$tan Kroenke Becomes Soul Owner

[Jury]

The fans found it easy to vote with their feet before, and I think they'll find it much easier to protest directly against the owner if things go bad. It's the reason Wenger's not here, at the end of the day.

 

[TheEconomist]

There will always be people going to stadiums. Not sure how they did it at Liverpool, but forcing an owner out is practically impossible. They are in for it in the long run most of the time. Kroenke looks like someone for the long run who doesn't care on bit what fans think.

with any other investor. The only thing Stan Kroenke won't want to do is put his time and attention on Arsenal. He would much rather everything ticks along nicely. I think Liverpool have a much more passionate fanbase than we do. If Kroenke was at their club they would have forced him out years ago and stopped at nothing to do it. They wouldnt have let him retreat to a ranch in America and ignore us. We need to take the same mentality here or we're going to be stuck in mediocrity for the next few decades, bar the few exceptional fluke seasons.

We need to put the age old debate about boycotting the matches to bed - if you want Kroenke gone then you have to accept that we as fans need to create as much negativity around the club as possible, yes our players and results will suffer, but it's for the greater good, it doesn't make you a "bad fan". The sooner people realise that the sooner we can fix this.

This means booing, complaining , singing songs about Kroenke, boycotting merchandise, sponsors, matches, public anti-kroenke marches, social media campaigns, maybe even collaborating fans of his other US franchises for a coordinated protest. In addition to all of that , we also need someone to come along and pay over the odds for arsenal so that Kroenke is willing to sell and spend the time and hassle looking for other avenues to reinvest his profits (which is a very difficult task when you have as much money as he does )

Until we as fans are coordinate the above, nothing is going to change. To their credit some people have tried, and they haven't been supported enough. I for one would be willing to spend a bit of my time and energy to help with this cause because we need to do it before our generation of fans lose interest and move on. The youngsters of today aren't growing up supporting arsenal as much, they're watching Chelsea, Sp**s and city. If we don't take our club back before it's too late there won't be anyone after us who will care enough to do it.

Maybe I'm being a bit over dramatic but it just means so much to me and I feel so powerless to do anything. If anyone knows of any movements trying to accomplish this please let me know I'd love to join the cause.

 

[Macho]

I mean, luckily or unluckily (depending on how you look at it) football is a results based business. Our brand and revenue streams and etc is primarily based on the fact that we used to do great things on the pitch.

What I’m saying is if the club stays sh*t and carries on then eventually it won’t be so profitable, so kronke and his family will prob end up bouncing anyways a decade or so down the line. Will be painful but nothing lasts forever.

 

[Giroud12]

I mean, luckily or unluckily (depending on how you look at it) football is a results based business. Our brand and revenue streams and etc is primarily based on the fact that we used to do great things on the pitch.

What I’m saying is if the club stays sh*t and carries on then eventually it won’t be so profitable, so kronke and his family will prob end up bouncing anyways a decade or so down the line. Will be painful but nothing lasts forever.

You talk like "only a decade" with Kronke is no biggie I admire the glass half full attitude

 

[Mo Britain]

with any other investor. The only thing Stan Kroenke won't want to do is put his time and attention on Arsenal. He would much rather everything ticks along nicely. I think Liverpool have a much more passionate fanbase than we do. If Kroenke was at their club they would have forced him out years ago and stopped at nothing to do it. They wouldnt have let him retreat to a ranch in America and ignore us. We need to take the same mentality here or we're going to be stuck in mediocrity for the next few decades, bar the few exceptional fluke seasons.

We need to put the age old debate about boycotting the matches to bed - if you want Kroenke gone then you have to accept that we as fans need to create as much negativity around the club as possible, yes our players and results will suffer, but it's for the greater good, it doesn't make you a "bad fan". The sooner people realise that the sooner we can fix this.

This means booing, complaining , singing songs about Kroenke, boycotting merchandise, sponsors, matches, public anti-kroenke marches, social media campaigns, maybe even collaborating fans of his other US franchises for a coordinated protest. In addition to all of that , we also need someone to come along and pay over the odds for arsenal so that Kroenke is willing to sell and spend the time and hassle looking for other avenues to reinvest his profits (which is a very difficult task when you have as much money as he does )

Until we as fans are coordinate the above, nothing is going to change. To their credit some people have tried, and they haven't been supported enough. I for one would be willing to spend a bit of my time and energy to help with this cause because we need to do it before our generation of fans lose interest and move on. The youngsters of today aren't growing up supporting arsenal as much, they're watching Chelsea, Sp**s and city. If we don't take our club back before it's too late there won't be anyone after us who will care enough to do it.

Maybe I'm being a bit over dramatic but it just means so much to me and I feel so powerless to do anything. If anyone knows of any movements trying to accomplish this please let me know I'd love to join the cause.

