what if he got injured after a few games? Or, what if, like in the preseason, he shone brightly in one game and then faded away?

For numerous reasons, the brand sponsorships did not show enough sincerity.

Donald didn't respect any of them.

Although the figures of NFL sponsorship deals were far from those in the NBA, annual sums of fifty thousand, one hundred thousand US dollars seemed more like speculations; after all, such sponsorship deals would have seemed meager even in the NBA of the 1980s.

Donald kept waiting, remaining patient. He believed in Li Wei's abilities and value, which was also why he had been willing to make "Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage" initially.

Sure enough, Donald's patience paid off.

At the season opener, Li Wei's brilliant performance caused an uproar across the league, and brands couldn't restrain themselves, contacting Donald immediately; but Donald still wasn't in a hurry, he was waiting for other competitors to emerge.

After the second game ended, Donald's office phone was bustling.

Nike. Adidas. Under Armour.

All three titans of the NFL stage had arrived, not one missing.

Even so, Donald still seemed very calm, with everything under control—

Donald knew that Li Wei's greatest distinction from other football players was his Chinese heritage.

Especially considering that Commissioner Goodell was set on cracking the Asian market, Li Wei effectively had the privilege of exposure backed by the League's official endorsement.

This also meant that Li Wei's value could only go up, not down.

Donald needed to handle this opportunity well:

Creating momentum was the first step.

At this moment, LeBron had come knocking at the perfect time, and Donald certainly wasn't going to be polite; even if LeBron had his own requests, it didn't matter, as Donald had his own calculations.

Having thrown a bombshell, Donald kindly inquired.

"What about you personally? What are your preferences?"

"If you have a particular preference for a brand, we could tilt the negotiations a bit more in their favor during talks."