CHAPTER 314: CHAPTER 314: TAKING OVER THE RACE

Of course, the organizers worked hard to pull in ads everywhere.

In the end, they’ll probably only make a few million.

So the organizer decided to take ten million and run.

This has now put the Lin’an City Government in a very passive position.

"If the government has to fork out the money to continue the marathon, the finances are so tight now that coming up with ten million isn’t easy.

But finding someone else to take over isn’t easy either, because it’s hard to find someone willing to lose money. After all, taking over now makes it too hard to break even."

Yang Chengru seems to have been in many meetings discussing this issue lately, so he talks about every aspect of the marathon in great detail.

"So what’s the government thinking now?" Chen Yiyang asked curiously.

"If we really can’t find someone to take over, then we’ll have to ask a few state-owned enterprises to pitch in," Yang Chengru revealed the government’s fallback plan.

Of course, in the current general environment, unless absolutely necessary, the government wouldn’t want to ask state-owned enterprises to spend this unjustified money.

"Stop looking for someone else then." Chen Yiyang said directly, "I’ll take over this race."

"Are you for real?" Yang Chengru was shocked to hear Chen Yiyang’s words, "Have you been making too much money lately that you’re planning to do charity?"

"No, I just simply think there’s potential in this event."

In fact, when Chen Yiyang heard that the cost was only ten million, he thought about taking over.

Scoop up the cost at ten million, then what kind of returns? Wouldn’t it multiply several times over?

It’s not a small amount of money either.

Of course, how to successfully scoop it up is another story.

"Alright, if you’re really sincere about taking over, I’ll arrange it now."

When Yang Chengru heard that Chen Yiyang was sincere about taking over the marathon, he immediately felt relieved.

This matter had been driving him crazy recently.

He didn’t expect Chen Yiyang to offer to take over. Although he didn’t know how Chen Yiyang would break even, it meant relief for him.

After talking with Yang Chengru, the next day Chen Yiyang went to his office and called in a few assistants and a small accountant to discuss the marathon.

"I heard the original sponsor of the marathon ran away, boss, did they ask you from above to take over this race?" one assistant voiced his guess.

"No, I wanted to take it over myself," Chen Yiyang replied, "Now the cost for us to take over is ten million, do you have any ideas on how to make this money back?"

"The simplest way is to think of something from the registration fee," the assistant from earlier said, "Originally, the registration fee for this race was 150 yuan. I checked, for a large-scale marathon with thirty thousand people, the highest registration fee can be up to 200 yuan.

It’s actually not much, after all, the event organizers not only have to prepare supplies for the participants, but also give out various souvenirs after the race."

"So you mean to issue an announcement to add fifty yuan to the participation fee?" Chen Yiyang looked at this assistant.

"Yes." The assistant said, "Charging fifty yuan from thirty thousand people, in reality, our revenue should exceed 1.5 million. By then, many participants might refuse to pay this extra amount and choose to drop out.

After they drop out, since their original 150 yuan wasn’t paid to us, we don’t need to refund them.

This way, the vacancies from these people can actually allow us to recruit new participants and charge 200 yuan all at once.

In the end, overall, I estimate we can receive about two million yuan."

"You can leave first." After listening to this assistant seriously, Chen Yiyang immediately gestured for the assistant to leave the meeting room.

"Boss, I—" The assistant was dazed, not knowing what he said wrong.

Chen Yiyang didn’t say anything either, just waved his hand to signal him to leave.

So the assistant had no choice but to get up and leave the meeting room.

After this assistant left, Chen Yiyang looked at the remaining people and said, "All of you were brought in by me personally as investment assistants and have been working here for a while now.

This marathon project is a training opportunity for you, and whoever performs well, I’ll consider letting them take charge of one of my other companies.

Now keep on speaking."

Chen Yiyang’s words made the remaining assistants momentarily silent.

Because they couldn’t figure out why Chen Yiyang made the previous assistant leave.

"Forget it." Chen Yiyang looked at these assistants who couldn’t say anything. Thinking that maybe because he didn’t notify them in advance, he caught them off guard, leaving the assistants unprepared.

So he said, "You all go check some information, prepare for your remarks. We’ll meet tomorrow to discuss again."

After letting the assistants leave, he returned to the office.

The small accountant found time to make a cup of tea for Chen Yiyang.

"These assistants all have high academic qualifications and abilities too. But their working experience isn’t very rich, so it’s understandable they can’t grasp the main point this time." The small accountant said this while serving tea to Chen Yiyang, defending the assistants.

"So you’ve figured it out?" Chen Yiyang picked up the tea and looked at the small accountant.

"In this marathon event, the Lin’an City Government’s purpose is to promote the city and enhance its image.

So the key point is not to make money, but not to tarnish the city’s reputation or create negative news.

So the registration fee mustn’t be touched, moving it will just lead to negative news. It’s easy to end up trying hard and getting nothing."

"Yes, I was thinking the same way," Chen Yiyang nodded.

The reason Chen Yiyang asked that assistant to leave earlier was that the assistant didn’t understand this relationship.

Finding money from anywhere is fine, but not from the people’s pockets.

If the reputation is ruined, no money will be made.

In the end, you’ll end up losing money and offending people.

"Can we push harder on the advertising side?" The small accountant suggested.

"The problem is there’s no good reason." Chen Yiyang shrugged and said, "The reason marathons can pull in a lot of sponsorships is because a large number of participants are involved, so big companies are willing to invest some money in sponsorship.

But even with a large number of participants, it’s just about thirty thousand. So the marathon’s advertising influence group is just thirty thousand. For these thirty thousand, advertisers won’t just shell out tens of millions in ad fees, right?"

The inherent flaw in marathons is that broadcasting doesn’t have much appeal.

After all, it’s just a bunch of people running from start to finish.

Even the marathon in the Olympics, usually the TV station just broadcasts the last few kilometers to show people who’s the champion.

As for the long duration at the beginning even if there’s no other competition to broadcast, they wouldn’t pick it.

"Forget it. After all, there’s still a month to go, so let’s not think about it now." The small accountant seeing Chen Yiyang’s headache said, "I’ve recently seen recommended a great local food spot on Xiaohongshu app. How about we go check it out?"

"Okay," Chen Yiyang nodded.