Chapter 796 The straw that broke the camel's back

At dawn, a Boeing plane flying from the south caused a commotion at Heathrow Airport.

"It's a team plane, and I saw Messi!"

On the top floor of the Skyline Hotel opposite Heathrow Airport, many fans were holding binoculars and looking at the plane that was about to land. After seeing the spray paint on the plane, many people excitedly headed towards the bottom of the hotel. Shouted, and the fans at the bottom were all excited when they heard it.

Soon, when the plane slowly landed on the runway of Heathrow Airport with a screeching sound of tires scraping against the concrete road, the entire airport was already filled with Tottenham fans who were rushing in. Surrounded by Tottenham fans.

Everyone just knew that the team would rush back to London overnight after playing the game to prepare for the devilish Christmas schedule and participate in the team's Christmas carnival, but no one told them when the team would fly and when So, this group of cute guys were waiting outside the airport stupidly.

When they saw Tottenham Hotspur walking out of the airport gate, the audience burst into cheers. Many fans pulled out banners and shouted slogans to welcome the team back home with great honors.

When everyone saw them, they were stunned for a while, and then moved.

Many of them probably hadn't slept all night. It could be seen from the smell of alcohol all over their bodies and the bloodshot eyes. They should have looked very slovenly in normal times, but at this time they gave people a very close feeling.

Ye Qiu walked in the front, holding in his hand the suitcase that his wife Huang Chu would prepare for him every time he went on an away trip. It contained some things that he must use every day, so he always held it tightly, but As he approached the fans, he transferred his suitcase to his left hand, stretched out his right hand, and shook hands with the fans in front of him one after another.

"Thank you!" Ye Qiu thanked the fans very sincerely.

"Well done, world champions!"

"Keep up the good work, you are the best!"

"We are world champions, keep working hard!"

Tottenham Hotspur fans shook hands with Ye Qiu and the players, and some even hugged him tightly, especially when they saw captain Thiago Silva walking out holding the Club World Cup trophy. At this time, the whole audience burst into cheers.

But the strange thing is that no one wants to rush up and touch it, or touch it.

Because they feel that this is the trophy that represents the world championship, and they are afraid of accidentally breaking it.

Therefore, everyone looked at it from a distance, and some took out their mobile phones and cameras to take pictures, but no one wanted to rush up to it. This was a very, very rare scene.

The team walked out of the departure hall of Heathrow Airport, and the team bus was already waiting outside.

It was a domineering Scania ultra-luxury bus with a very conspicuous Tottenham Hotspur logo on its body. No matter where it went in the world, it would turn heads astonishingly. .

After getting on the bus, everyone in the team was still discussing the madness of the fans, and they were still praising the fans for their support of the team, but the bus did not stop for this.

After leaving Heathrow Airport, the team headed to Stratford Stadium.

As early as after the opening of Stratford Stadium, various facilities of the stadium, including shops, and a series of advanced equipment of the stadium, were all put into use, but there was one thing that was holding back, and that was the fan salon.

Tottenham Hotspur’s previous fan shop was a fan shop converted from a gas station in the Tottenham district, next to White Hart Lane. It was the favorite place for all North London fans to go, and the area was not It's very big, but even though the store is small, it has all the essentials. It's like an everyday department store, with everything.

At the Theobald training base, Tottenham Hotspur also has an official fan store. It is so large that it should no longer be called a store. Perhaps it is more appropriate to call it a fan supermarket.

There are everything from star dolls and wax figures, to various sports equipment from sponsor Adidas, to various gifts from BMW, and a lot of gadgets, such as notepads, pencil cases, alarm clocks, wallets, and even children’s favorite drinks. , candies and other things are all available, it can be said that there are all kinds of things.

The official fan store at Stratford Stadium has been put into operation before the season, but it is only a part of the entire fan area. Due to time constraints, it is more about selling some daily merchandise for fans, and it looks more It's like a copy of Theobald's store.

But in Peter Kenyon and Ron Gurley's plan, Stratford Stadium will become an interactive venue between Tottenham Hotspur, major sponsors and a huge fan base. platform.

It has been a few months since the team entered Stratford Stadium. Over the past few months, more than two hundred thousand people have gathered around Stratford Stadium every match day. On weekdays, The average flow of people received every day is about 100,000, and a large part of them are tourists from all over the world with excellent spending power.

Not to mention anything else, Yezi Technology's data cloud alone receives more than four million tourists a year, and has become one of the must-visit tourist attractions for tourists from all over the world when they come to London.

Although the area consisting of Stratford Stadium, Zhenhua Hotel and Data Cloud is far behind London's top commercial districts Oxford Street or Regent Street, or even Chinatown, in terms of the number of tourists received and the spending power, the potential here is amazing.

