The investigation was not a matter of a day or two. For the next half-month, Chen Yu took Nelson and their team, along with the media reporter Su Jun and an official from the Sports Bureau handling local coordination, and traveled to all of China’s major cities.
They inspected the local sports infrastructure and the scale of development for local amateur leagues and school tournaments.
This wasn’t just for basketball, but for football as well.
In this same year, the Jia A Football League was about to be officially renamed the Chinese Super League, a move that had been proposed even earlier than the reforms for basketball.
Yan Shiduo was also planning to take the commercialization route; you could say Li Yuanwei was just following the trend set by Yan Shiduo.
During this trip, Chen Yu consulted a great many people.
In recent years, Chen Yu’s network of contacts had spread across every field of the sports industry.
Of the four major American commercial sports leagues, Chen Yu had a deep partnership with the NBA, and the vice president of Major League Baseball was Hill’s father, a long-time business partner of Chen Yu’s.
In European football, Chen Yu knew a host of head coaches, club presidents, and even people within FIFA.
He even knew a multitude of people in other fields, such as track and field.
Chen Yu communicated with all of them, discussing the development models for local football and basketball and taking their suggestions into consideration.
By pooling the wisdom of the group, he could compensate for the limits of his own knowledge.
Only after this comprehensive tour did they return to the Capital.
"Dr. Chen, I get the feeling you’re a pragmatic man." In the conference room, Yuan Weimin smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.
As the saying goes, without investigation, you have no right to speak. Chen Yu’s extensive tour of inspection put him leagues above the other sports marketing and PR firms they had previously engaged. Those companies just came in and presented a slew of data that sounded hollow and abstract.
"So, Dr. Chen, after all this investigation, what conclusions have you reached? Personally, I’m more inclined to work with you," Yuan Weimin added.
With both football and basketball undergoing commercial reforms at the same time, quite a few companies had their eyes on this juicy piece of meat.
Take basketball, for instance. The most enthusiastic contender was France’s Power Media Group, a globally renowned professional media agency that had entered the Chinese market back in ’96.
There was also a marketing firm, Tuya Sports. They had been involved in promoting the league since the inception of Jia A, and their team even included Richard Avery, a former High Level Vice President of the IMG Group.
That man was one of the founders of both Jia A football and Jia A basketball.
It was safe to say that both of these companies had deep ties with the Sports Bureau.
But Chen Yu’s connections weren’t weak, either. During last year’s Women’s World Cup, Chen Yu had genuinely helped China save a great deal of money and resources, and he had also salvaged the country’s international reputation.
Compared to the money saved, the latter was arguably even more valuable.
Yan Shiduo and Li Yuanwei, who were also present, turned their gazes toward Chen Yu.
Chen Yu didn’t rush to speak.
In front of him lay two folders.
Inside were two completely different reports.
The first was a by-the-book business plan, drafted according to the improvement suggestions proposed by Li Yuanwei and Yan Shiduo, referencing the mature commercial experience of the NBA.
As for the other one, it was an enhancement plan that Chen Yu had formulated after his inspection tour, incorporating the advice of many people and combining it with his own abilities and understanding.
And even now, Chen Yu hadn’t decided which one to present.
A full thirty seconds passed. Just as Yuan Weimin and the others were growing puzzled, Chen Yu finally picked up the second folder.
Chen Yu couldn’t predict the future, nor did he know which report would yield better results.
But the first plan was riskier—it might lose money—though it was also the easier, less troublesome path for him.
The second plan, however, was more advantageous for him. But if it were to fail, the potential damage to China’s sports development would be even greater.
So, not knowing how to choose, Chen Yu had opted for the path that was most beneficial to himself.
Distributing the prepared documents to everyone, Chen Yu said, "Alright, to save everyone’s time, I won’t go over the various inspection findings and data. I’ll get straight to the conclusion."
"Given your current sports facilities, player development and training models, and market environment, it is almost impossible for you to reach a world-class, let alone top-tier, standard in the short term. And by short-term, I mean a ten-year period."
"That is, the level of the NBA or the Five Major Leagues."
As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of everyone present changed.
Yuan Weimin also quickly skipped the preliminary inspection content and flipped to the conclusion.
Li Yuanwei cleared his throat and said, "Dr. Chen, isn’t that conclusion a bit hasty? I feel that our two major ball sports are developing quite well right now. Look, our football team even made it to the World Cup the year before last."
A flash of pride crossed Yan Shiduo’s face as he gave Li Yuanwei a slight nod of acknowledgment.
But Chen Yu doused them with a bucket of cold water. "If just making it to the World Cup without scoring a single goal counts as success, then we can end this meeting right now."
The smile on Yan Shiduo’s face instantly froze.
The words were jarring, heart-stabbing. They felt like a punch to the gut!
Everyone in the room turned to look at Yan Shiduo.
Qualifying for the World Cup seemed like a milestone achievement, but conceding nine goals while scoring none was, frankly, a bit embarrassing.
"Dr. Chen, please continue," Yuan Weimin said, sitting up straighter, his expression turning more serious.
Chen Yu continued, "Let’s compare it to the United States. Although the United States football team once placed third in the World Cup, its development has been almost stagnant since the 1950s."
"It wasn’t until after the ’94 World Cup that they began preparing for Major League Soccer, which officially launched in ’96. Therefore, in my opinion, the professional development history of American football and Chinese football are almost identical."
