As many know I attended the meeting today and will try and give some information on some of the things I raised and things that were discussed. Emirates Stadium 11am 22nd September 2007 1) Membership packs/Contact with club/Customer Service I raised the point near the beginning of the meeting regarding the lack of customer service that Arsenal have given their members, especially their oversea's members. I specifically mentioned names and address's of all those who had contacted me previously to say they had not received their membership packs. Keith Edelman answered my question with the following: He went on to talk how there will be new technology to make sure all e-mails will be tracked so they do not lose any. With regards to the actual Membership packs, Sue Campbell who is the Travel and Supporters Manager asked for all the names which I had printed out and I received an e-mail later telling me all packs had been packaged already to those people and you will receive them in the next two weeks. The simple answer of what had happened before is that when they downloaded the postage labels onto the packs, it didn not include any Countries. This led to very few packs being posted outside the UK. This has now been resolved and I have been asked to keep them up to date with anyone not receiving packs in the future. 2) Ticket Buyback scheme. This will go live on Thursday next week. It will be ready for the Bolton game. This means a season ticket holder can sell their ticket to the club who will sell it to Red Members. It will be through the internet booking office and will cost season ticket holders 10%. 3) Clock End Clock It was bought up again how we should have the Clock at the stadium. mr Edelman replied that it would not look good aesthetically at The Emirates and therefore in the near future it would not be displayed at the stadium. It could not be on one of the levels for safety reasons. 4) Takeover/Finances This was the bit it seemed most people were waiting for and eager to talk about. It mut be noted that today is a Jewish holiday and yet Danny Fitzman made himself available for the meeting which was appreciated by all attendee's. I have some quotes and I will add notes under each one: He added that the have held talks with Kroenke regarding what he has to offer the club and then said Mr Edelman said I then asked the following question to Danny: "As we know the board have an agreement in place not to dispose of any shares before April 2008. At that point we could well be in the midst of an important part of the season where it is important not to have outside interruptions affecting the squad, not to mention the media interest will heighten the nearer to the date we come. Will the board be announcing a timetable of their intentions to either extend this agreement or alter it in a timely manner so as to cause least disruption to the Squad?" He was then asked a question on the tax issue which I have gone over on this board before. His answer and really I think he would know the answer not anyone else was: The next few questions came regarding finance: Mr Edelman said that we are in an extremely strong financial position. We certainly do not need outside investment and the debt that we have is at a very low interest rate. He told us we have 210M GBP at 5.14% and 60M GBP at 5.6% which is over 25 years. He said that it is one of the best loans there is and that it is nothing like Manchester United who had to pay 80M GBP in interest to service their debt and have done that through ticket price increases. The figures will be released on Monday and will show Arsenal are in a supurb position. When asked about Arsene Wenger and David Dein the answer was from Danny Ftzman Danny then told us a quote from Arsene from the meeting last week. This was "Can we say we are poor because that perception helps me when buying players" 5) Ticket Prices 6) Setanta in the USA As this is a new venture it really depends on whether the US broadcasters pick this up. There is no news as of yet about this, but when there is we will certainly let you know. 7) Scarves on Champions League nights The club has said they recognise this has created a good atmousphere and has gone down well. Therefore on home CL nights the Red and White scarfs will be available in club shops for 5GBP so as to keep on creating this atmousphere. The meeting then ended with drinks and sandwhiches.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat So it was a pretty good meeting then. I feel comfortable with the answers regarding the takeover and really hope they decide to extend the agreement not to sell their shares for another 12 months. Thank you so much for the update Rick.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Sounds good. Many thanks for the update.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat I think the statement about the clock is bollocks,are they telling us the clock could not be fixed to one of the stands. As I've said they sold the white shirt using Chapmans name as a selling point,yet they can't find a place for the clock he fought so hard for inside the ground..Bullshit!! Let's not lose our history,asthetics my Arse!! Ps thanks for the update
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Top job, Rick. Thanks for the info.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Thanks Rick a lot man. Its nice to hear news through other sources than the biased media.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Cheers Rick. Great news about the board signing a new non-selling agreement and Fitzman's tax status.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Thanks very much for that Rick. Some very encouraging comments.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Wow, awesome work Rick. We spend so much time on BS.com speculating on this or that. Yes I know that's part of the fun, but it's really great to cut through that speculation and get answers straight from the horses mouths.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Ya too bad the media doesnt give a f*ck or maybe it would help to shut them up.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat they need to find a way to keep the clock around...perhaps it doesn't have to elevated, attatched to any of the stands...maybe it could be set up somewhere at ground level (its probably too big for that huh?), or outside of the stadium. it has to be kept though.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat It is outside the stadium,it shouldn't be
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Excellent reporting Rick. Sure you don't want a third career? In all seriousness, thank you for attending and for sharing this key information with all of us.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Thanks for the update, lots of good information. I just wish they could pass this sort of information on to us on a regular basis.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Rick, Thanks for taking the time relay the happenings of the meeting to all of us. It really helps, from a supporter's persepctive, to have someone interacting w/ the club as opposed having sort through all the nonsense in the legit and gutter press (which is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate). I know you hear it so often but "Thank You" again rogue American cousins. Jeff
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Drinks and sandwiches for everyone!!!
