With the close of each season the Arsenal fanbase starts looking for people to point the finger at for the failings of the club. Now that the big red target sign that was Arsene Wenger is gone, it’s not as easy to find a single individual to blame. This season some of us have pointed towards the sometimes-questionable decisions taken by Unai Emery. Others identify the lack of investment in the squad as the cause of our inability to keep pace with our rivals. Conversely, a lot of us focus all our ire in the direction of individual players who have had up and down seasons, like Mustafi, Xhaka or Ozil. Whichever side you fall on, there is one constant that is unavoidable in any argument. The elephant in the room in all discussions regarding Arsenal’s future. I am speaking, of course, of the now sole owner of Arsenal football club, Mr. Stan Kroenke. In this article, I’m going to dive into the history of Kroenke as a franchise owner and see what we can learn from his impact at Arsenal so far. Is he really the root cause of all the problems at Arsenal? Do his exploits live up to his depiction as the mustache twirling bad guy, in the fanbases’ depiction of the Arsenal narrative? How does he compare to the exploits of similar sports franchise moguls? Hopefully by unpacking some of these questions, we can get a better gauge on the man himself and what he needs to do to build a good rapport with the Arsenal fanbase. Kroenke’s holding company, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment(KSE) became sole owners of Arsenal in 2018 after buying out all shares controlled by Russian oil tycoon, Alisher Usmanov. Before deeming this as ground zero for Arsenal’s demise, let’s hop across the pond and analyze Kroenke’s success or lack thereof with his other investments. The other big American teams under his umbrella are the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado rapids, and the Colorado Avalanche. On the surface their results at these franchises look pretty bleak, the only championships won by Kroenke-owned franchises in their 20 years of operation are the Stanley cup and the MLS cup. Kroenke does not have the image of a warm, charismatic owner whom fans can rally behind. There is a reason he is known by the moniker of “Silent Stan”. In his 20 years of sports ownership, he has built a reputation of being apathetic towards the desires of his fanbase. Let’s look into the case of the LA Rams, formerly known as the St. Louis Rams as a case study for a KSE owned team. By buying 30% of the company in 1995, he facilitated the move of the Rams from LA to his hometown of St. Louis. St. Louis has always been a small market in the NFL landscape and fans feared the team moving back to LA. When murmurs of a possible move started to materialize, Kroenke always tried to appease his fanbase in St. Louis even going as far as saying, “He will do everything he can to keep the Rams in St. Louis”(2010). Fast-forward six years and the Rams have officially moved to LA, citing their lack of a “top-tier” NFL stadium in St. Louis as a major factor. To make matters worse, Kroenke facilitated this move by suing the city of St. Louis after they had spend over $16-million to begin construction of a state of the art riverside NFL arena. His legal battle with the city of St. Louis is still ongoing to this day. Talk about a messy breakup. "I'm going to attempt to do everything that I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis. Just as I did everything that I could to bring the team to St. Louis in 1995. I believe my actions speak for themselves." - Stan Kroenke(2010) Don’t get me wrong, the move to LA might well be a masterstroke for their investment. Off the pitch, the LA Rams are much easier to market than the St. Loius Rams, and results wise the dividends of the move are already visible through their performance in recent seasons. But that’s just it, a sports franchise is so much more than a financial investment. While I begrudgingly accept that teams/franchises need to be profitable for sustainable ownership, that cannot be the only goal of the organization. Fans spend their hard-earned savings and precious time on their teams. They reorganize events in their life to be able to catch weekly games of their teams. They go through the emotional roller-coaster of each season, good or bad, and return to each opening day of the season with the same youthful, and often unfounded, optimism for the upcoming season. Fans want to see an owner who reciprocates their zeal through the progression of their team to new heights and maintains the values of their franchise. Sure, I may be a bit naïve to expect such an idyllic owner, but there are owners out there who, atleast to some extent, personify this. Cast your gaze to another prominent NFL owner, Robert Kraft. The eccentric Massachusetts native took over ownership of the New England Patriots in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He saved the franchise from being moved out of Boston, and privately financed the construction of what is now the home of the patriots, the Gillette stadium. Notwithstanding Kraft’s off-field controversy, not even the Patriots’ staunchest of critics can deny his role in the success of that franchise. The year Kraft took over the Patriots was the first time in their history that they had soldout the stadium in every single home game of the season. They have gone on to repeat this feat in all future seasons of the franchise. What is even more impressive is that this renewal of their fandom occurred 6 years before Bellichek and Brady transformed the team in 2000, providing further evidence of the correlation between an owner’s impetus towards the betterment of the franchise and the fans’ outlook towards the team. Let’s jump back to