"Moreover, the American soccer league doesn’t have a solidarity payment mechanism, domestic league viewership is low, and participation is limited. For example, the number of high school participants last year was 640,000. I imagine the number in China should be far higher than that."
At this point, Yan Shiduo interjected, asking if Chen Yu was suggesting they emulate the American football development model.
"You mean the collegiate model?"
Yan Shiduo had, of course, studied the football development models of various countries and was familiar with the American one.
Just as Chen Yu said, professionalization in Chinese and American football began at around the same time. But in just a few short years, the United States Team could already go toe-to-toe with world powerhouses, while the China Team couldn’t even score a goal.
"No."
Chen Yu shook his head. "The American collegiate model is very unique and impossible to implement in China in the short term."
Over the past half-month, Chen Yu had visited countless schools across the country and discovered that promoting a school-based model would be next to impossible.
"Furthermore, the underlying logic of the American sports model is not suitable for China. For example, in the four major leagues, if a team feels it’s not making enough money in its current city, it can move to another one. But if you tried to move a local football team to another city in Europe, the local fans would kill you."
"It’s a purely profit-driven model that doesn’t care about results; everything is geared towards making money. I don’t think such a model would be acceptable in China."
In the American mindset, the purpose of owning a team is to make money. Improving competitiveness and winning championships are just means to an end—to make even more money.
Everything is done to get spectators to buy tickets and spend money in the stadium.
They would even change the rules to make more money.
Just look at the NBA. It has been frantically changing its game rules in recent years simply because TV ratings have been gradually declining and league revenue has dropped.
This is a competitive sport!
When FIFA changes the rules, it’s to make the sport of football more competitive, to perfect it.
If one day FIFA started changing rules left and right just to make money, fans worldwide would riot.
"But it’s not a problem in the United States. American spectators care more about whether the game is exciting, and the teams only care about whether they can make money."
FIFA wouldn’t dare, but America would.
For example, when Major League Soccer was established in ’96, it was different from international football.
When a 90-minute match ended in a draw, they would decide the winner with a 35-yard shootout.
They just felt that constant draws were boring. In order to force a winner and loser, make the game more exciting, and please the audience, they did it.
If this were FIFA and Blatter dared to do something like that, or even just suggest it, he would probably be out of a job the next day.
"So, as I said, this profit-driven model is not suitable for China."
League teams belong to their localities and have performance requirements. The goal is to build a higher-level sports league, with ideals and objectives.
Just talking about money... how tacky.
The people in the room fell silent.
This underlying logic had somewhat challenged their entire perspective.
For them, developing sports and improving the league had the ultimate goal of achieving results and raising the nation’s athletic standards. The idea of it being entangled with making money was ugly and didn’t align with their values.
"So there’s nothing we can do?" Li Yuanwei asked after a moment of silence.
Chen Yu shook his head. "Whether there’s a solution or not depends on the overall environment and specific circumstances. But for now, at least, I don’t have a particularly good one."
After all his investigation, Chen Yu personally felt that this was a bottomless pit.
If you jumped in, you might never find the bottom.
If it was just about catering to them, about creating the commercialization they envisioned without regard for the consequences, then that was no problem. Chen Yu and his team had ready-made models. They could spin a convincing tale, take the money, and walk away.
That was the report in the first folder.
If it ultimately failed and lost money, there would be no one to blame but themselves for not being good enough.
It’s business. Sometimes you lose money. You just have to accept it.
"The situation now is this: you all need to decide why you want to commercialize and what you really want. Based on that, I do have a preliminary idea: a state-run system."
Everyone present was stunned.
Yuan Weimin asked hastily, "Dr. Chen, what do you mean by that?"
Chen Yu said, "Exactly what it sounds like. Just like how you handle table tennis, diving, weightlifting, and all those other sports. Just apply that same system to the big ball sports."
"Forget about leagues. Your table tennis is number one in the world, but your table tennis league, also founded in ’94, does it have any viewership now? I imagine nobody is buying tickets to watch table tennis matches."
"But that doesn’t stop you from being number one in the world!"
"Therefore, if all you want is to get results in the major ball sports, then just follow the model you use for your other sports. In a country this large, you can centralize the selection of talent and the allocation of resources for training. If you can make table tennis number one in the world, you can achieve rapid results in other sports the same way."
"The problem is you want to both replicate the success of professional football and basketball leagues to generate huge profits, and you also want good results for the National Team. To have the best of both worlds—at least in the short term, I see no hope of that."
The European football leagues make money and their national teams dominate the World Cup because they’ve been working at it since the early last century, developing from a community-based model.
It’s the same for basketball. It’s profitable, and the Dream Team is invincible. But how many years has the NBA been developing? The collegiate model was also built up step-by-step.
China doesn’t have that foundation. To try to copy both models in a short period of time, to both make a profit and get results, is simply impossible.
"So let’s just simplify it. A football team needs 22 players, a basketball team 12. Let’s say you have three tiers of development squads; that’s about a hundred people. You have a population of over a billion. Just focus on selecting them, focus on training them, and pour all your resources into them for the sole purpose of getting results. Don’t worry about profit or returns."
"I imagine you must have invested a lot of resources to maintain your number one status in table tennis. But have you seen a return on that investment? No, you haven’t."
In Chen Yu’s view, the core of what Li Yuanwei and the others wanted from commercialization was to both make money and drive industrial development, and also to get results for the national teams.
It’s possible to have your cake and eat it too, but you first have to see if you have the right conditions for it.

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