Morning Gooners, I’ve had a few days to go over what exactly happened at St. James Park last Saturday, and I came to 1 conclusion : Phil Dowd is a fat c***.
Last night I was surfing through the ever faithful Arsenal.com when I came across the video about the British government interfering with the premier league to ensure that clubs are stable. You can check out the link here : http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/free-video-mps-visit
Now this is really good news for us Gooners, as now clubs shall be penalised for…well, let me put it this way : “Wrong dealings.” But there was 1 segment in the interview which did concern me. Ivan Gazidis did mention that the Emirates Stadium ticket prices are seriously high, and we all know it. In fact here’s the list : (Season tickets)
Arsenal – Cheapest £893 Most Expensive £1825
Liverpool – Cheapest £680 Most Expensive £785
Tottenham – Cheapest £650 Most Expensive £1175
West Ham – Cheapest £585 Most Expensive £830
Chelsea – Cheapest £550 Most Expensive £1210
Now I should not be complaining as I will not be going to the Emirates anytime soon (well at least not to see a match ), but the issue which I am talking about here is the brand name ‘Arsenal.’
As we know the two clubs who have the largest following are: Manchester United and Liverpool. Now when the financial fair play Uefa enforces come into play. These 2 clubs will be affected, but their brand value is something which might just save their *s*.
Gazidis has explained that Arsenal should be expanded as a global brand. If this happens revenues can be increases from that section as well. Already half the revenue comes from the stadium and that because of the damn ticket prices.
Furthermore, the guy also did mention that because of such ‘prices’ the young or rookie fans (who shout !) are discouraged to watch the matches at the Grove. I for one would love to see any Arsenal match at the Emirates, but when I heard about the price of the tickets, it did cause me to think twice. After all its not Arsenal only who wish to have a stable and financial life-span is it ?
Basically what the club is doing, which of course I cannot blame them for is to increase the ticket prices to compensate for the loss in brand value. Recently I read in a Liverpool forum that a Kopite or whatever they call themselves pays 60 pounds a year to post on the internet/forum. Now if there are million Kopites, there you go : We have ourselves Arsenal’s asking price for Cesc Fabregas, don’t we ?
Expanding Arsenal as a global brand is extremely important to ensure when the financial rule comes into play, we can make full use of it. It’s not that we are in a bad position when the rule gets enforced, it’s just that we may not be able to use it to its full advantage.
Once the brand value (which takes a lot of time ) expands, and more sales are made via merchandise etc, revenue shall increase, enabling the common Gooner to visit the Grove too. After all it is the dream of every Gooner isn’t it ?
The Club is already managed from two perspectives – “Football and Business”. And to be frank, it has been done really well. As far as branding is concerned, it’s not that we are a new brand plunged into the footballing world, it’s just that we need to be noticed more. How can we do it, well, lets ask Ivan, maybe he knows…..
Guns-out,
