New Commercial Deals

[Barriecuda]

The complaints about this deal are basically a complaint about football in general.

The truth is, if you want to be part of the European "elite" football community, the kind of money required is staggering. That necessitates aggressive sponsorship deals in every capacity. The construction of and move to the Emirates was just as important in expanding gate revenues as it was for courting commercial partners - it's like an elite law firm renovating their offices and board rooms. Presentation goes a long way in business - you have to look like a big business to be a big business.

The day of properly named stadia are dead. It will not happen again unless a club is willing to forgo a significant revenue stream, which no ambitious club is willing to do (and they'd be foolish to do so, practically speaking). The best you can hope for is a partnership like Newcastle got, where the sponsor is willing to keep the spiritual name of a stadium because it's financially better than alienating a large group of supporters. North American sports are all like this - only the oldest and most historic venues still have non-commercial names (Madison Square Garden, Wrigley Field, etc) whereas everything else now has been branded by something or someone. Sadly to say, you'll never see Arsenal play in a non-branded stadium ever again. And even if the move hadn't happened, eventually Highbury probably would have been slapped with a commercial sponsor over it, much like SportsDirect St James Park was.

Football's traditions are dying out and the game is becoming about commercialization and money. This isn't new and it would be unfair to castigate Arsenal when most clubs are proceeding the same way. I don't like it either, I can assure you; but it's the reality of the situation, and at least deals like this renewal are demonstrating that Arsenal aren't going to be left in the dust.

Having said that, the cost of history and tradition has to be rewarded in turn with success on the pitch. That's what the fans deserve. Football is their game, and the business is meant to be secondary to their getting maximum enjoyment out of the team they love. If you are going to do everything in your power to make the football club financially successful, that is meant to be due to an interest in making the team proportionately competitive, NOT to line the owners' pockets. Unfortunately this simple morality is being forgotten and largely abandoned by owners in the modern age.

What this means for Arsenal is: if you are going to sell out the club's home, the club's look, etc, AND charge the highest ticket prices in the land, your duty is to make the club competitive. That is what the fans get for accepting this era of commercialization. So Wenger and co. better start investing in the team to get the results. If we conduct business like a top-table team, and we have commercial deals worthy of a top-table team, plus we charge the most expensive tickets in Europe (last I heard), then by all rights we should be a top-table team competing for first, not fourth.

[augie]

The complaints about this deal are basically a complaint about football in general.

The truth is, if you want to be part of the European "elite" football community, the kind of money required is staggering. That necessitates aggressive sponsorship deals in every capacity. The construction of and move to the Emirates was just as important in expanding gate revenues as it was for courting commercial partners - it's like an elite law firm renovating their offices and board rooms. Presentation goes a long way in business - you have to look like a big business to be a big business.

The day of properly named stadia are dead. It will not happen again unless a club is willing to forgo a significant revenue stream, which no ambitious club is willing to do (and they'd be foolish to do so, practically speaking). The best you can hope for is a partnership like Newcastle got, where the sponsor is willing to keep the spiritual name of a stadium because it's financially better than alienating a large group of supporters. North American sports are all like this - only the oldest and most historic venues still have non-commercial names (Madison Square Garden, Wrigley Field, etc) whereas everything else now has been branded by something or someone. Sadly to say, you'll never see Arsenal play in a non-branded stadium ever again. And even if the move hadn't happened, eventually Highbury probably would have been slapped with a commercial sponsor over it, much like SportsDirect St James Arena was.

Football's traditions are dying out and the game is becoming about commercialization and money. This isn't new and it would be unfair to castigate Arsenal when most clubs are proceeding the same way. I don't like it either, I can assure you; but it's the reality of the situation, and at least deals like this renewal are demonstrating that Arsenal aren't going to be left in the dust.

If you want to be elite business then yes the facilities and presentation goes a long way but if you want to be an elite football club then success on the pitch is the only factor in the equation.
As well as that perhaps you should ring those in power at old shatford and tell them that if they want to be viewed as ambitious then they had better sell the naming rights to their ground

If we were a club that invested properly in our first team then all this finance talk might be relevent but for your average fan on the street then this is just another way of bringing in money to a swelling bank account and being honest that only serves to twist the knife even more

[Barriecuda]

Fans would never accept renaming OT, and fortunately for them the building has the capacity and construction to last them a long time. Success is obviously what counts, but in the modern game the presumption is more finances equals more opportunity for that success.

I do agree with your sentiments though. For all the talk about the club's financial health, it's pathetic to see our penny pinching every year.

