Source: Chengdu Commercial Daily 2010-2-2

Last night the focus of Chinese volleyball was once again in Guangzhou. Evergrande Group held ceremonial banquet after its volleyball team rose into Group A with unprecedented twelve games winning streak. The gathering of big shots made the banquet more like a “show place of stars”, and Xu Jiayin the boss of Evergrande awarded a grand prize of ￥1.5 million to the “Lang’s Army”, which was a great surprise to the guests present. At 7:30 of February 2, “Lang’s Army” will compete with American national team.

“He-Ping” Meet Again and Chatterati Also Came

As Evergrande Group successfully listed in Hong Kong on November 5 last year, president Xu Jiayin became the new richest man of China’s mainland with ￥47.94 billion wealth, surpassing Wang Chuanfu (￥39.6 billion) who was reported by Forbes as the richest at an earlier time. After that, a number of people have been searching Evergrande’s press conference for the new richest man, but the low-keyed Xu has never made his appearance again. Yesterday the leading table of the banquet attracted numerous cameras, because the scholarly Xu turned up at last. Beside him were Lang Ping and Xu Li (director of Volleyball Management Center of SSGA). The union of capital and celebrities, together with the volleyball authorities’ presence, made the banquet full of flavor and fairly upscale.

Oprahs should never be absent from the gathering of celebrities. Song Shixiong, who witnessed the five successive champions of Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team, turned up with his disciple Sun Zhengping, and Zhang Bin even acted as the guest host. Zhang Bin caught the opportunity to say “sorry” to Lang when he found she was most delighted, “You missed the Special Contribution Prize in the Sports Personality Award, anyway your contribution to volleyball is known to us and quite impressive.”

Besides the celebrities and Oprahs yesterday, eventually the appearance of “the mysterious figure” made everyone scream. It turned out to be Chen Zhonghe, the former coach of National Women’s Volleyball Team. His appearance was somewhat surprising, but he explained, “Ms. Lang’s team has such good results. As a man of volleyball, I should come to congratulate her. Although I’m now the vice director of Fujian Sport Bureau, volleyball is the cause in my lifetime and I’ve been concerned about it all the time.” It is noteworthy that when Lang resigned her coach position of the national team, Hu Jin was most promising, but a telephone by Lang put Chen to the position, and now Chen’s congratulations after a fruitful career may mean some kind of reward.

To be professional means “money burning”. Evergrande has a clear idea about it since it invested in the women’s volleyball. Yesterday Evergrande disclosed that this year they have invested 20 million in Evergrande Volleyball, which almost equals the total sum of operation and title sponsorship of all the present Group A teams in the women’s league. The capital investment and Lang Ping, with the participation of “Golden Generation” players, make Evergrande Volleyball the biggest attraction of the women’s league. To meet the requirements of volleyball fans, CCTV Sports Channel even broadcast live all the home matches of a Group B team during the past two months of Group B season. This was a treatment only enjoyed by national team in the past. However, Evergrande made a record of CCTV’s live broadcast of volleyball with its outstanding market appeal.

Since Evergrande Volleyball rose to Group A, great concern has been shown about what prize its powerful economic backup will award to the “Lang’s Army”. Yesterday Xu Jiayin himself gave the answer to the question, handing a ￥1.5 million cash check to Lang. Such a big prize is the first time experienced by the Chinese volleyball circles. It washes away the worry that “Lang’s Army aims for a one-time show” and indicates that Evergrande Volleyball will continue to lead the Group A league in the new season. It is known by the journalist that Tianjin Volleyball, the “Six-time Champion” of Group A league, received ￥200,000 from its sponsor and a commitment of continuing the agreement for three years. In addition, each player got a bicycle worth ￥3860 as prize in material. However, it is much less than Evergrande’s thick prize. Some insider of volleyball discloses that ￥1.5 million is a “master stroke” for volleyball, “At present the annual outlay for a team of Group A is one million at most and many teams are below that, which can not be compared with Evergrande.”