When “open source” is not known, “throttling” may become the only feasible option.
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 18 question: What is the next step for the management to reduce salary CBA?
Xinhua News Agency reporter
Under the epidemic, the league has not started yet, and CBA parties have begun to consider how to share the difficulties.
On 14th day of this month, CBA officially announced that the middle and senior managers of the company would take salary reduction measures. The specific salary reduction range is: the salary reduction of the CEO (CEO) of the company is 35%, and the salary reduction of the director and above is 15% to 30% respectively.
In the case that the league has not resumed, CBA company hopes to take this salary reduction as the starting point to drive the whole alliance to negotiate and reduce the salary reduction and reduce the operational pressure of the club.
During the suspension, the revenues of the league almost stagnated. When “open source” is not known, “throttling” may become the only feasible option.
After the high-level statement, because the background, operation mode and income mode are different, the reaction of each club is different. Generally speaking, each club agrees to share the difficult situation, but at the same time, more detailed and fair rules are needed to better deal with the current situation.
Face challenges together
Zhang Qing, founder of Beijing key road sports consulting company, said that this time the salary reduction of CBA senior management team is the embodiment of league professionalism. “The action of the top management team to reduce salary has a very strong demonstration effect, and it can send a very clear signal to the entire alliance and all stakeholders. Everyone has to work together and do their best, work together to face such challenges.” Zhang Qing said.
Wang Dawei, CEO of CBA company, said that the losses of CBA clubs were not only reflected in box office, sponsorship and Alliance sharing, but also the salary paid to CBA players as scheduled since February. Under the current extremely special epidemic, every link of CBA faces great challenges.
“This epidemic shows us some problems that we need to solve in the future in the early stage of the development of China’s professional league. In view of similar situations, mature professional league matches or special policies and regulations, or relevant mechanisms for negotiation and settlement by players’ unions still have a lot of work to be improved in this respect. The main direction of future improvement must be risk sharing and benefit sharing.” Wang Dawei said.
The club’s reaction is not consistent. It still needs detailed rules
for this CBA company’s executive salary reduction, the clubs interviewed have different reactions. Fang Jun, general manager of Zhejiang Chouzhou Bank Club, said that under the current special circumstances, the survival of the league is the top priority. First of all, considering the survival of the club, if the club’s financial situation is worrying, then it’s not realistic to talk about the game. “Because the whole world is declining, the environment is like this.” Fang Jun said.
Li Hongqing, general manager of Liaoning hengrun Feibao Basketball Club, said that at present, many major leagues and IP competitions in the world, whether basketball or football, have been affected. Li Hongqing said: “The situation of salary reduction has also appeared in the executives and players of various alliances. CBA company introduced this policy or had such an idea. I think it is in line with the actual situation of the current epidemic situation. Liao Basket Club is also studying relevant specific measures, several executives made a small salary cut.”
Li Hongqing revealed that although the club was affected in operation, with the support of investors, the club was confident to tide over the difficulties, at present, there is no plan to reduce the salary of domestic players at the club level.
Under the epidemic situation, from clubs to players, they are facing the future expectation of income reduction. Wang Dawei said that the work of the players’ salary reduction has been supported by the Chinese Basketball Association. In the next step, the Basketball Association will coordinate the various participants of the league to negotiate with each other and formulate some guiding opinions.
However, it is difficult to reduce the salary of players concerned by the outside world. At present, there are 20 clubs in CBA, each club has its own difficult experience, and the salary system of domestic players and foreign aid is quite different. Some have high salaries and low bonuses, some have low salaries and high bonuses; Some clubs have relatively strong financial strength, and some clubs have low-budget operation; Some star players have relatively high salaries, while some non-big-name players have relatively low incomes; some clubs spend a lot of money, while others live a tight life. Facing such a complicated situation, how to formulate a fair rule is a very big test for League management.
Pay reduction, cure the symptoms or cure the root causes?
To promote the salary reduction of players, the first problem they face is the legal problem. Negotiation between clubs and players may be the only way for players to reduce their salary.
Dong Shuangquan, founder of sports and Law Research Center, said that the main body of player negotiation is the club, “in principle, according to the provisions of the Labor Contract Law, ‘adjusting the sale’ requires the club and the players to negotiate”.
At present, the clubs are still waiting for the relevant guidance of the Chinese Basketball Association. Miao Shoushou, general manager of Zhejiang Guangsha Club, said: “We also need to follow the investigation of CBA company. After their investigation, we will make the next plan according to the investigation.”
Fang Jun also expressed the hope that basket Union CBA company would introduce some more specific and operational salary reduction documents to guide the specific operations of various clubs. “We will formulate the salary reduction strategy according to the guidance issued by the Chinese Basketball Association. The clubs will definitely balance each other and basically keep the same.” He said.
Some of the clubs interviewed pointed out that the salary reduction did not solve the fundamental problem of the club. A club official said that in the case of no competition, the players can’t get the winning bonus, and the income has already dropped sharply. If the salary is reduced, it will not help solve the fundamental problem. The person in charge revealed that the most prominent issue was foreign aid, because the re-opening time of CBA had not been determined, and the foreign aid contract had entered the guarantee period, which had caused a lot of losses for the team.
Another person in charge said that he hoped to have a schedule of “playing” or “not playing” as soon as possible. He revealed that during the epidemic, the club had sealed up all irrelevant vehicles. Although the salaries of personnel had not been reduced, the external reception had been minimized. “Foreign aid wages are very high, accounting for almost half of the club’s wages. If you stop early, each club can save at least 30 million. It is impossible to solve so many contradictions simply by reducing the salary of the players, and the players themselves are confused.” He said.
Where to go in the future?
At present, the core issue is when the league will start again, but this is not a question that CBA companies can decide independently.
Wang Dawei said that in the next step, the alliance will continue to improve the prevention and control plan according to the requirements and guidance of government departments at all levels, wait patiently, and restart the preparations for the rematch according to the actual situation of the epidemic development.
Li Hongqing said that for all clubs, if they can resume the game smoothly, it will definitely be the result that everyone hopes. He said: “Liao basket has been training for more than 70 days since the second day of the new year except for the adjustment for 4 days. Athletes also paid a lot of sweat and kept a state of being ready to start at any time with practical actions. Therefore, from my point of view, I definitely hope that under the premise of keeping the bottom line of epidemic prevention and control, I can try my best to ensure the integrity of the league this year, which is also the contribution to the players, the expectation of fans is a kind of respect.”
Li Hongqing suggested that we hope to determine the problem of foreign aid leaving and staying as soon as possible from the level of the alliance, which can reduce a large part of the cost from the perspective of the club. At the same time, if we resume the competition in the future, if all teams can adopt the “All-China Class”, it can not only ensure the fairness of the confrontation, but also add new highlights.
Zhang Qing gave his own suggestions from a long-term perspective. He said: “First, because professional league matches are high-confrontation and high-intensity matches, how to do a good job in team training against the background of the epidemic is a test, in this respect, we can learn from the experience of some foreign teams in the daily management of players. Secondly, from the aspect of communication with society and fans, this actually brings an opportunity to deepen the community construction with fans and other aspects, so we can start to develop. Third, there are sponsors, suppliers and partners around each club, and they can unite to play together with these ‘partners.” (Writing reporter: Lin Delen, participating reporters: Wang Jingyu, Su Bin, Wang Hengzhi, Wang Yong, Xia Liang, Zhang Yifei)