the performance of the man on trial here, Mr. Kroenke, in the context of Arsenal. A telling aspect of his ownership is that the quality most synonymous with Kroenke during his ownership of Arsenal is his absenteeism. As a businessman based over 2500 km from Islington, I don’t expect him to be a present on the sidelines cheering at every single game. I’m referring to his passive ownership of the club. He consistently fails to inspire confidence amongst the fans regarding the direction of the club. Unlike other franchise acquisitions, which act as a catalyst for systemic changes, KSE’s acquisition of Arsenal has led to a period of stagnation at the club. As a fan of the club, I can only comment on the what I see on the surface. It could turn out that, KSE have put in place intricate machinations behind the scenes that will show results in the next few years. If so, I’ll be happy to say I was wrong, but here’s what I’ve seen from them at Arsenal. They missed numerous opportunities to transition the club from their prehistoric operating model to a modern executive structure. Instead they let the club become far too dependent on Arsene Wenger and fall behind their rivals due to consistently bad financial and sporting decisions. Even the promising new executive-structure put in place following the departure of Arsene Wenger, collapsed under the slightest signs of duress. The man who was handed the reigns of the club, Ivan Gazidis, was poached by AC Milan, a month into the first season without Arsene Wenger. The exciting new head scout, who was meant to be the solution to Arsenal’s consistent transfer failings turned out to be incompatible with the other members of the committee and didn’t last for more than one transfer window. We’re now 1 year from when Arsene Wenger’s departure was announced, and the club still doesn’t have an identifiable backroom structure. It’s this kind of directionless ownership, which rubs fans the wrong way. They keep handing the reigns to a different person and pray for positive results. For now, the former sporting director of Barcelona, Raul Sanllehi seems to be the man in charge but if recent history is anything to go by, I have very little confidence in things staying that way. To juxtapose Kroenke’s tenure with another recent franchise acquisition, let’s shift focus towards another investor. The person in question here is Steve Balmer, who became the owner of the LA Clippers in 2014 after his, at the time, NBA record $2 billion acquisition of the franchise. He took over a franchise which has perennially been in the shadow of their more glamourous neighbors, the LA Lakers, and has been marred by their tendency to underachieve at crucial periods of the season. In 2014 the Clippers were in a tough spot. They needed to rebuild from the backlash towards the franchise from sponsors and the public caused by their disgraced former owner. Using his experience as a former CEO, Balmer has transformed the franchise into a more progressive image through savvy front office changes (Doc Rivers role change, Jerry West, Gillian Zucker) and intelligent partnerships with brands that enhanced the perception of his franchise (Bumble). It wasn’t just the business side of the franchise that needed a lift. When he took over the franchise in 2014, they were also at a crossroads with respect to their roster. They had star-studded roster consisting of players like Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. But the roster seemed to have reached it’s ceiling. They had consistently underachieved in the years between 2013-2017 when all their stars were at their peak. During this time, they failed to make a single appearance in the conference finals, after having blown crucial leads and underperformed year on year in the playoffs. To paraphrase the man himself, when speaking of the state of the roster after his takeover he said, “I was born as an owner stuck on third base”. Sometimes to get out of a locally optimal situation you need to shake things up, and that’s exactly what he did. He signed off on a massive trade that saw Chris Paul move to the Rockets in return for key players who are now the backbone of the current roster. He also made the unpopular decision of trading fan-favorite Blake Griffin who had just signed a huge 5 year contract that would’ve made him a clipper for life. This seemingly cold and heartless treatment of Griffin, after promising him the world during free agency 6 months prior, ruffled the feathers of a majority of the fanbase. Although they had to slog through an initial teething period, these bold moves set them up for long-term sustainable success. They have avoided the temptation to tank, and have created a well-drilled, balanced team with a positive, winning culture. Couple this with the promise of their own diggs by 2024, and they have become one of the prime free agency/trade destinations for upcoming NBA seasons. These contentious decisions were only possible due to the relationship Balmer cultivated with the Clippers fanbase. Under the stewardship of Balmer and with the trust of the fanbase, they have made themselves one of the prime candidates to dominate the fast-approaching post-Warriors era of the western conference in the NBA. This is a stark contrast with the tension between the Arsenal fanbase and KSE. This relationship has gotten so sour that our fanbase took a timeout from serenading Arsene Wenger on his last ever day at the emirates just to boo Kroenke. Why do the Arsenal fans hate Kroenke so much and is there any hope of fixing this? Things like a lack of “passion” and “love” for Arsenal, are frequently cited as reasons for the fanbase’s dislike towards Kroenke. I find this discourse to be hollow and a little cringeworthy. Owners don’t need to know the