Especially as the renovation of the Olympic Park is about to be completed and will be reopened to the public in 2014, it is bound to attract more foreign tourists and local Londoners. Even in the past period of time, many shops have made clear predictions that the area around Stratford Stadium will become a new commercial district in London.

At least because of such a huge consumer group driven by football and the attraction of Tottenham Hotspur to tourists from all over the world after its rise, this is something that all commercial investors cannot ignore.

Therefore, in this case, Tottenham Hotspur has made two preparations. One is to build a fan salon around the ground floor shops of Stratford Stadium, which will attract famous brand sponsors including BMW and Adidas. BMW will build their largest exhibition hall in London at Stratford Stadium.

The most eye-catching thing is that they will open a whole new user experience exhibition area to showcase a series of experiences of smart cars and hybrid cars that BMW and YeZi Technology have cooperated on, including those beautiful concept cars, and the most interesting one among the concept cars is the smart power-assisted bicycle designed by Andy Rubin.

Ye Qiu decided to support Andy Rubin's design that year, and he actually came up with some gadgets, which also attracted BMW's interest, so the two sides hit it off, after all, BMW has its own bicycle and motorcycle products.

In addition, some other sponsors have expressed their interest in settling in Stratford Stadium, and the team has also specially formulated a whole set of promotion plans, such as holding a charity auction every week to auction some collections or documents of the team and players, or small gadgets such as photos, to attract more people to gather.

Outside Stratford Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur has obtained the development license of the Olympic Park Heritage Company, and will develop a commercial street about one kilometer long from the iron triangle of Stratford Stadium, Data Cloud and Zhenhua Hotel, extending to the southeast.

You know, long before Tottenham Hotspur got Stratford Stadium, Westfield Retail Group had already bought a piece of land in the northeast corner of Olympic Park at a high price to build a shopping center. Stratford City is just stuck at the key point of the two major stations of London Olympic Park. Whether it is an international station or a local station, including subway stations and bus stations, after arriving at Olympic Park, you must first pass through the shopping center of Stratford City.

So with the rise of Stratford Stadium, this shopping center is also making a lot of money, attracting more than 300 retail stores and two department stores to settle in, and they also have an 11-story hotel.

But Tottenham Hotspur has its own business considerations, so under the condition that the other party has convenient transportation at Stratford Stadium, the team decided to expand to the southeast, because there is a subway station exit about 300 meters to the southeast, and it can request the opening of new bus routes and stops to reach here.

The business opportunities brought by the development of this area, and Tottenham Hotspur's promise to build an elevated bridge across the entire subway line for both people and vehicles, will greatly improve the traffic in the south of the Olympic Park. This made the Olympic Legacy Company very excited. Not only did they give the green light, but they also promised to move half of the bus stops to the south.

In this way, the northeast represented by Stratford City and the southeast centered on Stratford Stadium are separated by two rivers and will be separated by a large wetland park. This will be a nightmare for Stratford City, but for Tottenham Hotspur, there are many benefits, because the most attractive part of the entire wetland park is the South Park.

The South Park is designed by the field operation office of James Corner, a famous London designer, with Stratford Stadium, Zhenhua Building and Data Cloud as the center.

After Tottenham Hotspur settled in Stratford Stadium, it brought a huge flow of people and tourists, but all of these were cheap for Stratford City, while Tottenham Hotspur itself did not get much benefit. In addition, Stratford City had no intention of cooperating with Tottenham Hotspur, so building a commercial district by itself became the best choice for Tottenham Hotspur.

So, after more than half a year of preparation, Tottenham Hotspur officially launched this plan.

Taking advantage of Tottenham Hotspur's return from Morocco, the arrival of the Christmas Carnival, and the grand opening of the fan salon at Stratford Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur put forward the plan for a commercial district.

After Tottenham Hotspur arrived at Stratford Stadium from Heathrow Airport, the team rested for a while, and then began to send the Club World Cup trophy to the museum at Stratford Stadium. After that, everyone walked out of the stadium together and attended the press conference on the circular landscape avenue outside the stadium, which can be called the main axis of the Olympic Park.

This arc-shaped landscape avenue is called the Space Track by Londoners and tourists. Together with the Data Cloud, the Sky City of Zhenhua Building, and the Eye of God at Stratford Stadium, it is known as the most attractive attraction of the Olympic Park Stadium.

In addition to Tottenham Hotspur, there were nearly 10,000 Tottenham Hotspur fans who came to the scene after hearing the news, as well as countless media and reporters, as well as many tourists who came here, including the Beckhams and other celebrities from all walks of life.

