Chapter 106 Decision!

The Calderon Stadium is located on the banks of the Manzanares River in the southwest of Madrid.

The two nearby streets are the commercial street in the south of the city. There are national highways and urban railways on one side. The transportation is also very convenient. The facilities in the stadium are very complete. Some modern facilities, such as the big screens on both sides of the stadium, are difficult to see in other stadiums.

This course is undoubtedly one of the best in the world.

In 2003, UEFA rated the Calderon Stadium as a 5-star football stadium.

But Calderon Stadium has one of the biggest problems. As the home of Atlético de Madrid, one of the top teams in Spain, the stadium capacity of 54,851 is really small.

As early as the 1990s, Atlético de Madrid wanted to expand the Calderon Stadium, but it failed in the end, because the relocation of the nearby would cost a lot of money, which the club could not afford at that time.

Into the 21st century, Atlético de Madrid has been experiencing economic problems, and plans to expand the Calderon Stadium continue to be shelved.

In 2007, Hill took the lead of two companies and signed an agreement with each other, hoping to move the team away from Calderon in about three years, and use the expanded Madrid Olympic Stadium, which can accommodate 73,000 people, as a new one. At home, the Calderon Stadium will be demolished and converted into "Atlético de Madrid Park".

Until Atlético de Madrid was acquired, the two sides still failed to reach an agreement. The plan was strongly opposed by many Atlético de Madrid fans. "The club's money should be used for team building instead of tearing down the home stadium for many years!"

Among the Atlético de Madrid fan groups is a very influential association called Sena-les-de-Humo (translated as "smoke signals").

This is a highly critical association established by some small shareholders of Atletico Madrid. Founded in 2002, it regularly monitors and criticizes the management and operation of the club.

In their own words, the purpose of the association was "to study and examine the operation of the club and to defend the club's property".

"Smoke Signals" is the group most vocally opposed to the plan to relocate the stadium.

When a reporter interviewed and asked, "Do you support changing stadiums at all? Do you want to leave Calderon and move to a new stadium, or do you want to stay?"

A person in the "Smoke Signals" group, who asked not to be named, replied, "It depends on how the course is changed. For us to change the course, there are four prerequisites: The operation of the stadium must be profitable, it must be legal, it must be approved by the club members, and the club must have ownership of the new venue. The new stadium plan does nothing, so we are against changing the stadium!”

The plan had to be shelved amid opposition from many fans and groups, and negotiations between Atlético de Madrid and the two companies were suspended.

In fact, the two sides still intend to cooperate, but Atlético de Madrid must consider the huge opposition from fans.

In the final analysis, it is the economic problem of Atlético de Madrid.

Atlético de Madrid cannot afford to build a new stadium, and even if it is to expand the old stadium, it needs a lot of financial support. Little Hill wants to attract investment for the club, and he must pay a lot. Those invested companies cannot help Atlético de Madrid 'for free'.

Now the three giants of the club: Chairman Cerezo, CEO Jr. Hill and head coach Wan Sheng, will study the possibility of expanding the stadium or building a new stadium together.

Among the three, Wansheng undoubtedly has the right to speak.

Wansheng is not only the head coach of the team, but also the largest shareholder of the club. His Taiwan Investment Development controls the most shares of the club. In June last year, Taiwan Investment and Development acquired 51% of the club's shares, 10 Months later, through scattered acquisitions, Taiwan Investment Development has controlled more than 81% of the club's shares.

In Atlético de Madrid, Wansheng has the absolute right to speak.

As soon as Wan Sheng came to the office, Cerezo and Jr. Hill directly talked about the club's stadium situation. They focused on two points. One was that the expansion of Calderon Stadium was "almost impossible".

"That's too much money to consume, it's even better to build a new stadium!" Little Hill said with certainty.

As the club's CEO, Hill is in charge of economic affairs. He has investigated the stadium expansion. The biggest difficulty in expanding the Calderon Stadium is to demolish a nearby commercial building, but that requires a lot of money. Funding, arguably impossible, and it is difficult for clubs to get permission from the Madrid government.

The second is the Madrid Olympic Stadium project, which was shelved in 2007.

"I think it's the best plan and we can still talk about it now. The club doesn't need to spend a lot of money. If we start to expand now, around 2016, we will be able to move into the new stadium."

The Olympic Stadium of Madrid is a very old stadium.

The stadium is located on the outskirts of Madrid, and there is no big problem in renovation and expansion. Atlético de Madrid has already drawn up plans. The biggest problem is that the Madrid Olympic Stadium belongs to the municipal government. If you want to buy the stadium from the municipal government, you need to spend a lot of money. , and then renovation and expansion, the consumption of funds will be even more.

In the past, Hill wanted to rent the Madrid Olympic Stadium, and gave the city government a certain amount of money as a rental fee every year, and then negotiated with the invested companies to sell the stadium naming rights, advertising spaces, etc., so that they could provide funds for renovation and expansion.

In this plan, Atlético de Madrid hardly has to come up with funds.

The reason for the strong opposition to the plan is that the Madrid Olympic Stadium does not belong to Atlético de Madrid, but is the property of the municipal government. At the same time, the naming rights of the stadium have been sold. Atlético de Madrid fans simply cannot accept it. Continue to stay at Calderon Stadium.

Xiao Hill proposed the plan again, hoping to get the support of Wansheng.

As long as Wansheng can support this plan, the resistance of the fans will be much smaller. After a season, Wansheng has conquered many fans. Even the most critical fans have nothing to say about the team's current results.

But... Wansheng can't support it!

Atlético de Madrid, it can be said that most of them belong to him, how can they rent a stadium as their home? In addition, the naming rights of the stadium are handed over to other companies, it is better to hand it directly to the Tagorewan Group!

Under Hill's goal, Wan Sheng shook his head directly, "That's not good. I agree with the fans. We can't rent the stadium, let alone sell the championship."

Little Hill was disappointed.

But then, Wan Sheng asked, "How much will it cost to buy the Olympic Stadium from the city government?"

"At least 100 million euros!"

"so many?"

Wan Sheng frowned.

If a gorgeous modern bad stadium is worth a few hundred million euros, but the Olympic Stadium in Madrid has been abandoned and can no longer be used at all. After all, the land is worth more than the stadium itself.

"100 million euros is not much. The stadium was built for the Olympic Games, and the surrounding area is very large. The city government is not a fool. They can't just sell the stadium in the middle. If you want to buy it, you must also include the surrounding area..."

Victory is clear.

After that, he lowered his head to think for a while, then raised his head suddenly, and said with a smile, "Whether it's building a new stadium or expanding the stadium, it's impossible to directly negotiate, so, Mr. Hill, your next job is to negotiate with the city government. …”

"We want to buy the Olympic Stadium and its surroundings. The bigger the lot, the better!" (To be continued ~^~)