Almighty Coach

The Austrian Open’s results were predictable, as foreign players were not capable threats to Chinese brave warriors, and the National Team came home loaded with honors.

Dai Li again enjoyed experience rewards. After all, the Ping-Pong Austrian Open was an international contest, so the experience rewards were pretty high. Dai Li involuntarily sighed, deciding that, it was indeed a right choice to join in the National Ping-Pong Team.

With the blink of an eye, the year had come to an end. As the ITTF Tour Annual Final ended, the whole year’s ping-pong games finished. Both players and coaches were sighing in relief. Athletes adjusted their conditions, or received medical treatments, since training intensity had apparently decreased.

But Zhizhong Gu was busier than usual. It was the end of the year, which was a good season for finding bargains on sponsorship fees.

Although General Admission of Sports offered a large amount of annual funds to the Ping-Pong Team, nobody disliked more money. Science, educational, and other social undertakings were bottomless holes, so no matter how much money one owned, it could be all spent.

Comparatively speaking, putting money on athletics could receive quicker results. As for the other undertakings, such as science, it was not rare to hear that people spent billions in research fees, but received nothing in return, sometimes even seeing the success rate be as low as winning a lottery.

As for education, even if one threw billions into it, results wouldn’t show until many years later. As the saying goes, "It takes ten years to grow trees, but a hundred years to rear people".

No need to even introduce public health. If focusing simply on the medical aspect, which received annual funds of about five or six thousand billions, people still found it more difficult and expensive than common medical treatment.

In the sporting industry, the return of investment was pretty high and rapid. Even in advanced professional sport events, as long as a team was getting a good coach, some nice equipment, and reliable logistics service, soon the results would come.

As for game hosts, once they set a rather high reward, they could attract the world’s best players, who could immediately raise the game level several tiers higher than before, and thus, get instant results.

At a National Team’s level, anything cost money. Even though the team spent money without hesitation, they still put every cent into good use. Moreover, sponsor fees that they received would not all go into their own wallets, as a portion should always be submitted as a development fee for the ping-pong association.

What had to be admitted was that, in regards to the running of the ping-pong team’s business, Zhizhong Gu really had something. At least in recent years, while it had been led by him, the team was never stressed for money.

These years, in addition to original fixed sponsors, new big sponsors joined in every year. Their comings brought sufficient benefits to the National Ping-Pong Team. Then, after tasting the sweetness of profits, every year at the end of the year, sponsorship negotiations became Zhizhon Gu’s major work.

Furthermore, next year was the Olympic year, so the National Ping-Pong Team would definitely gain attention in the Olympic field. Thus, sponsorship should be higher than usual.

...

In the meeting room, Zhizhong Gu was holding a notebook in his hand, pouring out words.

"Recently several media outlets asked me to have exclusive interviews, not only for our players, but for coaches as well. You guys make some preparations for that, as this is not the first time you face reporters, you don’t need me to emphasize any dos and don’ts again."

Zhizhong Gu turned to another page and said, "Moreover, a direct seeding software app wants to sponsor us, and they offer a good price. But the thing is, they want our main forces to make live broadcasts eight hours per month. I’d like to hear about your ideas."

"Live broadcast? Then our athletes will become internet celebrities, won’t they?"

"I say it’s doable. The key point is to give those wild boys something to do. They are only twenty years old, full of passion, and they don’t lack money. If we leave them alone for a while, they would probably find some trouble. Then it would be better to let live broadcasts chain them up."

"But we should set rules for them beforehand, and make everything clear. Such as, what they can say, what they cannot. Otherwise, if they do whatever they want in the live broadcasts, they will cause negative effects to our team."

The crowd expressed their opinions, one by another, and soon the decision was made.

...

To National Ping-Pong Team players, being anchors in live broadcasts was a fresh thing to do. At the very beginning, the players were shy in the shows, but as time went by, they gradually got used to it.

Players in the National Ping-Pong Team, especially the main forces, had already gained sufficient experience in interviews. They even had experienced many nationwide live shows. Therefore, when facing audiences, they were quite open, and reacted naturally.

The live broadcasts had nice effects, especially when popular players like Pengfei Cui and Anshan Wang were in the show, they attracted a lot of attention from fans, and received generous gifts from the audience. Their popularity easily exceeded those internet celebrities.

Players occasionally broadcast for an hour, which didn’t affect their training and competitions. Besides, in the Olympic Year, contests in the first half of the year were more important. Those competitions were like monthly tests before a college entrance exam, so players needed those contests to adjust their conditions.

In fact, at this time, the team had already decided participants for the Olympics. As time was fast approaching, it was impossible to change players right before the games. Therefore, the main forces showed up in the international arena frequently.

Dai Li was happy to see his trainees busy engaging in competitions. Once the National Ping-Pong Team’s main force participated in international opens, winning the championship was a sure thing. Hence, Dai Li had gained plenty experience rewards, and was approaching an upgrade.

...

In the training field, the main force players stood in a line, listening to Zhizhong Gu’s instruction: "Now let’s talk about the love broadcast. The effect is good, and I noticed that you have attracted many fans, which means that more and more people will start paying attention to our team and ping-pong events. However, I have to point out some individuals’ behaviors."

As he said this, Zhizhong Gu turned to Pengfei Cui and spoke in a serious tone, "Pengfei, you don’t lack money, so why did you ask your fans for gifts? I heard that someone gave you gifts costing tens of thousands of yuan. You really think of yourself as an anchor, don’t you?!"

Not only Pengfei Cui, but also the others all smiled embarrassingly. Zhizhong Gu paused, then said, "Let me emphasize the rule. Asking gifts from the audience is forbidden. You are athletes, not anchors, so you must obey strict disciplines. If the audience volunteers to buy you gifts, we are not able to stop them. But it’s a totally different thing to ask for gifts from them."

Zhizhong Gu turned to now address Shuang Pang: "Pang, you were only broadcasting about five hours last month, which didn’t reach the requirement. We signed on to broadcast eight hours per month. I checked your schedule for the recent two months, and you were not very busy. I have talked to the platform, and they’d like you to make up three hours this month."

Shuang Pang hesitated, struggled for a while, then finally nodded in agreement.

...

Dai Li went to pick up his package at the gate, and on his way back, he surprisingly saw that Shuang Pang stood alone on the balcony at the end of the walkway, looking bewildered.

"Hey Pang, what are you doing here?" Dai Li asked from afar.

"Nothing, nothing..." Shuang Pang replied awkwardly.

Dai Li walked close. He saw a phone in Shuang Pang’s hands, immediately smiling: "You are going to make a live broadcast! Are you planning to make up the three hours you missed last month?"

The phone in Shuang Pang’s hands was specialized for live broadcasting, as the team had bought it for the players. The phone had a big screen and a high pixel front camera, with automatic filter functions, hence, Dai Li recognized it at once.

"I..." Shuang Pang gnashed his teeth, then finally said, "Coach Li, to tell you the truth, I don’t want to make a live broadcast!"

Dai Li was a little surprised, as in his mind, Shuang Pang was not a shy player. Besides, he hadn’t reached age twenty yet, and most people his age tended to like live shows.

"Why?" Dai Li asked.

"In the broadcast, they all say that I’m always the second!" Shuang Pang replied painfully.