Post by Macmoish on Sept 24, 2010 19:10:07 GMT
A club making money. How unusual
BBC
Arsenal Announce Record Profit24 September 2010 Arsenal property deals send profits to record high Arsenal's former Highbury home has made the club millions in property development Arsenal Football Club has announced record pre-tax profits of £56m.
The Premier League club also said it had paid off all debt on its Highbury Square property development of flats, built on the ground of its old stadium.
Figures covering the year to May 2010 showed that pre-tax group profits went up by £10.5m compared with the previous 12 months.
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis said: "The group has made good progress in the last year."
The company said it had sold 362 private apartments at Highbury Square, the site of its former home ground.
Those and a social housing site nearby generated £156.9m revenue from property and allowed it to repay £129.6m of bank loans.
The overall level of group net debt had fallen from £297.7m last year to £135.6m.
Turnover grew from £313m to £379.9m.
Player sales
Operating profit before depreciation and player trading in the football business was £56.8m, down from £62.7m the year before after wage costs rose.
Profit from player trading was £13.6m, well above 2009's £2.9m, with the main contributions coming from the sales of Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure.
Commenting on the results for the year, Peter Hill-Wood, the club's non-executive chairman, said: "We now have a debt-free property business, which is accumulating surplus cash as further unit sales are made at Highbury Square, and which has three further property assets to realise over the next few years."
Matters were less clearly positive on the football side.
Mr Gazidis said: "The competitive landscape makes it ever tougher to achieve success on the field and standing still is simply not, and never has been, an option for the club.
"It is important that we continue to develop a vibrant and robust business with sufficient revenues to sustain success."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11403202
BBC
Arsenal aim to be global top GunnersBy Bill Wilson
Business reporter, BBC News
The club's commercial arm will look to provide revenues for the football side of Arsenal's business Arsenal was once the quintessential English football club, with its impressive marble hallways at Highbury stadium and high-tempo football on the playing field.
Highbury has now been replaced by the modern Emirates Stadium, while Arsene Wenger has the club playing some of the most stylish passing football in Europe.
And there have been other changes under way in north London, as the club looks to US business know-how to promote its brand around the world.
'Successful product'
Former Quaker Oats, NBA, Nike and Gatorade executive Tom Fox is Arsenal's chief commercial officer, with more than 20 years of selling American brands overseas.
His task is now to sell the club outside the UK in the way that Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool have done.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
Sport is unique - if the team does not have that success on the field then that makes if more difficult for us”
End Quote
Tom Fox
Arsenal FC chief commercial officer
"It is different from marketing a cereal brand," says Mr Fox, who was brought into his newly-created role last autumn to oversee all of the club's commercial efforts worldwide.
"Success has a lot to do with it," he says.
"Putting the basic successful product out on the field - like our 6-0 victory over Braga - is a huge component of our brand."
But he warns: "Football is not like making cereal, where you can guarantee what the customer will get when they open the box.
"Sport is unique - if the team does not have that success on the field then that makes it more difficult for us."
As the club's commercial operation cannot affect what happens on the field of play, Mr Fox says it must concentrate on other areas of the business model which it can influence.
"We spend a lot of time working on how we can build a successful model that is not so relying on winning," he says
"It is about insulating ourselves," he says at a Sports Marketing 360 event in London.
'Arsenal World'
As part of that aim to promote the club business as a whole entity, rather than just the playing side of things, Arsenal has announced a new global media initiative.
Tom Fox has widespread experience in US marketing, including three major sports brands At present the club has media partners in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Ghana, north and sub-Saharan Africa, Finland, France, the Middle East and Israel, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Australia and Vietnam.
The strategy includes finding TV and multi-media partners around the world, including the major markets of India, China and US - which most large football European clubs have been looking to crack.
Among the content on offer is "Arsenal World", which is advertised as "giving viewers a new angle into the players' lives".
It will include players talking about interests such as fashion and style, talking about their heroes, and recounting their favourite journey.
The club is also looking to increase its digital media output, covering online, premium broadband, mobile phone applications, internet TV, and video on demand.
Story writing
Mr Fox says he believes that the mixture of Arsenal's global PR and an increased thirst for televised sport in India and China can help the club break new ground.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
We have to show them that Arsenal is different, expose them to our brand, get our message over”
End Quote
Tom Fox
Arsenal FC chief commerical officer
"There are 104 shops in China where Arsenal FC merchandise is sold." says Mr Fox.
