Chapter 233: A win-win situation
There are of course many sponsors in the Grand Slam level of the Australian Open, and one of the top sponsors there is KIA. Unlike other sponsors, top sponsors can enjoy many privileges on the Australian Internet, such as advertising in all of the venues, background logos for press conferences, speeches at the awards podium in the finals, etc.
KIA has sponsored the Australian Open since 2002. It is the sixth year as of 2007. In the future, KIA will be the top sponsor of the Australian Open until 2016.
Today, Zhuge Wenbo and Director Cui went to the Australian Open Organizing Committee at the appointed time. They met with the chairman of the Australian Open Organizing Committee, Terry, in the reception room.
"Mr. Cui, I'm glad to see you again. What do you want to drink? Coffee? Black tea? Or a cold glass of whiskey?" Terry said enthusiastically to Director Cui. As for Zhuge Wenbo on the side, Terry didn't care about him, he believed that Zhuge Wenbo is the attendant brought by Director Cui.
"Coffee. Thank you!" Director Cui continued, "Mr. Terry, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Zhuge. I think you must have heard of him. He is Zhang Guan's agent."
"I have long heard of this name and admired this great name!" Terry immediately shook hands with Zhuge Wenbo, but he was thinking about the purpose of bringing Zhuge Wenbo here.
"I heard from a sponsor before that Zhang Guan is in trouble recently. He seems to be suspended by his country. But this has nothing to do with our Australian Open. Zhang Guan is an athletics athlete. If he wants to get public relations, he should go to the IAAF instead of coming to our Australian Open Organizing Committee." As he thought about it, Terry greeted Director Cui and Zhuge Wenbo to sit down.
The beautiful female secretary served coffee for the two guests and then left the reception room, leaving only three members, Terry, Director Cui, and Zhuge Wenbo.
Director Cui said straight away, "Mr. Terry, I came for your help this time. I hope that the Australian Open Organizing Committee will give us a men's singles sponsored foreign card quota."
Terry suddenly felt a little surprised. He didn't expect Director Cui to ask him for a foreign card quota.
In the tennis Grand Slam tournament, 104 places are directly entered into the official game, and these 104 places are allocated according to the world ranking, so in theory, the top 104 players in the world can directly advance to the Grand Slam official game, but considering that there will be some athletes who retire for various reasons, and the players who are behind may be forwarded, so the top 110 in the world may directly enter the Grand Slam.
In addition to the 104 places directly entering the competition, there are also 16 qualification places. The players who participated in the qualifying competition are also officially registered players, but because of the lower ranking in the world, they are excluded from the top 104 places. Therefore, the world rankings of the players participating in the qualifiers are also between 110 and 150, and those in the qualifiers that are too weak can not be promoted.
Also, there are 8 wild card entries. These 8 foreign card entries will be allocated to different regions. For example, in this year's Australian Open women's project, the Asian region has been allocated a wild card quota. Those who do not have enough points in the world ranking will compete for this quota through the wild card competition.
Of the 8 foreign card quotas in the Australian Open, 5 have been allocated through the foreign card competition, so up to now, the Australian Open Organizing Committee still holds 3 foreign card quotas. According to the situation in previous years, the final foreign card quota in the hands of the organizers is ultimately for the local players in Australia.
In tennis tournaments at all levels, it is very common for the main sponsor or top sponsor to ask the organizer for the foreign card entry quota. The organizer often does not refuse, after all, the sponsors spend a lot of money to sponsor the game. Also, the strength of the contestants who take sponsorship will not be too strong. If they are lucky, they will be able to enter the second round. So, it will not affect the final result of the game.
It has been the sixth year of KIA sponsoring the Australian Open. They have not asked for the sponsor's foreign card quota before, so when Terry knew the purpose of Director Cui, he felt a little surprised.
"Mr. Cui, as far as I know, your country's tennis player Li Hengze should now be ranked around 50 in the world. Can he enter the official game directly? Do you have any other players in your country who want to participate?" Terry asked.
"No, I want this foreign card quota, not for our Korean players. I want to use this foreign card quota for Zhang Guan. Our group hopes that Zhang Guan will appear in this Australian Open. This is also the purpose of bringing Mr. Zhuge." Director Cui said.
"What? Zhang Guan? Participate in the Australian Open?" Terry couldn't hold back for a moment, showing an incredible expression.
Mr. Cui went on to say, "We are also the sponsors of Zhang Guan, so if Zhang Guan appears on the Australian Open, he will increase the exposure of us which is good for our company. And if Zhang Guan participates in the Australian Open, it can attract more attention from all over the world to this year's Australian Open. This is a win-win situation."
"That being said, Zhang Guan is a track and field athlete, after all, he is not even a professional tennis player, this is a Grand Slam tournament, after all, we can not give an amateur player a foreign card entry quota," Terry said.
"Mr. Terry, Zhang Guan is not an amateur tennis player. He is a professional player with ATP qualification." Zhuge Wenbo said as he took out the ATP professional athlete's certificate and handed it to Terry.
"This is? A certificate? A certificate of professional conscientiousness! It's an ATP certificate!" Terry said immediately after a short gaffe, "I'm sorry, I didn't know before that Zhang Guan was a professional tennis player."
"Then, there should be no problem with this foreign card quota?" Zhuge Wenbo asked with a look of expectation.
After thinking about it, Terry immediately said, "I heard that Zhang Guan should have been banned recently!"
"Yes, Zhang Guan is prohibited from participating in any track and field competitions, and the IAAF also recognizes it." Zhuge Wenbo smiled, then said, "But I have never heard that the IAAF can prohibit tennis players from participating. Grand Slam match. "
Zhuge Wenbo took the coffee in his hand, took a sip, and then said, "Although Zhang Guan is banned from participating in track and field competitions, he still has an unparalleled reputation in the world. No one can deny that so far he is the most successful athlete of this century. Imagine that Zhang Guan gave up the track and field and took part in the tennis competition. The debut was at the Australian Open, which will be a moment of attention for the whole world! I think many track and field spectators will turn to the tennis match, the first tennis match they saw will be the Australian Open! "
When Zhuge Wenbo said the last sentence, Terry was finally moved. The basis of any sporting event is the spectator. With more spectators, there is more attention, more sponsors, and the game will get bigger and bigger. As Zhuge Wenbo said, people who didn't care about tennis originally, but because of Zhang Guan's participation, the first game they will see will be the Australian Open, even if only one in ten people would continue to watch it. For the entire Australian Open event this is also a huge victory.
Thinking of this, Terry had a big smile on his face, and he said, "The two gentlemen are right, this is indeed a win-win situation."
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