Angelito wrote:Going by this thread, we have lots of future Fobes 400 CEOs here.
It was a miscalculation and an ill-timed move, but nobody could have remotely predicted this boom in Premier League money more than 17 years ago. Arsenal FC had been toying with the idea since 1996. It wasn't until 2000 of course that we started building the Emirates.
I always speak of hindsight and yes, it's 20-20. With the Emirates move, that part is true as well. Moving to the Emirates was a wise move, but we did sacrifice a few League titles and a couple of CLs to fund this move, and looking at where we are today--it's painful how we misjudged the financial dynamics of football back then.
Regardless, we had to move/expand someday. We mayn't have capitalized in the last many years, or under Wenger, but in the future, the move will only prove to be worthwhile.
I think the
'growth' could easily have been anticipated if not the
'boom' ... but that's a mute point .... we could and should have restructured our debt in 2004/5/6/7/8 as the position with TV revenue became very clear .... even the worst Forbes CEO should be able to understand that when all your competitors are leveraging their debt to 30/40% or in Utd's case over 50%, mainly to increase cash flow and purchase new and better assets (players), then to do nothing can only mean you get left behind.
Any half decent CEO would also recognise that the long-term naming and sponsorship deals, which were understandably struck for short term gain, should never be repeated once they had proven utterly disastrous deals when compared to our rivals much shorter contracts ...
Clearly our 'Forbes 500 CEO' can't grasp risk and reward instead always opting for the safe guaranteed but relatively low returns ... in football sadly that makes you non-competitive and wins you nothing ....