“We want to build, not buy,” says Arsenal Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis, who joined the club at the beginning of the year from Major League Soccer. “We have chosen a path of self-sustainability and independence, free from reliance on any one owner. The club is bigger than any individual.”
Naturally, this doesn’t mean that Arsenal won’t make their own Big Money signings this year to strengthen a first team which many observers feel is in need of repair.
But the difference in philosophy is clear and is likely to become even more pronounced as more and more super-rich individuals toss their cheque books into football’s ring.
For Gazidis it’s an important distinction, one which helps define the club which he joined from a job he would otherwise not have left.
“I believe the club is incredibly well positioned. We are walking a rational line in a business which is sometimes irrational,” he says. “We are building for the future and everything is in place. We have a world-class stadium, a unique central London location and a worldwide fan base which has developed over the last decade.
“In many ways Arsenal is something of a paradox. On one hand it is very traditional - which is one of its strengths - but the club has always had great vision and been ahead of the game in matters like the installation of floodlights, the use of shirt numbering. Then there’s the recruitment of Arsene Wenger and the advanced style of football he has instilled throughout the club.”
These are among the attributes which Gazidis believes equip Arsenal for success in a fast-changing world.
“It is a world in which people are less defined by nationality than by common experience,” he says. “A 12-year-old in Beijing is likely to have more in common with a 12-year-old in London than with older people in their own country... even their own family. There has been an explosion in communications over the last decade and that is the period in which Arsenal has defined itself on the field. Everything begins on the pitch, that’s the most important part of brand expression.
“We play an expansive, forward-looking brand of football and that, linked to the concept of values and traditions is what the Arsenal brand is about.”
Having come to the UK from the ultra-competitive US sports market, Gazidis has an interesting perspective on the structural environment in which Arsenal operates and on some of the issues which continue to face the game.
He is convinced that football today is in a good place, even in the face of recession. “There has been tremendous revenue growth in recent years and football really is well established as the world’s game,” he says. “The Premier League can become the world’s league and is probably the first sports league to stand on the precipice of that opportunity.
“Yet while all that looks positive we see elements of instability at club level. It is important that owners act in partnership if we want to maximise on success. A league is only as strong as its weakest link and all the clubs have to participate in a league.”
“The key thing is perhaps for there to be enlightened self-regulation among the owners. Cost control is just one element of this and in the US it is tackled in different ways. In the NFL there is a salary cap and in baseball a Luxury Tax. These are different ideas and deserve our attention.
“Whatever direction was taken, the approach would have to be at least pan-European because the global and the practical challenges - such as current European legislation - are immense. But simply to ignore these issues because of practical difficulties does not make sense.”
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