history of their franchise or have a long-lasting connection with the club to be successful. Many franchises have achieved success through cold and calculated ownership. It is unreasonable to expect a man who has lived his life on the other side of the Atlantic, watching a very different football, to show the same level of affection towards the club as fans live and breathe Arsenal. Consistent financial expenditure beyond our budget is also not a realistic expectation from our fanbase. As ideal as it would be to have an owner who pumps in millions of dollars of their own money for the betterment of the club, that cannot be the norm for all owners. The real cause for concern is the ownership’s overall demeanor and lack of initiative towards the progression of Arsenal. They have continually failed to address the failings at the club. Yet they persist in making farfetched statements plotting out their vision of the club that belie the actual ongoings at Arsenal. In their most recent public statement about Arsenal, they spoke about how they “…will strive to take Arsenal to the Champions League final, just like how they took the Rams to the Superbowl”. But actions speak louder than words, and their actions have done little to back up these lofty claims. They’ve asked fans for patience and trust in the process. But as each season goes by Arsenal get further and further from their goals, made worse by the fact that their domestic rivals in similar financial situations are flourishing both domestically and in Europe. The fanbase has every right to question the ownership in this regard. Where is the commitment to building the self-sustaining modern structure that was put forward as KSE’s aim for the club? Where are the decisive measures to back up the assurances of being competitive in England and Europe? Nobody at the club seems to be able to provide viable answers to these questions, which has only gone on to amplify the frustrations of the fanbase. "The only thing on a par with the Super Bowl is Arsenal making the Champions League final. It is something we are very focused on." - Josh Kroenke(2019) The relationship between the fans and the ownership needs to be symbiotic, in that the owner’s impetus should fuel fans’ enthusiasm and the fanbases’ dedication should empower the owner towards further progress. When this relationship is skewed one way or the other, the franchise cannot be productive. Arsenal fans feel betrayed by the lack of progress made by the club and have begun to express their discontent in an increasingly unfriendly manner. Let’s use ticket prices as a simple illustration of this. How many clubs in England do you think have a higher average ticket price than Arsenal? I’ll give you a clue, it’s equal to the number of premier league trophies won under KSE’s stewardship. Okay, how many clubs in Europe do you think have a higher average ticket price than Arsenal? I’ll give you another clue, it’s equal to the number of champions league trophies won under KSE’ stewardship. According to the “BBC Price of football” study in 2018, the average cost per ticket is $94. That’s a whopping $20 above the team with the highest ticket price outside of England, Real Madrid($71.5). That represents a vast disparity with the club’s actual performance on the pitch. Through choices like these KSE have missed various opportunities to build up a bank of goodwill from the fans. Instead they have created an undercurrent of toxicity at the stadium, which threatens to spill boil over with the slightest nudge of a bad result. Now every decision taken by the ownership is put under the microscope by the fanbase. Repairing this relationship should be of paramount importance to the ownership. A toxic fanbase is just going to drag the club deeper and deeper into mediocrity. If KSE ever hope to gain significant dividends on their investment they need to earn the confidence of the fanbase. There’s no easy solution for how they can achieve this, however it is up to them to take the first steps. The case studies presented earlier in this article show that it can be done, whether this is through showing more of an interest in the clubs’ ongoings or taking a more active role in the administrative decisions at the club. The hard truth is that we’re stuck with Kroenke and he’s stuck with a fanbase that dislikes him. That’s not going to change, we need to figure out how to make the best of a bad situation. Now that Kroenke is the sole owner of the club, something he has been trying to achieve for a decade, there is an opportunity for him to transform the club into a global juggernaut. KSE need to realize that they are sitting on a gold mine, in terms of the potential of Arsenal football club. With all due respect to his other franchises, Arsenal are by far the biggest global brand(Don’t @ me with your Forbes lists). Hordes of fans around the world watch and support Arsenal and they are one of the few sports teams that can fill out a stadium in almost any country around the world. Arsenal Football Club have a rich history, and are known for an attractive style of football, making them a highly marketable asset for KSE. Despite all the outcry from the fanbase, it is up to Kroenke to recognize this and rebuild Arsenal. As to whether they actually take this opportunity to transform Arsenal, your guess is as good as mine. His history tells us that we’re in for some choppy waters, but here’s hoping it’ll at least be a fun ride. Arsenal Canon A lifelong gooner venting about the perils of supporting Arsenal.
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AuthorBasically everything you'll see on here is Canon in the history of Arsenal Football Club. That's how this works right? Archives
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