You are totally right in your analysis except one point which I'm not sure about. Boycotting the games doesn't affect the revenue streams that significantly when most of the tickets are sold to season ticket holders and the remainder mostly hoovered up by day trippers, tourists and the curious. Yes, there is some match day spending, but the latter category do the bulk of this, and yes a half-empty stadium might affect the size of commercial deals but the club has such a long-standing image now that this is a moot point. And unless the difference were to be dramatic it does not conflict with Kronke's model which prizes caution and banking what you have rather than risk to make more.

I think I prefer the idea of an anti-Kronke campaign. Advertisers don't like to be associated with trouble. That probably has a better chance of wearing him down.

 

[Tony's nose]

with any other investor. The only thing Stan Kroenke won't want to do is put his time and attention on Arsenal. He would much rather everything ticks along nicely. I think Liverpool have a much more passionate fanbase than we do. If Kroenke was at their club they would have forced him out years ago and stopped at nothing to do it. They wouldnt have let him retreat to a ranch in America and ignore us. We need to take the same mentality here or we're going to be stuck in mediocrity for the next few decades, bar the few exceptional fluke seasons.

We need to put the age old debate about boycotting the matches to bed - if you want Kroenke gone then you have to accept that we as fans need to create as much negativity around the club as possible, yes our players and results will suffer, but it's for the greater good, it doesn't make you a "bad fan". The sooner people realise that the sooner we can fix this.

This means booing, complaining , singing songs about Kroenke, boycotting merchandise, sponsors, matches, public anti-kroenke marches, social media campaigns, maybe even collaborating fans of his other US franchises for a coordinated protest. In addition to all of that , we also need someone to come along and pay over the odds for arsenal so that Kroenke is willing to sell and spend the time and hassle looking for other avenues to reinvest his profits (which is a very difficult task when you have as much money as he does )

Until we as fans are coordinate the above, nothing is going to change. To their credit some people have tried, and they haven't been supported enough. I for one would be willing to spend a bit of my time and energy to help with this cause because we need to do it before our generation of fans lose interest and move on. The youngsters of today aren't growing up supporting arsenal as much, they're watching Chelsea, Sp**s and city. If we don't take our club back before it's too late there won't be anyone after us who will care enough to do it.

Maybe I'm being a bit over dramatic but it just means so much to me and I feel so powerless to do anything. If anyone knows of any movements trying to accomplish this please let me know I'd love to join the cause.

Exactly this .

Need to mobilise the troops the natives are restless

 

[TheEconomist]

You are totally right in your analysis except one point which I'm not sure about. Boycotting the games doesn't affect the revenue streams that significantly when most of the tickets are sold to season ticket holders and the remainder mostly hoovered up by day trippers, tourists and the curious. Yes, there is some match day spending, but the latter category do the bulk of this, and yes a half-empty stadium might affect the size of commercial deals but the club has such a long-standing image now that this is a moot point. And unless the difference were to be dramatic it does not conflict with Kronke's model which prizes caution and banking what you have rather than risk to make more.

I think I prefer the idea of an anti-Kronke campaign. Advertisers don't like to be associated with trouble. That probably has a better chance of wearing him down.

Yes that's a fair point - you are completely right. Boycotting matches doesn't affect the club financially very much because the proportion of our income that comes from match day tickets is far less significant now than it has ever been , and a big percentage of that income will be guaranteed from season tickets. It's also very likely that those boycotting the matches will have their spots filled by tourists and casual fans. That doesn't effect revenue but it does affect the match day atmosphere and we've already seen this happen at the Emirates.

Perhaps boycotting the match itself won't be too effective, maybe the answer is to get the fans who do go to the matches to voice their opinions more. But I think the other points I raised would still help

 

[RacingPhoton]

Even if this guy wants to make profit out of the club, any decent businessman will not sit and watch our management letting players run down their contracts and leaving them go for free. Even someone with a little bit of business acumen will fire everyone in the management for being naive. But this bastard doesn't even bat an eye.
This means only one thing- The ****er doesn't care.

 

[Gooner Zig]

There's a difference between having money and having money available for transfers.

We have a lot of cash, but it looks to me like Kroenke has said that a significant amount of our % needs to be retained and not used for reinvestment which is why we have a small transfer budget despite our earnings being in the top 10 football clubs. Arsenal are incredibly profitable for him and im sure we have a good cash balance, it's just that we don't want to use it for transfers.

I'd also say that although Kroenke doesn't withdraw significant money from the club, it doesn't mean he can't use the big cash balances we have in the bank as collateral for other borrowing or investments that he wants to make elsewhere in his business empire. It's possible that he could demand we hold (X)00m in the bank and not spend it so he can borrow against it. In my mind this isn't much better than just withdrawing money from the club anyway

Your post is 100% spot on and I've highlighted the, IMO, most pertinent points.