Of course knowing our club, we will pay over the odds to keep Feo and consider it a great victory and proof of our willingness to spend

[I Hate Hleb]

It seems even the club don't know how the new deal breaks down between shirt and stadium sponsorship!! Anyway, anyone interested in a more in depth account of how Gazidis spun things can read this...

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/611862675?-19387:844

The guy seems to contradict himself on more than one occasion - including once when saying something like 'we can guarantee our commercial partners that we will be at the top of the game for the next 5, 10 and 20 years' and when it was queried if Arsenal really could 'guarantee that' he quickly backs down!!

[Deise Gooner]

To me it seems (im sorry if somebody has already said this) that this new deal will mean that come 2018/2019, Emirates will be getting 10 years of stadium naming rights for free as in we wont receive a penny from them from 2018 onwards. We are effectively getting the £150m between now and the end of 2018, that is the front loading they are talking about seen as Gazidis mentions that the stadium rights are a small proportion of the overall deal.

[Top Londoner]

Money, Money, Money.....that's all we bleedin hear about these days.
Just about sums us up, another 'SUCCESS' with the balance sheet.
Am I the only one who's is genuinely fucked off by this news? Just another reminder of what football is about these days. Greedy Boardrooms, Greedy Players and Agents........suddenly I do want 1985 back again

You're not alone with your opinions EW. Maybe it is a age thing. I have not felt a part of my footy club since we left Highbury. I refuse to go to the grove. I still am madly passionate about Arsenal but I refuse to fund them. I also cannot afford to fund them, and some of the last games I went to in the Upper east stand, I was choked by cigar smoke, and frowned upon by some, but not all, for being passionate and always vociferous.
That Arsenal has gone, I just try to adapt, reluctantly. Never to the balance sheets and hyperbole.
I am a dinosaur, but Arsenal is still a way of life to me. It always will be. We never had it so good.

[northbank123]

To me it seems (im sorry if somebody has already said this) that this new deal will mean that come 2018/2019, Emirates will be getting 10 years of stadium naming rights for free as in we wont receive a penny from them from 2018 onwards. We are effectively getting the £150m between now and the end of 2018, that is the front loading they are talking about seen as Gazidis mentions that the stadium rights are a small proportion of the overall deal.

The stadium naming rights will obviously be included as part of the price, modern-day AFC are hardly going to gratuitously gift them to Emirates as a sign of goodwill. It just spins better for Gazidis if he can make out that it's only for the shirt sponsorship because people on Twatter etc have shot their loads about how it's the second biggest deal and has blown Liverpool etc out the water.

It also includes training kit and numerous other unspecified benefits.

[Herd]

The deal is too long and they shouldn't have given the emirates extension either.
In 7 years time the 20 million year will look paltry I can assure you.
4 year deal would have been much better .
Next up the shirt deal !

[Goose]

To me it seems (im sorry if somebody has already said this) that this new deal will mean that come 2018/2019, Emirates will be getting 10 years of stadium naming rights for free as in we wont receive a penny from them from 2018 onwards. We are effectively getting the £150m between now and the end of 2018, that is the front loading they are talking about seen as Gazidis mentions that the stadium rights are a small proportion of the overall deal.

The stadium naming rights will obviously be included as part of the price, modern-day AFC are hardly going to gratuitously gift them to Emirates as a sign of goodwill. It just spins better for Gazidis if he can make out that it's only for the shirt sponsorship because people on Twatter etc have shot their loads about how it's the second biggest deal and has blown Liverpool etc out the water.

It also includes training kit and numerous other unspecified benefits.

When I first heard that it was £30m per season for shirt sponsorship I was fairly happy with that. But as ever with Gazidis when you read the small print it seems we have sold out too low again.

I'm pretty sure manure have separate training kit sponsorship with DHL worth £10m a season - so maybe for us that would be 7-8m opportunity that is no longer there.

Then we have the naming rights - lets say £4m a season (across 7 seasons £28m) then removing that from the 5 season deal means another £5.6m a year to be taken off the value of the sponsorship.

I make that to be £16.4m - £17.4m a season I'm no expert so happy to wait for a financial genius to go through the deal but that does not seem too great to me.

I haven't even factored in Ivan's wages yet

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Obviously I want Arsenal to achieve their maximum in every sponsorship deal (with a proviso it is invested in players/wages) but doesn't it just irritate you all that the reason our sports goods that are produced for a quid (by Herd and his mates) are costing 45 quid

I've got to the point I think that all in all everytime I buy a ticket, pair of football boots, trainers, sports tops etc that I am just contributing to a tiny percentage of the worlds richest people, be that adidas/nike owners to thick as fuck greedy whore like football players

What brought this home recently was a couple of my mates went to Newbury races last year and met old "fox in the box" Jeffers, these mates are gooners so had a chat with him, he is apparently a good lad but he did say something along the lines of "once I signed for Arsenal I was set up for life"

I mean good luck to the lad and all that but an average footballer who wasn't even playing for us at the the now dizzying heights of player wages.