"In 12 to 18 months, we will be looking to get Chinese youngsters to write stories about Arsenal Football Club.
"That will be more important than anything we can do with those stores.
"To get into a market like China, which is increasingly cluttered, not only with other football brands, but also names like Jeep, is not easy.
"To get through that we have to show them that Arsenal is different, expose them to our brand, get our message over."
However, Mr Fox offers a few words of caution, pointing out that Arsenal's revenues were £240m in the 2008-09 season.
"We must remember we are a £240m brand launching in Asia and the US, and potentially in India, when we know that billion-dollar brands are also looking to launch there."
'Bright man'
Yet when it comes to the US, Arsenal seems well prepared in its drive to break into the market, as Mr Fox is part of a trio with American roots at the helm of the club.
Chief executive Ivan Gazidis, although South African-born, had been running MLS league soccer in the US, while Denver sports tycoon Stan Kroenke is major shareholder.
Manager Arsene Wenger remains a key figure at Arsenal FC And Mr Fox also praises manager Arsene Wenger as "a very bright man" and an essential part of the club as it moves forward on and off the field.
"A football business has a different focus from a regular business," Mr Fox says.
"We are in the business of winning football matches."
To that end he says any extra money that the club generates from expanded commercial operations would be put into the football side - be it player fees, medical facilities, or scouting.
"If you look at where Arsenal sits relative to other clubs in Europe we would love to have more money to spend on players," he says.
But, perhaps alluding to current events at Liverpool, Mr Fox adds: "We are not here to make money so that investors can walk away with a huge return."
'Hard questions'
There is no doubt that the commercial and branding operations of top English football clubs has changed immensely since the formation of the Premier League in the 1992/93 season.
Football has changed immensely on and off the field in the past two decades And Mr Fox says that despite the massive changes football always has to be focusing on its next direction.
"Sport is an unusual environment and the game [football] is changing," he says.
"You don't have to fear for yourself like you did sometimes in the 1980s, and football is putting itself into different areas, including reaching out more to women.
"Football has been so big, grown so successfully, that it probably has not asked enough hard questions of itself.
"In five to 10 years' time we are going to have to ask: 'Where are we going to go to grow our business?'."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11380291
BBC
Arsenal Announce Record Profit24 September 2010 Arsenal property deals send profits to record high Arsenal's former Highbury home has made the club millions in property development Arsenal Football Club has announced record pre-tax profits of £56m.
The Premier League club also said it had paid off all debt on its Highbury Square property development of flats, built on the ground of its old stadium.
Figures covering the year to May 2010 showed that pre-tax group profits went up by £10.5m compared with the previous 12 months.
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis said: "The group has made good progress in the last year."
The company said it had sold 362 private apartments at Highbury Square, the site of its former home ground.
Those and a social housing site nearby generated £156.9m revenue from property and allowed it to repay £129.6m of bank loans.
The overall level of group net debt had fallen from £297.7m last year to £135.6m.
Turnover grew from £313m to £379.9m.
Player sales
Operating profit before depreciation and player trading in the football business was £56.8m, down from £62.7m the year before after wage costs rose.
Profit from player trading was £13.6m, well above 2009's £2.9m, with the main contributions coming from the sales of Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure.
Commenting on the results for the year, Peter Hill-Wood, the club's non-executive chairman, said: "We now have a debt-free property business, which is accumulating surplus cash as further unit sales are made at Highbury Square, and which has three further property assets to realise over the next few years."
Matters were less clearly positive on the football side.
Mr Gazidis said: "The competitive landscape makes it ever tougher to achieve success on the field and standing still is simply not, and never has been, an option for the club.
"It is important that we continue to develop a vibrant and robust business with sufficient revenues to sustain success."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11403202
BBC
Arsenal aim to be global top GunnersBy Bill Wilson
Business reporter, BBC News
The club's commercial arm will look to provide revenues for the football side of Arsenal's business Arsenal was once the quintessential English football club, with its impressive marble hallways at Highbury stadium and high-tempo football on the playing field.
Highbury has now been replaced by the modern Emirates Stadium, while Arsene Wenger has the club playing some of the most stylish passing football in Europe.
And there have been other changes under way in north London, as the club looks to US business know-how to promote its brand around the world.
'Successful product'
Former Quaker Oats, NBA, Nike and Gatorade executive Tom Fox is Arsenal's chief commercial officer, with more than 20 years of selling American brands overseas.
