四千万人民币一个赛季的胸前赞助，赞助商还是顶尖的国际品牌，广州恒大仍然拒绝，这个俱乐部对自身商业价值的估算，显然和其他中超俱乐部大不相同。
关于广州恒大拒绝三星成为胸前主赞助商的消息，足够让所有中超俱乐部流口水。四千万人民币的赞助价格，是以往中超联赛罕见的，但这仍然达不到恒大的要求。不过从许家印衡量恒大投资足球的回报收益看，这个房地产商有一套区别于市场主流的观念：最初两三年，投资恒大足球接近7亿人民币时，许家印就表示恒大投资足球已经”赚钱了”，因为他将所有媒体在进行中超赛事报道时，只要出现”恒大”二字，都理解为对恒大品牌的宣传推广。姑且不论平面和网络媒体，就以电视机构转播恒大的比赛，一个赛季30场90分钟的国内联赛，如果将这2700分钟都算作电视广告的话，自然是价值不菲的传播回报。
只是这样的折算方式，也透露出了许家印和恒大的足球观：投资中超联赛俱乐部，对于帮助恒大实现品牌升级和扩大品牌影响力，作用巨大，这本帐不能只放在职业足球领域里计算。然而硬币的另一面是：过于强调投资足球转化而来的足球之外效益，当那种品牌增值的推广效益递减时，足球投资的意义也会下降。
放弃三星四千万人民币的胸前赞助，既是对自身价值的自信，也有对职业足球行业内所创造出价值的蔑视。恒大地产财雄势大，依靠自身投入，就足够保证球队实力雄冠国内，并且有着称霸亚洲的谋划。只是这一切，根本不是足球本身造血功能可以支撑的。拒绝三星的胸前赞助，恒大看似在捍卫自身价值，实际上却是拒绝以足球经营的方式，让俱乐部经济自立的可能性进一步降低。
近期的广州恒大，所向无敌，应该是处于竞技场和社会口碑的最佳状态中，许家印屡次得到政府高层提点，据传许多高层想要改革整饬足球的想法，都要从许家印处问计，荣华一时无两。但最辉煌的时候，往往会有隐患滋生，因为这普天大名，得自于借用足球的传播，可是对于足球本身，哪怕有建设通天塔式的恒大足校，围绕足球本身的经营和价值挖掘，恒大做的却很少。
一种消费饱和的病因，逐渐开始在恒大体内外生成——实力领先同辈太多，让广州恒大在中超卫冕几乎没有悬念。本来就是明星集粹的阵容，本赛季又有埃尔克森这样猛人的加盟，球队在中超一败难求。竞争悬念的下降，一段时间后，会让人气高涨的球迷消费群体兴趣下降，恒大不仅是不败，而是连个实力相近的敌手都没有。职业体育对于广大受众而言，最有吸引力的悬念的存在。
这不是恒大的过错，更是中超对手们的落后。恒大本应该是一条鲶鱼，没想到稍稍发力，竟然成为了一头鲨鱼。极短时间内极高的成功，更会让许家印坚信自己的成功方式，对过往主要依赖商业赞助、媒体版权和球票收入三块经济来源的俱乐部经营方式不屑一顾。
但是广州恒大如果要长久存在并且繁荣下去，势必要回复到职业足球经营的本体。拒绝三星，只是一个技术问题。如何应对已经逐渐产生的球迷消费饱和、悬念下降也令消费欲望下降的挑战，这恐怕不是恒大一家能够解决的了。
足球的消费饱和
The Worry of Football Consumption Reaching Saturation
40 million RMB for a season’s shirt sponsorship, and the sponsor is a well-known international brand, GuangZhou Evergrande still turned the offer down. This is a story that the other China Super League clubs hate to believe.
But Guangzhou Evergrande did refuse Samsung Electronics’s offer on March 2013, the story was recently been disclosed by Guangzhou media, even though 40 million RMB (about 3.8 million pound) would already be a record sponsorship deal for any professional sport clubs in China. But Mr. Xu Jiayin, the eccentric chairman of Evergrande has his own way of evaluating his club.
Mr. Xu, who orders his employees to call him ‘Chairman Xu’, and also wants media to pay their tribute to him in that Maoist way, considers all media coverage of Guangzhou Evergrande FC as advertisements or promotions for his company. In the 4 years since he purchased the club, Mr. Xu has pumped around 1 billion RMB into it, however, he felt that it is an extremely profitble deal as long as all media would add the word ‘Evergrande’ to Guangzhou FC. In his calculation, Guangzhou Evergrande FC would play 30 rounds of China Super League (CSL) matches per season, and each match would be a perfect advertisement in the golden viewing time on major TV channels for his brand.
In China’s real estate industry, companies normally spend at least 15% of their annual revenue on advertisements, and according to Evergrande’s revenue size, Mr.Xu needs to allocate 1 billion RMB on his annual advertisement budget. Nowadays, with his football club dominating the domestic league, and with strong performances in the Asia Champions League (ACL), Evergrande has already become one of the most well known brands in mainland China as well as the Asian-Pacific area.
However, the doubt always remains on Mr.Xu’s real motivation for investing into football. If it is only for the brand Evergrande to be promoted from regional level to national scale, the target has already been met. The other side of the coin is, would he still be bothered to continue this insane investment on annual basis?
Turning Samsung down, proved Evergrande’s self confidence, but the gesture also showed Mr.Xu’s despise of the pittance that other CSL football clubs made from sponsorship deals. Although he is defending Evergrande’s value, it also testified that the current management model of professional football clubs in China is not sustainable in the football sense.
Guangzhou Evergrande is the only team from the CSL that made to the quarterfinals of ACL, and they have a strong possibility of getting to the very top of Asian football this season. Football has become the convincing factor for Mr. Xu to enhance his influence in the political circle, recently it was said that he was being summoned to Zhongnanhai, the central headquarters of the party for remedy of football in China. However, the all conquering prowess of the club, has reached such a level in such a short period of time, that local fans in Guangzhou had found their domestic matches a bit boring: in the first 11 rounds of this CSL season, Evergrande won 10 matches and drew 1.
The signs are showing in a small dip of attendance in recent home matches, and talks from the star players of the team of belittling their domestic opponents.
Mr. Xu will stick to his way of running this club, reaching the top of Asia would be his second step of conquering. There are rumors of him in talks with the ownership of Liverpool FC, and he surely has the mettle to make it happen. But in football marketing and management perspective, Evergrande’s investment in football is still not aimed at success in football alone.
John Yan is Deputy Editor of Netease.com