The King of Bay Area Chapter 253: Commercial Value (Bonus Chapter)

Football is undoubtedly the number one sport in the United States, with a huge lead in comrcial value and market share. Not to ntion the Super Bowl, which has over 100 million viewers. Just the first day of the draft alone has more viewers than the NBA Finals and the MLB World Series.

Its dominance is unchallenged!

However, compared to football's popularity and influence, the players' incos are quite underwhelming and embarrassing. The top superstar players in the NFL may only have an annual salary of 20 million dollars, which is common in the NBA and is only considered an average salary there.

Currently, the highest endorsent contract Nike has with a football player is only 2.5 million dollars per year. Many players, including Peyton Manning, have contracts of this level. This is considered a top-tier contract, but compared to LeBron Jas's billion-dollar contract, it's like the difference between a kindergarten child and a top-tier giant.

Why?

Why is football the number one sport in North Arica, but the players' incos have such a huge gap? Theoretically, this is unscientific and even goes against the rules. The players in the NBA and NFL have also discussed this difference nurous tis. But from a market perspective, it's completely normal.

The reason is not complicated: there are too many players. This is the main reason for the gap.

On a basketball court, there are only five players, and a team has a maximum of fifteen players. However, in a football team, there are fifty-three players, and at least twenty-five of them are starters. The number of players who are guaranteed to play in a ga is at least forty.

In 2010, the Chinese-Arican player Wang Kai was drafted and joined the Buffalo Bills, becoming the first Chinese-Arican player to join the league. However, Wang Kai's presence never caused a stir. Why? On one hand, it was because Wang Kai was an offensive tackle, which is a position that doesn't get much attention. On the other hand, it was because Wang Kai wasn't a starter, but only a rotational player.

In a ga, there can be forty or more rotational players. A player might only play for one or two downs, or they might occasionally co on as a special teams player. The comntators might not even have ti to get familiar with the player's number before they've already left the field. So, how can they cause a stir?

In his rookie season, Wang Kai only played in six gas as a rotational player. Lu Ke also did the sa in the preseason, participating in a dozen downs, but he didn't cause much of a stir.

In the regular season, Lu Ke was able to cause so much controversy because he was a quarterback, but also because he was a starter. The number of rotational players is simply too large. The number of starters is completely different, but even the number of starters is far more than an entire NBA team.

Because of this, the comrcial space is split among fifty-three players in a football ga, which naturally can't be compared to the fifteen players in a basketball ga.

When a brand tries to connect with consurs through athlete endorsents, the supply of baseball and football players is too large, which causes their contract prices to drop. Basketball players and individual athletes, especially in tennis and golf, can always get higher prices. Even soccer players' contracts have more room for growth.

In addition, the huge gap between the endorsent prices of the NFL and the NBA is truly shocking. Basketball players can easily get contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but football players can't even get contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. A part of this is also caused by the characteristics of the shoe consur market.

Football cleats, just like soccer cleats, have spikes. They are very specialized and have a single purpose, which ans that the average person can't wear them in their daily life. In contrast, basketball shoes are very accessible, and people can freely choose them as their everyday shoes. This determines that there is a fundantal difference in the market size.

Not only that, but the popularity of football is also lower than that of soccer. Many amateur football enthusiasts choose to use soccer cleats as football cleats, which is also an option. This is especially true for rugby cleats. There is no problem with using soccer cleats. But for Arican football cleats, the spikes are longer and deeper, and their distribution is also different.

Simply put, the more specialized a product is, the narrower its audience is. Ninety out of a hundred people might be willing to buy basketball shoes, but it's very rare for one person out of a hundred to buy football cleats.

Thus, there is a huge difference in the amount of money in endorsent contracts.

In fact, Under Armour faces the sa problem. They are professional at making football cleats, and they may even be more professional than Nike. There are many players in the NFL who are willing to choose Under Armour. But when it cos to making other shoes, such as basketball shoes or running shoes, Under Armour is far from professional, and the task of opening up the market is incredibly difficult.

In real life, not only are endorsent contracts lower, but NFL players' salaries are also far inferior to those of the NBA. In addition to the large number of players, there is also the issue of the salary cap. However, that's another story. As a rookie player, Lu Ke doesn't need to worry about his salary yet. At the earliest, that will be two years from now.