I now find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place, on one hand I urge Arsenal to buy world class players and to win some trophies, on the other I am actually ashamed that I support these mega rich "don't give a fuck", "probably can't read or write" players.

This all in period where many people can't even find a job or a decent wage, where cut-backs are common and harsh.

Anyhow I'm gonna stick to posting on the joke thread, I'm starting to depress myself

Come on the Arsenal....woohoo.........fades

[northbank123]

To me it seems (im sorry if somebody has already said this) that this new deal will mean that come 2018/2019, Emirates will be getting 10 years of stadium naming rights for free as in we wont receive a penny from them from 2018 onwards. We are effectively getting the £150m between now and the end of 2018, that is the front loading they are talking about seen as Gazidis mentions that the stadium rights are a small proportion of the overall deal.

The stadium naming rights will obviously be included as part of the price, modern-day AFC are hardly going to gratuitously gift them to Emirates as a sign of goodwill. It just spins better for Gazidis if he can make out that it's only for the shirt sponsorship because people on Twatter etc have shot their loads about how it's the second biggest deal and has blown Liverpool etc out the water.

It also includes training kit and numerous other unspecified benefits.

When I first heard that it was £30m per season for shirt sponsorship I was fairly happy with that. But as ever with Gazidis when you read the small print it seems we have sold out too low again.

I'm pretty sure manure have separate training kit sponsorship with DHL worth £10m a season - so maybe for us that would be 7-8m opportunity that is no longer there.

Then we have the naming rights - lets say £4m a season (across 7 seasons £28m) then removing that from the 5 season deal means another £5.6m a year to be taken off the value of the sponsorship.

I make that to be £16.4m - £17.4m a season I'm no expert so happy to wait for a financial genius to go through the deal but that does not seem too great to me.

I haven't even factored in Ivan's wages yet

I'm not saying it' a bad deal at all. From a lay point of view, it still looks like a good deal. We're never going to get near United, they're just a commercial juggernaut. You can't just say that we could have got £Xm a year extra in training kit because then Emirates wouldn't have paid £30m a season to be our sponsor. Likewise with the stadium: and nobody else is going to pay full market rent for the naming rights after it will have been known as the Emirates Stadium for over 15 years.

What's annoying is that it has (predictably) been spun by the club to the point of misrepresentation. People are jumping to conclusions about how it's only £15m a year less than United's unprecedented shirt sponsorship deal: well, yes it is, but they also haven't sold stadium naming rights to Chevrolet, have a distinct training kit sponsor bringing in extra revenue and also haven't tied themselves up in as many more other commercial deals as we have with Emirates (judging by the small print in the bottom of the club's statement).

Obviously you expect the club to an extent to play the deal up but it's just another step along the round to lying to the fans about our long-term prospects and "being able to compete" financially with anybody.

[augie]

To me it seems (im sorry if somebody has already said this) that this new deal will mean that come 2018/2019, Emirates will be getting 10 years of stadium naming rights for free as in we wont receive a penny from them from 2018 onwards. We are effectively getting the £150m between now and the end of 2018, that is the front loading they are talking about seen as Gazidis mentions that the stadium rights are a small proportion of the overall deal.

The stadium naming rights will obviously be included as part of the price, modern-day AFC are hardly going to gratuitously gift them to Emirates as a sign of goodwill. It just spins better for Gazidis if he can make out that it's only for the shirt sponsorship because people on Twatter etc have shot their loads about how it's the second biggest deal and has blown Liverpool etc out the water.

It also includes training kit and numerous other unspecified benefits.

When I first heard that it was £30m per season for shirt sponsorship I was fairly happy with that. But as ever with Gazidis when you read the small print it seems we have sold out too low again.

I'm pretty sure manure have separate training kit sponsorship with DHL worth £10m a season - so maybe for us that would be 7-8m opportunity that is no longer there.

Then we have the naming rights - lets say £4m a season (across 7 seasons £28m) then removing that from the 5 season deal means another £5.6m a year to be taken off the value of the sponsorship.

I make that to be £16.4m - £17.4m a season I'm no expert so happy to wait for a financial genius to go through the deal but that does not seem too great to me.

