打造亞洲體育王國(guó)的哈佛畢業(yè)生

Chatri Sityodtong survived on a diet of budget Korean buffets while an undergraduate at Harvard. Now, the protean martial arts expert, former internet entrepreneur and one-time hedge fund manager wants to create the biggest and most lucrative sporting spectacle in Asia, the world’s most populous region.

差立•西尤堂(Chatri Sityodtong)在哈佛讀大學(xué)本科時(shí)，曾經(jīng)靠廉價(jià)韓國(guó)自助餐苦撐。如今，身上貼有多個(gè)標(biāo)簽——武術(shù)專家、前互聯(lián)網(wǎng)企業(yè)家以及曾經(jīng)的對(duì)沖基金經(jīng)理——的他，想打造亞洲最大、最有利可圖的體育盛事。亞洲是全世界人口最多的地區(qū)。

The glitzy One Championship mixed martial arts (MMA) competition, which 46-year-old Mr Chatri founded and heads, hit Singapore at the end of May and is due in Myanmar, Macau and Malaysia over the next few months. Mr Chatri, who was raised in Thailand, believes the championships have the potential to attract 2bn television viewers and sellout events in a different Asian city every weekend.

綜合格斗賽事ONE冠軍賽(ONE Championship)于5月底落地新加坡，并且將在未來(lái)幾個(gè)月進(jìn)入緬甸、澳門和馬來(lái)西亞。該賽事由現(xiàn)年46歲的差立創(chuàng)辦并執(zhí)掌。在泰國(guó)長(zhǎng)大的差立認(rèn)為，ONE冠軍賽有望吸引20億電視觀眾，亞洲各個(gè)城市每周末的比賽門票都會(huì)售罄。

“If you look at the history of sports in Asia, we’ve always only imported,” he says, pointing to the popularity of English football, US basketball and Formula One motor racing. “So I had a very simple thesis: I said, ‘Man, it’s time for Asia to have its own sports league — and Asia’s been the home of martial arts for 5,000 years.’”

“如果你看看亞洲體育史就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，我們一直都只是引進(jìn)賽事，”他表示，并指出英格蘭足球、美國(guó)籃球和一級(jí)方程式(Formula One)賽車的人氣。“所以我產(chǎn)生了一個(gè)非常簡(jiǎn)單的命題：我說(shuō)，‘現(xiàn)在輪到亞洲推出自己的體育聯(lián)盟了——5000年來(lái)，亞洲一直是武術(shù)之鄉(xiāng)。’”

Mr Chatri says five-year-old One Championship achieved record viewer figures for its show in Manila in April. But its finances remain closely guarded: he says only that the event is now “very, very close to profitability”, with revenues that are in “eight figures and growing very rapidly”. Investment in One exceeds $50m, and includes a stake bought last year for an undisclosed sum by Temasek, the Singapore state investment fund.

差立稱，已經(jīng)創(chuàng)辦5年的ONE冠軍賽，在今年4月馬尼拉的一場(chǎng)比賽中刷新了觀眾紀(jì)錄。但該賽事的財(cái)務(wù)狀況仍然嚴(yán)格保密：他只是說(shuō)該賽事如今已經(jīng)“非常接近盈利”，收入達(dá)到“8位數(shù)，并且增長(zhǎng)非常迅速”。ONE冠軍賽的投入超過(guò)5000萬(wàn)美元，其中包括去年新加坡國(guó)有投資基金淡馬錫(Temasek)收購(gòu)了該賽事的部分股份，具體金額未被披露。

James Goyder, a journalist who has covered combat sports in Asia for a decade, says One has had to overcome a “lot of cynicism” from people who “expected it to fold after a couple of shows” like previous similar big ventures.

