Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 118

118: New Turf Moor

“Oh ho?”

Interest flickered across people’s faces.

“Oscar’s contract expires next summer, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. Barcelona’s stance is that unless he renews, he can’t play or be loaned out. Conversely, Oscar insists he won’t renew without a guaranteed spot in the lineup.”

Helena clicked her tongue.

“Sounds like a tricky situation for both sides.”

“Indeed. This season, he’s only played one game for Barcelona B and hasn’t seen any other playing time. He’s also training with Barcelona B.”

Oscar Mingueza is 23 years old now.

He’s grown up in Barcelona’s youth system, so there’s affection on both sides, but a massive club like Barcelona doesn’t pick players based on affection alone.

And after signing Andreas Christensen from Chelsea on a free transfer last summer to bolster their defense, Barcelona doesn’t have an immediate place to utilize Oscar Mingueza.

“Does he want to come to us?”

At Helena’s question, Jonathan tilted his head in a peculiar way.

“Well… it’s not officially the period for negotiations yet, so he can’t say that directly.”

“Then?”

“As I mentioned, it was a light greeting and contact from his agent. Asking how we’re doing, how the weather in Burnley is these days. He said Oscar seems to be doing well despite the Burnley weather. That sort of thing.”

Helena chuckled.

“Sounds like he’s hinting for us to make a move when the time is right.”

“Yes, that’s how it seems.”

Helena turned to Hyungmin.

“What do you think, Hyungmin? About Oscar joining the squad?”

“I’m all for it.”

Hyungmin replied with a bright expression.

“He fits our tactics well, his character and skills have been verified, and he’s even younger than our target age of 23. Well, he’ll be 24 next summer, but if we can sign him for free, that’s not a flaw at all.”

“Alright. Then proceed with signing Oscar as a free agent next summer.”

“Understood.”

Helena chuckled again at Hyungmin’s gleeful expression, then quickly moved on to the next topic, noticing Carolina’s incredulous look.

“So, the training center improvements are complete, and there are no special moves planned for the winter transfer market, so the last thing to share is the only thing left.”

Helena manipulated her laptop and displayed the prepared materials on the large screen.

“I’ve mentioned it individually before, but this is the first time we’re discussing it officially. It’s about a new stadium for our Burnley Football Club.”

***

[New York. Cartwright Fund Conference Room.]

“…That concludes the plan for the new stadium.”

“No.”

“But Father, you haven’t even heard the end of the plan!”

“I don’t need to hear it.”

Ian Cartwright II’s voice was as sharp as a knife, leaving no room for argument.

“Helena, while a sports team’s revenue isn’t necessarily linked to the number of seats in the stadium, the revenue generated through the stadium seats is definitely linked to the population of the area. Building a 50,000-seat stadium for a rural club in the corner of Lancashire is a foolish idea.”

*Well, then why did you acquire a football club in such a rural corner?!* Helena grumbled inwardly while attempting one last resistance.

“Burnley has a small population, but Leeds and Manchester are large cities, and they’re accessible enough.”

Whenever he heard something absurd, Ian Cartwright II would raise both eyebrows, open his cold blue eyes wide, and stare directly into his daughter’s eyes.

“Talk sense. Leeds has Leeds United, Bradford right next to Leeds has Bradford City AFC [Association Football Club], and even Blackburn right next to Burnley has Blackburn Rovers. Moreover, Manchester has both Manchester City and Manchester United, and everyone there already supports one of them.”

Helena, who hadn’t expected her father to be so well-versed in Burnley and its surrounding major cities and football teams, was flustered but tried to argue.

“Tourists might come?”

“You don’t seriously think people will come to Burnley instead of Manchester United’s Old Trafford or Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, do you? And no matter how many tourists come, a 50,000-seat stadium in a rural town with a population of 70,000 is an absurd scale. Rejected.”

***

Before she could even unpack properly after returning home after a year, she rushed to the fund’s office to present a new proposal, but it was immediately shot down.

As Helena sat in her favorite drawing room in the Cartwright family mansion, sighing, she heard quiet footsteps behind her, and after a moment, a voice broke her peaceful silence.

“Um… even I think that’s a bit silly?”

Helena, who was reviewing the proposal that had been completely rejected by her father, swung her elbow back without a second thought at her younger brother’s words after he glanced at the materials over her shoulder.

“Ouch!”

Emil Cartwright, the youngest of the Cartwright family, retreated while painfully rubbing his chest, struck by the righteous anger contained in the elbow of his older sister (written as ‘older sister’ but read as ‘nuisance’).

“Geez, just trying to give advice here!”

“What was that?”

“Ah! Ah! Don’t hit me! What Burnley needs is something like El Madrigal!”

Helena, who was about to punish her foolish younger brother again, decided to temporarily suspend her pursuit of justice (written as ‘exercise of violence’) at Emil’s cry as he hurriedly raised both hands to stop her.

Of course, it was also because her younger brother was the most knowledgeable about football, especially European football, among her entire family, who were obsessed with sports except for her.

More importantly, unlike the Cartwright family’s eldest (older brother) and second (herself), who were all-in on the family business of finance and management, the third of the Cartwright family, who inherited their mother’s artistic blood, majored in architecture.

“Explain.”

Emil really wanted to argue with his sister, who crossed her arms and gestured arrogantly.

But Emil, who had been suppressed by his sister, who was seven years older and had excellent physical abilities and reflexes despite disliking sports, since he was young, scratched his curly blonde hair and sighed, eventually reaching for his sister’s laptop, opening the browser, and starting to explain.