Tottenham Hotspur CEO Peter Kenyon went on stage to announce Tottenham Hotspur's investment plan, and the famous architect Fei Mousavi was responsible for the design of the entire commercial area and elevated bridge, including a subway station and bus station.

Fay Mousavi is a strong woman, an Iranian, who is called an outlier in the field of architecture. She founded the world-famous FOA Architects in London with her Spanish ex-husband E Zaela Polo. The most famous work is the Yokohama International Passenger Terminal in Japan. After the divorce in 2009, the couple dissolved FOA, but Fay Mousavi independently designed the Montpellier Garden Apartment Building in France, which won the praise and affirmation of countless professionals and architecture enthusiasts.

She is best at not creating the plane or three-dimensional design of traditional buildings, but how to connect the building with the surrounding environment into an overall landscape field, which is also an important reason why Tottenham Hotspur chose her to be responsible for the design.

Because according to Tottenham Hotspur's idea, the Iron Triangle should be connected to the entire commercial district in the southeast in addition to the Olympic Park, so Fay Mousavi will not only design the layout and elevated bridge of the commercial district, but also design every building in the commercial district, and even tailor it for some brands that are ready to settle in.

At present, world brands including BMW, Adidas, KFC, Versace and others have decided to settle in. In addition, the Beckhams are also preparing to open a flagship store here. This is their first store in the world, specializing in selling clothing, underwear, accessories, glasses and perfumes of their major brands.

Tottenham Hotspur is now throwing out this plan mainly to attract more investors and operators to join. What is particularly eye-catching is that the plan also includes a shopping mall plan, which has attracted the strong interest of Tesco, the largest retail group in the UK.

This Hertford-based UK's largest and one of the world's three largest retail companies not only hopes to settle in this business district and kill its competitor Westfield Retail Group's Stratford City, but also hopes to develop more comprehensive cooperation with Tottenham Hotspur, because their future development focus is in Southeast Asia.

And in this area, Tottenham Hotspur has an invincible influence!

This is Tottenham's biggest advantage now. With a huge flow of people and appeal, there is no need to worry about lack of business opportunities, because the current business model has long been separated from the original traditional business model. Now it is a world of people. Whoever owns and controls more people can create business opportunities.

Many British newspapers commented, "Seeing Tottenham's huge business plan, Westfield Retail Group must feel miserable, because they missed the opportunity in vain for a small profit. Originally, they could even share the world with Tottenham, but now they have to think seriously about how long their largest shopping mall in Europe with a total investment of more than 1.5 billion pounds can last?"

There are also media reports that on the day Tottenham announced the plan to develop the commercial area in the south of Olympic Park, Westfield Retail Group's stock price plummeted by 3%, and the next day it plummeted by 5%, forcing Westfield Retail Group to rush out to refute the rumor, saying that Tottenham's plan would not affect the company.

But everyone knows that the company's recent situation is not ideal.

In 2005, it was undoubtedly the peak period of Westfield. They rushed into the top 250 corporate rankings in the world with a market value of more than 20 billion euros. But now, the company's sales in the first half of the year were only pitifully less than 500 million. London's Stratford City was undoubtedly very critical, and they had to sell half of the shares of six shopping malls in the United States in March in exchange for a billion in working capital.

Therefore, Tottenham Hotspur's plan is likely to become the last straw that breaks the camel's back for Westfield.

Although Ye Qiu does not like to play with this kind of business tactics too much, he is very supportive of Peter Kenyon and the real estate company's approach. The reason is simple. He feels that he is at a disadvantage because Tottenham Hotspur's entry into Stratford Stadium has brought huge business opportunities to Westfield's shopping center, but Tottenham Hotspur itself has gained nothing.

So Ye Qiu supported their approach. Since Westfield was unwilling to cooperate, they would just part ways and see who would be more unlucky. No matter from which angle, Tottenham Hotspur had no reason or need to worry.

This was also thanks to Ye Qiu's strong support for the work of the Olympic Park Heritage Company in the past two years, as well as his strong support for some policies of the London City Government, which earned him enough reputation for English football and London football. Therefore, in terms of Tottenham Hotspur's affairs, all parties were open to convenience.

Ye Qiu even thought that if Westfield Retail Group really couldn't hold on and was forced to sell its assets, he would be interested in acquiring Stratford City. After all, to be honest, the location there is really too good.

As for what to do after the acquisition, that is a matter for the future. Let's take it down first and then talk about it.

Now Ye Qiu's calculations are very clear in his mind. He wants to grab money, grab land, grab...

He can't grab women. He will be satisfied with two!