That's two Arsenal supporters you've called a jerk on this thread. At least you have admitted to being a fool so I won't pay too much respect to your opinion of me. As for the "We are Arsenal" comment - I'm afraid you're not one of us yet. Keep trying though, it'll grow on you!
It's about time Nike finally steps up. Like someone else said, it's no ManUre deal, but, then again, we don't deserve a deal like they got. This is a pretty good deal for a club like ours. http://www.thisislondon.com/sport/football/articles/6143947?source=Evening%2
I am gald to see Nike and the club sticking together. This is a great deal and will have many benefit well beyond the £130m. Based on Nike's website they still have just 3 main clubs they are throwing the most money at (Arsenal, Barca, Man U).
I like this deal, especially if it: A) Helps get Vieira and Pires re-signed. B) Helps get the new stadium up a little faster. C) Gets more Arsenal merchandise out there. IE. Instead of just a jersey and shorts, Eurosport has a page of Arsenal merch. In the most recent Manu had about 2 1/2 pages for it's merch and most of it was Nike brand.
More like a page online and a quarter of a page in the catalog. ManUre have those many pages because of the tour.
im sorry, i clicked on the link to read a legitimate post.. but only found that wanker sp*rs fan PISSOFF... was wrong~~
Why don't all you Nancys go grab your handbags and step outside. On topic: Good deal for the Arse. Don't see where they would get more from someone else. Hopefully this corrects our financial situation to some degree. Key now will be the distribution channels. It's still too costly to buy direct from the club overseas. They need to work on this and really put pressure on Nike to get their merchandise out there more. Of course, this is a chicken/egg proposition. More in stores if more people start buying - more people buying if there is better availability.
I have it on very good authority that Arsenal have another tie-up in the pipeline with Microsoft for a substantial sum of money to be announced in the very near future. Also it seems that the club have secured all the financing for the stadium from four banks on the back of this deal. A couple of weeks ago an employee of McAlpine said the reason Arsenal were not going to being investing heavily in the transfer market this summer was because the board were desperately trying to convince investors that the club are serious about moving to the new stadium, and therefore it would look pretty ridiculous for us to go out and throw lots of money at more players with things still uncertain. In essence the banks would have baulked, especially with the witch-hunt in the media that was ensuing. Martin Daoust, what do you make of all this? Still think the board are terribly "imprudent"?! maybe they knew what they were doing after all. I have faith in them and as far as im concerned they have not let me down yet. With the Microsoft deal to come, we could be rolling in it, in terms of transfer funds. Or we could have a sizeable percentage of the funds ready to pay-back to the banks immediately and offset some of the loss we would have made due to interests pay-ments.
Christ, this isn't rocket science, although apparently it is to the mental midgets heading up Arsenal's marketing efforts. They need to do what Amazon.com did - offer free shipping on shipments over a certain amount. Hell, make it 50 or 75 pounds, people will still buy it. Also, do like ManUre's site, and let the user see prices in different currencies. It's better than having to get out the calculator and mulitply times 1.66 every time. And get Nike to slap the swoosh on some basic white t-shirts with some simple designs, create a separate Nike page on the Arsenal website, charge 15 pounds a piece (when they probably cost 2 pounds to make), and watch them sell like hotcakes. Simple.
The more coming into the club the better. Heck, if "Joe's Towing and Salvage" were to pony up Nike kind of cash, I'd buy the kit
The breakdown from Arsenal.com http://www.arsenal.com/sportsappcon...e&type=com.sportapps.news.NewsItem&id=4014781 Arsenal Football Club today announced a new kit deal with Nike. Here are the major points of the agreement. · Together with Arsenal’s retailing and licensing business, the deal could give Club as much as £130 million over the next 10 years. · A £55 million lump sum will be paid to Arsenal by July 2006 which will go towards funding the new stadium project. · The deal begins on July 1, 2004 and will run for seven years initially, that’s until June 30, 2011. Nike have an option to extend the deal for another three years after that. · Nike have exclusive worldwide rights as official sponsor of the kit for Arsenal Football Club. They can act as the manufacturer, marketer and seller of licensed technical replica apparel, footwear, equipment, including the replica kit. · Arsenal have the right to run their own retail business and can develop/sell their own brand of merchandise worldwide.
With Nike able to act as marketer and seller of Arsenal mechandise worldwide, I think distribution will improve. I think in the end it will work out very well for both parties, and Nike will sell many more Arsenal jerseys than they do now. Nike's marketing push will increase awareness about the club, and the beautiful style of football they play will do the rest. It doesn't hurt that the first choice shirt is really good looking either. I have several friends who have no interest in soccer who want it.
There were a hell of a lot of people wearing the new away shirt in Cardiff yesterday. The fact that we have returned to our traditional colours doesn't hurt either I suppose.
The fans of a team will buy kits no matter what. The true test is if NEW fans to the game will pick up the swag.
That's not true as Arsenal found out last year with the blue kit. I would think new fans are much more likely to buy the new one as they don't have an old one to wear as I did yesterday.
I thought with all my grousing about how Nike doesn't treat Arsenal as well as manUre, Arsenal is second fiddle, etc., etc., I should come clean: I had to get the "Little Coach" his first pair of boots this weekend as he will start playing in a couple of weeks. I not only bought him Nike Total 90 boots, but also Nike shinguards, socks, and shorts. I am a hypocrite of the first order. I tried to find him a classic adidas boot, but they really didn't have anything of worth in his size. Oh, well, I guess I'll have to wait a few years to get him his first pair of Copa Mundials....
Speaking of which, the shirt deal isn't quite what it's been rumored to be, according to the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ma...s14.xml&sSheet=/sport/2003/08/15/ixfooty.html