Since 2014, our cash balance has been > £200m for every year bar 2017 when it dipped to a "low" of £180m. The latest set of statements show our cash balance at a record £231m, that's despite spending £110m gross (£40m net).

We easily have one of the largest cash balances in the PL, one or two seasons ago, Liverpool had a cash balance of £5m yet we've seen them spend huge sums of money, granted that they have profited from windfall gains on player sales, though my point is that almost every available cash resource is used to finance the football operations whereas we sit on a mountain of cash and significantly under utilise the resources we have to compete.

There is no reason on Earth as to why our cash balance needs to be > £200m each season.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

You are totally right in your analysis except one point which I'm not sure about. Boycotting the games doesn't affect the revenue streams that significantly when most of the tickets are sold to season ticket holders and the remainder mostly hoovered up by day trippers, tourists and the curious. Yes, there is some match day spending, but the latter category do the bulk of this, and yes a half-empty stadium might affect the size of commercial deals but the club has such a long-standing image now that this is a moot point. And unless the difference were to be dramatic it does not conflict with Kronke's model which prizes caution and banking what you have rather than risk to make more.

I think I prefer the idea of an anti-Kronke campaign. Advertisers don't like to be associated with trouble. That probably has a better chance of wearing him down.

The anti Kroenke point is spot on. If a stadium can chant "spend some @#/! money" at Wenger, they can chant it at Stan. A stadium boycott will work. We've already been embarrassed by empty seats and iirc, our biggest revenue source was match day takings. We need to get on this in pre season though.

 

[TheEconomist]

Your post is 100% spot on and I've highlighted the, IMO, most pertinent points.

Since 2014, our cash balance has been > £200m for every year bar 2017 when it dipped to a "low" of £180m. The latest set of statements show our cash balance at a record £231m, that's despite spending £110m gross (£40m net).

We easily have one of the largest cash balances in the PL, one or two seasons ago, Liverpool had a cash balance of £5m yet we've seen them spend huge sums of money, granted that they have profited from windfall gains on player sales, though my point is that almost every available cash resource is used to finance the football operations whereas we sit on a mountain of cash and significantly under utilise the resources we have to compete.

There is no reason on Earth as to why our cash balance needs to be > £200m each season.

That's interesting to know. I suspected as much but I hadn't looked at the accounts to see the exact figures. Your right, there's no footballing reason to need to hold that much cash. It doesn't seem too farfetched to speculate as we have done that the cash is being used to leverage other investments.

Just having a quick look online to see some of Kroenke's commitments:

It looks like the LA Rams are undertaking an expansion costing approx $4bn. Kroenke only recently brought out Usmanov's shares for £500+
The $800m ranch that Kroenke brought not too long ago. There's probably even more.

Combine these and I think we have cracked the "mystery" of why we are in austerity mode despite being probably the most cash rich club in the country?

 

[Mo Britain]

If these are the "good times", financially speaking, can't even begin to imagine what the "bad times" will be like.

 

[Gooner Zig]

This means only one thing- The ****er doesn't care.

This for me is the biggest reason we are where we are right now. The guy does not give a flying ****. That attitude is like a disease and it permeates throughout the whole club. Look at what David Ornstein said about this not too long ago:

I spend a lot of time around other clubs, not just Arsenal, and you see the culture, you feel it. I don’t want this to come across as a cheap generalisation, but it’s what I’ve felt and what other people inside Arsenal and in other clubs have told me; some of these clubs, you sense and smell a winning culture, an absolute, unequivocal demand to win. Within Arsenal, various people who’ve worked there over the years, have described London Colney as being like an oasis, like a spa, like a holiday camp. It’s a lovely environment, it’s fantastic for players and staff, but is it somewhere that is conducive to ruthlessly succeeding. Surely that stems from the top?

That sentence right there is why we're going to be mediocre as **** until Kroenke ****s right off. It's never been about the 'money' per se, we've had, and still have bucket loads of it. The owners just don't have the ambition to drive the club forward and this filters right through to the football department.

In what universe is Mustafi allowed to continually sabotage the team, season after season? Under management that actually wanted to win, he would have been binned last season.

 

[Flying Okapis]

Have to disagree with the abuse thrown Kroenke's way, personally I don't think he will care, this is a guy who owns a hunting channel, Kroenke is not exactly popular and I kind of doubt he cares, plus he is never at the stadium anyway. Didn't he also move a franchise in the U.S, it seems he just does what's best for money, his family and not the fanbase and gives no ****s, isn't Walmart even hated?