His task is now to sell the club outside the UK in the way that Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool have done.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
Sport is unique - if the team does not have that success on the field then that makes if more difficult for us”
End Quote
Tom Fox
Arsenal FC chief commercial officer
"It is different from marketing a cereal brand," says Mr Fox, who was brought into his newly-created role last autumn to oversee all of the club's commercial efforts worldwide.
"Success has a lot to do with it," he says.
"Putting the basic successful product out on the field - like our 6-0 victory over Braga - is a huge component of our brand."
But he warns: "Football is not like making cereal, where you can guarantee what the customer will get when they open the box.
"Sport is unique - if the team does not have that success on the field then that makes it more difficult for us."
As the club's commercial operation cannot affect what happens on the field of play, Mr Fox says it must concentrate on other areas of the business model which it can influence.
"We spend a lot of time working on how we can build a successful model that is not so relying on winning," he says
"It is about insulating ourselves," he says at a Sports Marketing 360 event in London.
'Arsenal World'
As part of that aim to promote the club business as a whole entity, rather than just the playing side of things, Arsenal has announced a new global media initiative.
Tom Fox has widespread experience in US marketing, including three major sports brands At present the club has media partners in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Ghana, north and sub-Saharan Africa, Finland, France, the Middle East and Israel, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Australia and Vietnam.
The strategy includes finding TV and multi-media partners around the world, including the major markets of India, China and US - which most large football European clubs have been looking to crack.
Among the content on offer is "Arsenal World", which is advertised as "giving viewers a new angle into the players' lives".
It will include players talking about interests such as fashion and style, talking about their heroes, and recounting their favourite journey.
The club is also looking to increase its digital media output, covering online, premium broadband, mobile phone applications, internet TV, and video on demand.
Story writing
Mr Fox says he believes that the mixture of Arsenal's global PR and an increased thirst for televised sport in India and China can help the club break new ground.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
We have to show them that Arsenal is different, expose them to our brand, get our message over”
End Quote
Tom Fox
Arsenal FC chief commerical officer
"There are 104 shops in China where Arsenal FC merchandise is sold." says Mr Fox.
"In 12 to 18 months, we will be looking to get Chinese youngsters to write stories about Arsenal Football Club.
"That will be more important than anything we can do with those stores.
"To get into a market like China, which is increasingly cluttered, not only with other football brands, but also names like Jeep, is not easy.
"To get through that we have to show them that Arsenal is different, expose them to our brand, get our message over."
However, Mr Fox offers a few words of caution, pointing out that Arsenal's revenues were £240m in the 2008-09 season.
"We must remember we are a £240m brand launching in Asia and the US, and potentially in India, when we know that billion-dollar brands are also looking to launch there."
'Bright man'
Yet when it comes to the US, Arsenal seems well prepared in its drive to break into the market, as Mr Fox is part of a trio with American roots at the helm of the club.
Chief executive Ivan Gazidis, although South African-born, had been running MLS league soccer in the US, while Denver sports tycoon Stan Kroenke is major shareholder.
Manager Arsene Wenger remains a key figure at Arsenal FC And Mr Fox also praises manager Arsene Wenger as "a very bright man" and an essential part of the club as it moves forward on and off the field.
"A football business has a different focus from a regular business," Mr Fox says.
"We are in the business of winning football matches."
To that end he says any extra money that the club generates from expanded commercial operations would be put into the football side - be it player fees, medical facilities, or scouting.
"If you look at where Arsenal sits relative to other clubs in Europe we would love to have more money to spend on players," he says.
But, perhaps alluding to current events at Liverpool, Mr Fox adds: "We are not here to make money so that investors can walk away with a huge return."
'Hard questions'
There is no doubt that the commercial and branding operations of top English football clubs has changed immensely since the formation of the Premier League in the 1992/93 season.
Football has changed immensely on and off the field in the past two decades And Mr Fox says that despite the massive changes football always has to be focusing on its next direction.
"Sport is an unusual environment and the game [football] is changing," he says.
"You don't have to fear for yourself like you did sometimes in the 1980s, and football is putting itself into different areas, including reaching out more to women.
"Football has been so big, grown so successfully, that it probably has not asked enough hard questions of itself.
"In five to 10 years' time we are going to have to ask: 'Where are we going to go to grow our business?'."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11380291