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Thanks a lot, Rick. It's always nice to have an inside man.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Thanks for keeping them in touch with the American supporters Rick. It's good to know we hve a voice with them.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat This is great! Thanks a lot! I especially loved those quotes from Wenger..
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Good work, Rick. I think the clock should be put somewhere in plain view to the entire stadium. I'm sure they can find a place.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat If he were reporting professionally he might have to spell Fiszman's name right. Then again i'm not sure that i spelled it right. Fizsman? that doesn't look right. Nevermind.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat I don't know. Having the clock is never going to make the new stadium into Highbury. If anything it's just a reminder of what was lost in the move. But i do think they should have a clock over the south end of the stadium, as a nod to the club's history. I'm sure it wouldn't be too tough to come up with a design that is both "asthetically pleasing" and not a safety hazard. Maybe they can get our watch sponsor Ebel to come up with something. Just a thought.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Thanks for the info, Rick. Very insightful. The club is already on the right track and the results are happening on the pitch.
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat Thanks a lot Rick. I'll be looking for my last year's membership pack any day now!
Re: Meeting with Danny Fitzman, Keith Edelman, Officials of Arsenal and other Supporters Representat OK, let me liven this up a bit, by taking exception with a couple of quotes by members of the board... This does not seem quite logical Danny. A blocking vote can block only "special" resolutions. But special resolutions, although rare, can be quite important or strategic, i.e. the new stadium. So if David Dein, for example had held a blocking vote (obviously he didn't, thankfully) then Ashburton Grove might never have happened or at least it would have been more difficult, compromised, drawn out, etc. I think Fiszman's point was that a blocking vote wouldn't have an effect on day-to-day things like transfers, but I would argue that a blocking vote does seem to imply signicant power for rare but important issues. This seems like an over-simplified, over-generalized view of Billionaire owners of sports clubs. Did Abramovich buy Chelsea and subsequently dump unheardof sums of money into the squad as a return on his investment? If so, it would seem to be a huge failure from that financial perspective. I'm no expert on Roman or Chelsea, but actually it seems to me that he bought Chelsea as a rich-man's hobby, for a love of football, and he sunk so much money into it so as to win the biggest trophies... to win. It's more than a bit old-fashioned for Arsenal's board to be fans, to be "family" and that's in fact very nice. But for them to make the assumption that no Billionaire is going to do good things for Arsenal is a bit myopic. I'm not arguing for Billionaire suitors, and I haven't seen one (Kroenke, Usmanov, et al) that I thought was good for Arsenal, but I think comments like this, or the famous one from PHW ("we don't need his kind") makes the board look rather defensive, entrenched & rigid. This is really great to hear and I've been wondering/hoping they would extend the lockdown period at least through the end of the season. But one thing I keep wondering about Fiszman is this: If he's "not a seller" then why did he sell 1% earlier this year and drop his total from 25% to 24%? And who did he sell that to? I have a political theory about that (related to the blocking thing) but I wonder if he's ever been asked that question and/or addressed it.