The only way the stadium stays empty is if fans block the entrances which will result in arrests, buying or paying for a ticket and not going isn't worth it and as we are in London the tourists will flock regardless at cheap tickets, agree that seeing an empty stadium live on TV is trouble though, but it needs to be empty to the same standard as a behind closed doors match.

However, a stadium empty one week and full the next is pointless as they will ride the wave I imagine, it needs to be empty until he ****s off, whoever can organise 19 PL games and however many cup games in an empty stadium will get the attention required but its a big ask.

The other point I found interesting is how we are essentially waiting for another billionaire to buy us out of this mess; this is a huge problem, as pointed out above Kroenke is going to be looking at achieving over what he's paid and then some, unfortunately any businessman is going to be deterred from that as it isn't wise money paying that much over for a product unless you love the product ie the club, I don't know if there is any billionaire gooners who can save us..

We all better start buying whatever Flamini is selling and chant his name weekly!

We are Kroenke's until he is either fed up or dies, then see what happens, out of interest how old is Daddy Kroenke..? He'd probably buy the heart of an modified infant animal anyway

 

[RacingPhoton]

This for me is the biggest reason we are where we are right now. The guy does not give a flying ****. That attitude is like a disease and it permeates throughout the whole club. Look at what David Ornstein said about this not too long ago:



That sentence right there is why we're going to be mediocre as **** until Kroenke ****s right off. It's never been about the 'money' per se, we've had, and still have bucket loads of it. The owners just don't have the ambition to drive the club forward and this filters right through to the football department.

In what universe is Mustafi allowed to continually sabotage the team, season after season? Under management that actually wanted to win, he would have been binned last season.

Holiday camp is a really good analogy. We even have/had players who are in their 20s but don't give a **** if they start or not but still stay here comfortably. Any ambitious footballer will look for a change the moment they feel that they are not getting enough minutes. In our case, players like Elneny, Jenkinson who don't even make it to the bench in most of the games games are happy to just be here, have fun and do **** all. They just seem to have settled down here and don't care if they make their name in the game or not. I don't blame them. Even if I am in a similar situation, as long as the management is not ruthless and doesn't care about me being there making millions, why the **** would I care?

 

[Tony's nose]

Just to out a downer on it the united fans use to sing/chant allsorts about the glazers and they are still in charge.
The only way you would get this **** out is to hemorrhage his beloved KSE money.

I did read that he literally stumbled across football whilst looking for a baseball match to watch and ended up buying us!!!

Hes approx 71 years old so maybe not long left then wifey takes control who will,pass it straight to josh ,,,,,oh the joy!!

 

[Flying Okapis]

Just to out a downer on it the united fans use to sing/chant allsorts about the glazers and they are still in charge.
The only way you would get this **** out is to hemorrhage his beloved KSE money.

I did read that he literally stumbled across football whilst looking for a baseball match to watch and ended up buying us!!!

Hes approx 71 years old so maybe not long left then wifey takes control who will,pass it straight to josh ,,,,,oh the joy!!

I have a tiny little bit of hope that 'Josh' is more of a football guy and isn't all about the money, have some fun kid, turn us into a powerhouse

Rebel against big Stan and spend that money!

 

[Slartibartfast]

The naivety of people who believe that creating the sort of negative atmosphere that surrounded the club in the previous couple of seasons to this one would somehow magically force Kroenke to sell the team is simply astounding. Y'all are living in some perverse, twisted fantasy world.

 

[TheEconomist]

The naivety of people who believe that creating the sort of negative atmosphere that surrounded the club in the previous couple of seasons to this one would somehow magically force Kroenke to sell the team is simply astounding. Y'all are living in some perverse, twisted fantasy world.

What would you suggest as a better alternative for trying to remove Kroenke ?

 

[Slartibartfast]

What would you suggest as a better alternative for trying to remove Kroenke ?

You can't remove Kroenke. To think you could is folly. You're just going to have to live with it until he decides he doesn't want to own the club anymore. You would only be making things hard on the players, the coaches and the rest of the fan base, while embarrassing the Arsenal fan base in the eyes of everyone else. We've already been through that nonsense once.

My advice would be to just chill out and see what happens for awhile. There's a chance the club will start moving forward again, especially if they can win the Europa League final and get back into the Champions League. Even without Kroenke acting like a Middle Eastern oil sheik, there should be more money available with significant increases in sponsorship revenue (a £40 million per year increase starting July 1). With the presumed hiring of Edu they're just putting the finishing touches on the new front office team that has succeeded Gazidis. They seem interested in making a lot of player changes. It also seems that Josh Kroenke is taking a much more personal interest in the club than his father. So given the fact that there is absolutely nothing that you can do to change the ownership, why not give the new program a chance rather than trying to sabotage it before it even gets started?