“Think about it. Burnley has a population of 70,000. There are large cities nearby, but there are so many football clubs in England that it’s difficult to attract the surrounding population as fans. So, instead of simply building a large stadium and increasing the number of seats, it’s better to build something small but so beautiful that football fans really want to visit.”

“Um… then the revenue won’t increase much, will it?”

“Raise the ticket prices.”

Helena scoffed at Emil’s answer.

“Then the home fans will hate it, won’t they?”

*And the home fans might throw stones at you in Burnley, you foolish brother.*

Emil Cartwright bristled at his sister’s condescending gaze, who had directly experienced the fanatical fervor of European football fans.

“Sell season tickets cheaply and sell single-game tickets expensively! Home fans will buy season tickets anyway. Single-game tickets are for away fans or tourists.”

While Helena was diligently searching for loopholes, rotating her brother’s proposal 360 degrees in her head, Emil turned the laptop and showed Helena the picture that appeared on the screen.

“What Burnley needs is something like this.”

What appeared on the screen was a small but beautiful stadium.

The stadium, with its seats dyed red by the rising sun, was breathtakingly blue.

And like a beauty in a classic movie, the elegant and gently curved seats of the stadium seemed close enough to hear the players’ whispers and breaths, without being so steep as to induce fear of heights.

It was an elegant and heartwarming sight that couldn’t be compared to the crude appearance of Turf Moor, which had been repeatedly expanded on all four sides with whatever money they could scrape together.

“Estadio El Madrigal, now renamed Estadio de la Cerámica [Stadium of Ceramics], is the home stadium of Villarreal, which belongs to the Spanish Primera Liga [First Division].”

Emil displayed the figures next to the picture.

“The total number of seats is 24,890. There are 30 VIP box seats that contribute significantly to revenue. The important thing is that Villarreal’s population is only about 50,000. But it’s so popular that it’s almost always sold out.”

“24,000 seats is not much different from the current Turf Moor, is it?”

“So we need to expand it to about 30,000 to 35,000 seats. We could push it to 40,000 if we really wanted to, but it’s better to sell out than to have seats left over if we want to charge high prices.”

Helena began to run the numbers in her head.

This season, Burnley has 16,000 season ticket holders.

Assuming that a similar number of season tickets are sold even after the stadium is renovated, ticket sales will more than double from 6,000 to 14,000 for every game.

Of course, the number of season ticket holders will increase slightly as the stadium expands, but considering the local population, it will be difficult to sell more than 20,000 season tickets.

And they don’t plan to give out that many season tickets anyway.

On the other hand, it would be even better if they didn’t have to sell season tickets cheaply and could just fill the remaining seats.

While Helena was lost in thought, the youngest of the Cartwright family pulled over a blank notepad and began to write down calculations at a rapid pace.

“Based on 30,000 seats, if we sell about half as season tickets and assume that away fans will definitely buy about 5,000, we can try to sell about 10,000 seats to tourists or neutral fans at high prices. This way, we can raise the prices and make people want to come and see it.”

“You’re trying to artificially create scarcity?”

“Exactly!”

Helena nodded, although she was annoyed by Emil’s smug expression, and instructed him to continue his explanation.

“Anyway, in large stadiums that accommodate 50,000 or 60,000 people, the seats that are worth watching the game from are all tied up with season tickets. So, other than feeling the atmosphere in a broad sense, you can’t actually see the game well.”

In fact, even in the away games that Helena had attended as the CEO of Burnley, there were many cases where she couldn’t see the game in detail even when sitting in the director’s box in large stadiums.

“So, go to those large stadiums once if you want, but if you really want to experience English football, come to Burnley! That’s how we market it. And since Director Hyungmin Kim is implementing a style in Burnley that critics are completely praising, it will become a pilgrimage site that football fans must visit.”

“Oho.”

Helena exclaimed softly.

Emil, excited by his sister’s reaction, explained his ideas.

“What’s even better is that if we expand from the current 22,000 seats of Turf Moor to 30,000, we don’t need to relocate the stadium. Since it’s a place where history and tradition are alive, we can shorten the construction period and costs by renovating the stands and making good use of the empty surrounding space while maintaining the overall structure of the existing stadium as much as possible.”

Emil’s hands moved quickly, writing down numbers and ideas on the notepad.

“And the sooner we open, the sooner we can increase revenue. On top of that, if we install a retractable roof, which is often built in outdoor stadiums these days, the stands won’t get wet even when it rains, so we can attract tourists all year round and make money regardless of the weather, even in a place like England where it rains every day.”

Even if the youngest brother was burning with artistic passion and majoring in architecture, the instinct for cash flow that was basically installed in the Cartwright family members did not disappear.

Helena looked at her youngest brother again with a fresh gaze.

The younger brother stored in her memory was a crybaby who always whined for her to play with him, but when she actually listened to his proposal, it was quite useful.

“Hey, you’ve gotten a bit smarter?”

“Geez, I was always smart, okay?”

“Yeah, good for you. This is your last semester, right? Drop out.”

“Huh? What did you say?!”

Helena affirmed towards her brother’s face, which was a mixture of bewilderment, embarrassment, and absurdity.

“A university degree is just a piece of paper for a Cartwright family member anyway.”

Helena, who asserted in an undeniable tone, picked up her laptop and notepad and ran to the study where her father, Ian Cartwright II, was likely to be at this time.

Of course, ignoring Emil’s screams of shock behind her.

“Hey, you jerk! What the heck do you mean by dropping out?!”