在亞洲報(bào)道格斗賽事長(zhǎng)達(dá)10年的記者詹姆斯•戈伊德(James Goyder)表示，一些人“預(yù)計(jì)該賽事在兩場(chǎng)比賽后就會(huì)罷手”，就像之前類似的大型賽事一樣，ONE冠軍賽不得不克服這些人的“冷嘲熱諷”。

“I think those people underestimated Chatri,” Mr Goyder says.

“我認(rèn)為那些人低估了差立，”戈伊德表示。

One Championship is the synthesis of Mr Chatri’s two long-time obsessions: martial arts and financial investment. He is a practitioner of Muay Thai — Thai boxing — and he took the name Sityodtong in honour of the master at whose training camp he studied.

ONE冠軍賽綜合了差立的兩大長(zhǎng)期嗜好：武術(shù)和金融投資。他是一名泰拳(Muay Thai)手，他給自己取名西尤堂是為了紀(jì)念他學(xué)習(xí)泰拳時(shí)的訓(xùn)練營(yíng)創(chuàng)辦者。

His life changed when his “quite well-to-do” family in Bangkok lost everything in the financial crisis that affected Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries in the late 1990s.

他在曼谷的家原本“相當(dāng)富有”，但在上世紀(jì)90年代末肆虐泰國(guó)及其他東南亞國(guó)家的金融危機(jī)中，他家失去了一切，他的人生道路由此轉(zhuǎn)變。

He had a place at Harvard, but little money to live on. He recalls visiting an all-you-can-eat Korean buffet that cost “three dollars and change” and became “the big highlight of the day”. His mother even lived with him in his university dormitory because the family had lost their home.

他考入了哈佛，但沒(méi)有錢生活。他回憶起自己花“3塊多美元”去吃韓國(guó)自助餐，這成了“那天最爽的時(shí)候”。他的媽媽甚至和他一起睡在大學(xué)宿舍里，因?yàn)樗麄儫o(wú)家可歸。

Mr Chatri acknowledges that — for all the financial stress of that period — he still had the advantages of education and connections. He went on to study at Harvard Business School and to co-found an internet software start-up, which he later sold.

差立承認(rèn)，盡管那段時(shí)間承受的經(jīng)濟(jì)壓力很大，但他仍然接受了良好的教育并且建立了人脈。接著他就讀哈佛商學(xué)院(Harvard Business School)，和其他人共同創(chuàng)辦了一家互聯(lián)網(wǎng)軟件初創(chuàng)公司，后來(lái)他出售了這家公司。

He then spent 10 years in the hedge fund industry but recalls finding the world of pure finance “empty”. He was ready to act on his insight about the gap in the market for big-money sports in Asia. “Every region of the world has several multi-billion-dollar sports properties entrenched in society and culture and tradition — and I see no difference here,” he says.

之后他在對(duì)沖基金行業(yè)工作了10年，但是他發(fā)現(xiàn)純粹的金融世界是“空虛的”。他準(zhǔn)備根據(jù)自己對(duì)亞洲體育市場(chǎng)缺口的認(rèn)識(shí)有所作為。“全世界每個(gè)地區(qū)都有多個(gè)價(jià)值數(shù)十億美元的體育資產(chǎn)深深根植于社會(huì)、文化和傳統(tǒng)之中——我不認(rèn)為這里有任何區(qū)別，”他表示。

Mr Chatri presents One Championship as a “responsible” outfit, compared with western combat sports, whose “entire marketing platform is focused on glorifying the fights, the violence, the blood, the antagonism”.

差立把ONE冠軍賽標(biāo)榜為一家“負(fù)責(zé)任的”機(jī)構(gòu)，相比之下，西方格斗運(yùn)動(dòng)的“整個(gè)營(yíng)銷平臺(tái)注重的是贊美格斗、暴力、血腥和敵意”。

He casts the event in a social role by featuring the “inspiring” life stories of fighters who have sometimes come from grinding poverty.