So, a 250,000-dollar-a-year sponsorship contract is not a sky-high price, and it's insignificant in the NBA. But for Lu Ke, he is already very satisfied.

On a side note, football agents also suffer from "unfair" treatnt.

In Major League Baseball, agents can get a 5% commission. In the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, it's 4%. But in football, it's only 3%, which is the lowest amount.

However, don't forget that the NFL has the most players.

The entire NBA has only about 500 players, while the NFL has more than 2,000 players. In other words, a football agent can make more money by representing more players. A top agent who represents ten or twenty players would earn far more than an NBA agent.

This is why Leigh Steinberg is so unique.

For a long ti, Leigh only represented one player, and his commission was also 3%. He didn't privately raise his price because he had fewer clients. But as a top agent with the most authority in the industry, Leigh has his own agency, and the agents under him also adhere to the "fewer but better" approach. So, he is still one of the wealthiest agents in the industry.

Looking at Lu Ke, who had such a good attitude, Leigh couldn't help but joke, "Do you rember what I said when I first signed you?" He saw the comrcial value in Lu Ke. "How about it? Do you believe now?"

Lu Ke laughed and joked back, "Based on a 250,000-dollar contract?" He seed to be mocking that such comrcial value was too low.

Leigh put away his smile and put on a serious face. "Don't underestimate this beginning. As the only Chinese-Arican player, or even Asian-Arican player... Oh, no, the only starting Asian-Arican player in the entire league..."

As a veteran agent, Leigh naturally knew about Wang Kai. However, Wang Kai was on the injured reserve list this season and was not on the Buffalo Bills' fifty-three-man roster, so his influence was naturally even weaker.

"Your comrcial value can't be asured by common sense." During the eting earlier, Sean was actually trying to find out about Lu Ke's connection to Asia and was brainstorming future comrcial promotion strategies. Those conversations were not just small talk. More importantly, Leigh had enough confidence in his own abilities and connections. "Let's wait and see what the future holds."

Perhaps Lu Ke could be the first person to break the salary cap in the NFL, precisely because of his Chinese-Arican identity. Everything is a double-edged sword. People who don't understand it might squander it, but people who do might create a miracle, just like the first person to eat a crab. It could be a bad thing, or it could be a good thing.

However, this was just an idea. The prerequisite for all of it was winning, win after win!

"Leave the contract matters to . After the lawyers review it, we'll organize so important clauses and then sit down to discuss them. We'll sign it after we confirm everything," Leigh returned to work. "The most important thing is the choice of different equipnt for different occasions, such as equipnt for the training field, what to wear for press conferences, and so on. Sponsors are always very particular about these details."

"Isn't it because the league also has relevant regulations?" Lu Ke asked in confusion.

Leigh smiled and nodded. "See, you're slowly starting to get used to it." For sponsors, every link represents a benefit, and no one will easily compromise. This has also beco a rule that every player must adapt to. "Yes, the league also has relevant regulations, but Under Armour is an official sponsor of the league, just like Nike, so things are relatively less complicated."

"Don't worry, just leave these things to ," Leigh said, taking charge of the matter. "Also, I believe you know what you're doing, but as your agent, it's my duty to remind you. You need to manage your bank account correctly, try to stay out of trouble, and you must continue to train."

Lu Ke's smile slowly grew as he looked at the sincere Leigh. This made Leigh pause for a mont. "What's wrong? Is sothing not right?"

Lu Ke chuckled. "Nothing, I just feel... that this is what it feels like to have an agent."

For a long ti, Lu Zhengze and Jiang Youning had been fully supporting Lu Ke in pursuing his dreams, but they couldn't help him on the field or in training. Lu Ke had to rely on himself. Especially after entering college, he relied entirely on his own consciousness and self-discipline to plan every detail of his life and get to where he was today, one step at a ti.

Now, all the trivial matters, both inside and outside the team, were handled by his agent, and the training was handled by the team's coaches. Everything beca organized.

"This is my job," Leigh said calmly, shrugging his shoulders. "Oh, by the way, I noticed that you're still living with your family. It's a bit far from the team's training facility. Do you want to move?"

"Yes, I haven't had ti to look for an apartnt. Can you help?"

"Of course, it's my job."

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