I haven't even factored in Ivan's wages yet

The thing is goose, that sponsors are lining up at manure's door waiting to throw money at them cos they are successful and they sign high profile players (rvp, shrek etc) As well as that when they believe that they have undersold themselves in a sponsorship deal they will waste no time in buying out that contract with the existing sponsor which then allows them to negotiate a better deal with a new sponsor (as they did with dhl) whilst our people wont do that cos it would seem disrespectful which is ironic given the fact that we have no qualms about bringing a hat shop lady to court for small change

I also agree with what northbank said about the deceiteful way the club issue those figures - yes we all know that ivan is coming under severe pressure to justify his existence but do they honestly believe that we will all just accept any cock and bull story they throw at us ? The media c**ts might be happy to run with the headline suggesting huge deals without digging further but this is our club and we were always going to dig deeper especially with the club having a history of lying constantly to the fans

On a personal level I am not sure that the figures make any great difference to me - if I was to make a judgement on it then I would probably say that they reflect the going rate for what has become a second rate selling club

[Vinny1967]

Really don't know whether this is a good deal for us or not to be honest. Would like to think our commercial team would be trying to get the best deal possible. Hoping to see some financial experts analysing this deal as the market is so skewed and there are a lot of factors to be analysed.
Either way am hoping this means we will invest in real quality. Lopez, Baines, Holdtby, Given but with Wenger I think it will be dependent on deadwood being got rid of in January.

[Goose]

To me it seems (im sorry if somebody has already said this) that this new deal will mean that come 2018/2019, Emirates will be getting 10 years of stadium naming rights for free as in we wont receive a penny from them from 2018 onwards. We are effectively getting the £150m between now and the end of 2018, that is the front loading they are talking about seen as Gazidis mentions that the stadium rights are a small proportion of the overall deal.

The stadium naming rights will obviously be included as part of the price, modern-day AFC are hardly going to gratuitously gift them to Emirates as a sign of goodwill. It just spins better for Gazidis if he can make out that it's only for the shirt sponsorship because people on Twatter etc have shot their loads about how it's the second biggest deal and has blown Liverpool etc out the water.

It also includes training kit and numerous other unspecified benefits.

When I first heard that it was £30m per season for shirt sponsorship I was fairly happy with that. But as ever with Gazidis when you read the small print it seems we have sold out too low again.

I'm pretty sure manure have separate training kit sponsorship with DHL worth £10m a season - so maybe for us that would be 7-8m opportunity that is no longer there.

Then we have the naming rights - lets say £4m a season (across 7 seasons £28m) then removing that from the 5 season deal means another £5.6m a year to be taken off the value of the sponsorship.

I make that to be £16.4m - £17.4m a season I'm no expert so happy to wait for a financial genius to go through the deal but that does not seem too great to me.

I haven't even factored in Ivan's wages yet

The thing is goose, that sponsors are lining up at manure's door waiting to throw money at them cos they are successful and they sign high profile players (rvp, shrek etc) As well as that when they believe that they have undersold themselves in a sponsorship deal they will waste no time in buying out that contract with the existing sponsor which then allows them to negotiate a better deal with a new sponsor (as they did with dhl) whilst our people wont do that cos it would seem disrespectful which is ironic given the fact that we have no qualms about bringing a hat shop lady to court for small change

I also agree with what northbank said about the deceiteful way the club issue those figures - yes we all know that ivan is coming under severe pressure to justify his existence but do they honestly believe that we will all just accept any cock and bull story they throw at us ? The media c**ts might be happy to run with the headline suggesting huge deals without digging further but this is our club and we were always going to dig deeper especially with the club having a history of lying constantly to the fans

On a personal level I am not sure that the figures make any great difference to me - if I was to make a judgement on it then I would probably say that they reflect the going rate for what has become a second rate selling club

I just think they should have had the shirt sponsorship deal done on that alone and we know where we stand. I agree Augie and I don't expect us to get the same as Manure but I think the club are assuming we are thick . They have clearly fed ther press the 'second biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the premier league'. Bullshit!! This deal for me does not represent the 2nd biggest deal in premier league and we all know it.

I know I am being lied to by the club on a regular basis about our post highbury investment strategy but imagining them all patting themselves on the back over this deal is laughable.

A nice bonus for Stan for going out and finding new revenue streams - he didn't have to go far to find this one

[nut flush gooner]

As things stand in 2012 this is not a bad dealThe stadium name is not a big issue for me, what do you want to call it ashburton grove? Can you think of any good songs that we could sing about Ashburton Grove. I don't know where the figures of £15 mill a year come from because whilst we have tied naming rights till 2028, we are free to negotiate with anyone in 2018.

One thing the board are good at is operating the club in a way that optimises revenues, not sure what the current debt situation but I am sure they are paying the loans off ahead of schedule. Soon Arsenal will be a massive cash cow, I hope they start spending some of this money sooner rather than later.