他借助那些出身貧寒的拳手“鼓舞人心”的人生故事，為該賽事賦予了社會(huì)意義。

Purses per fight range from $5,000 for an entry-level fighter to $300,000 or more for a top name — riches in a martial arts world full of stories of fighters being exploited by unscrupulous promoters. He says most events have been sell-outs or close to full in stadiums with capacities typically between 5,000 and 20,000.

每場(chǎng)比賽的出場(chǎng)費(fèi)從初級(jí)拳手的5000美元，到頂級(jí)拳手的逾30萬(wàn)美元不等——在拳手經(jīng)常被不道德的籌辦者剝削的武術(shù)界，這是可觀的財(cái)富。他表示，絕大多數(shù)比賽都座無(wú)虛席或接近滿座，體育場(chǎng)館的容納人數(shù)通常在5000至2萬(wàn)人之間。

Mr Chatri says One Championship is made for changing sports viewing habits as fans have moved away from television and on to smartphones. “No one is going to watch a 90-minute soccer game on their mobile device,” he says. “But our contact is three [five-minute] rounds per fight and 80 per cent of our fights end before that, through either a knockout or submission, a finish.”

差立表示，隨著粉絲遠(yuǎn)離電視、轉(zhuǎn)向智能手機(jī)，ONE冠軍賽處于有利地位，能夠適應(yīng)不斷變化的體育觀賽習(xí)慣。“沒(méi)人會(huì)在移動(dòng)設(shè)備上觀看90分鐘的足球賽，”他稱，“但我們的比賽是每場(chǎng)3回合(每回合5分鐘)，80%的比賽結(jié)束得更快，要么是一記KO(技術(shù)性擊倒)，要么是認(rèn)輸。”

Nevertheless, television is still part of One’s strategy. It broadcasts via a mix of free-to-air television, cable and $9.99 event livestreams. The company says it now has a broadcast footprint in 118 countries with a potential 1bn viewers, while its social media video views have grown from 312,000 in 2014 to a projected 314m in 2017, based on company forecasts from data gathered by Nielsen, Facebook and Repucom.

盡管如此，電視仍然是ONE經(jīng)營(yíng)策略的一部分。ONE通過(guò)免費(fèi)電視、有線電視以及9.99美元的賽事直播的混合方式進(jìn)行播放。該公司稱，ONE冠軍賽如今在118個(gè)國(guó)家落地，潛在觀眾10億人。與此同時(shí)，根據(jù)該公司對(duì)尼爾森(Nielsen)、Facebook和Repucom收集的數(shù)據(jù)所做的預(yù)測(cè)，其社交媒體視頻觀看次數(shù)將從2014年的31.2萬(wàn)人次增至2017年的3.14億人次。

The company already bills itself as the largest sports media property in Asia and aims to build revenues further through brand licensing, among other means, for products such as protein shakes and video games, Mr Chatri says.

該公司已經(jīng)自我標(biāo)榜為亞洲最大的體育媒體資產(chǎn)，差立表示，打算通過(guò)蛋白粉和視頻游戲等產(chǎn)品的品牌授權(quán)等其他方式，進(jìn)一步創(chuàng)收。

It is too early to judge if Mr Chatri will hit his target of listing the company in New York or Hong Kong. But he reckons he has already proved his central idea that Asian audiences will flock to see performers of Asian heritage do battle in Asia.

現(xiàn)在判斷差立是否會(huì)達(dá)到讓公司在紐約或香港上市的目標(biāo)，為時(shí)尚早。但他認(rèn)為自己的核心觀點(diǎn)已得到證明，即亞洲觀眾將蜂擁觀看亞洲的武術(shù)傳承者對(duì)戰(zhàn)。

“I’ll just say it’s tribal,” he says. “People want to root for people who look like them, eat like them, think like them, live life like them — and that’s resonating.”

“我只會(huì)說(shuō)這是部落傳統(tǒng)，”他稱，“人們希望支持那些長(zhǎng)得像自己，飲食習(xí)慣、思維模式和生活模式和自己一樣的人——而這正在產(chǎn)生共鳴。”