I have been waiting to see if anyone else has heard the rumours about this. it seems only Phishy has mentioned it and he is on a yellow so can't start a new thread. This is a very delicate situation. At the moment we are a private entity and don't have to answer to anyone, if we floated we would have to answer to a PLC like Man U and all our transfers etc would be looked at more carefully. I guess we would raise a huge amount of cash and it would see off the loans for the new stadium which is the initial idea, but I personally would be completly against it. I know the idea of owning a part of your football club is romantic, but could we sustain the momentum under Arsene? Im not sure we could. Look at how other clubs have fared after floating (forget Man U, as to be serious we are in a different league.) This is a very serious idea that the club are considering and is being mooted to a number of Investment banks at the moment.....
I like the part of owning part of the team, but I'm not sure if it would be a good idea. I do not have a lot of knowledge on this sort of thing so I'm not really sure. I say we are fine as is and if it ain't broke don't fix it.
The downside is that someone like Glazer who has no interest in the game, but know the team makes money could buy them. If it were truly going to be the fans then it would be great, but some guy could come in and buy up enough shares and the we would be stuck answering to him. I personally like the way it is today even though there isn't the ability to inject as much cash into the team, at least there is control.
Heard rumours nothing more. Personally I think its its suicide. I mean look at the state our once great (*coughs*) rail network is in now its in the hnads of private investors. Out with safety, maintenance, and pioneering engineering soloutions and in with phat dividend cheques. Woot!
Er that is purely the fault of the Labour left wing stuck in the past trade unions. Not that im a Conservative. At all.
It would be a quick way to pay off huge debts, but a sure way to doom the club longterm when some greedy misguided businessman takes over. Assuming the club is considering floating, I wonder if they have a plan to pay off the loans and then go back private. I've heard of companys going public, and then going back private before, not sure how it's done or whether it can be done in England.
If Arsenal does it...It should be like the Green Bay Packers (even though I hate them f######! ). One of the most amazing things you'll see. You buy the share and you get no dividends, just the pleasure of owing a piece of your club. If something is needed they ask them and poof the shareholders come thru with the dough. Let me give you the link....
....and don't forget to read about the stockholders history...It wouldn't be a bad idea if it was done like this. Think how many Arsenal supporters there are in the world. I'd buy a few shares myself. Don't get me wrong I want to keep it off the stockmarket but if we do this sounds good to me...Thank ya now...Roscoe!
Roscoe, I completely agree with your version. Being a Bears fan and OF course not a big Packer fan, but I would LOVE to own part of Arsenal. It would make a great holiday gift, maybe buy 1 for my daughter too.
Heh I hardly think floating the club to make a new and exciting gift possibility is hardly the best idea Besides, if this were to happen we have no idea how many shares the club would be split into. They might cost several thousand a go.... I think that being a PLC is all well and good when your at the top, but if things ate Arsenal wend decidedly Leeds-shaped it could be disasterous
It wouldn't be floating necessary, so to say...As long as people kept buying shares when needed everything will be all good. You can only sell it back to the team for a fraction of the price. Arsenal would literally be printing their own money and won't have to worry about inflation unless no one buys stock. And also that doesn't limit their already widely available options to raise capital. They only have to answer to the fans who own the shares and the board. No takeover either. With the Packs plan no one can own more that 200,000 I believe. Also remember the Pack have sustained in a leauge where salary caps (the amount spent on players per year...very tricky to explan), uncertain revenues (they are by far the smallest major pro team in America, maybe half a million souls in the Green Bay metro market), and takeovers and teams moving at the drop of a hat, this Green Bay model has been working it's majic for over 80 years. Without their fans that team would not have survived, or would have moved years ago. I'm with you Catfish, I don't like the Pack either (I'm a Rams fan...Don't metion Miami ) but the way they have stayed around, I'll give them kudos on that...Thank ya now...Roscoe!
Come on - The Packers are awsome and you too could own a share that really has no value. But as a fan it's worth it. I just hope they can come back this year.
Arsenal stock is traded on the 'lightly' regulated market called ofex. The shares are expensive unlike regular shares. I have no clue how this market works and the details of it. Take a look at the following links: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=1145262004 (Is this what you were talking about? ) http://worldsoccer.about.com/b/a/060917.htm http://www.arseweb.com/arseweb/shop/others.html (Scroll down - third to last section titled "Buying Shares in Arsenal FC") http://www.ofex.co.uk (membership required...i haven't accessed this page)
ta mate, i tried~ gpk just wont budge~ im not sure if i like the idea or not, although it bothers me we never try to sign big name players~ thumbs sideways for me
Currently the shares in Arsenal Holding plc are traded at around £3.700 a piece. There's close to 59.000 shares in the company. So what'll it be? A share or at season ticket in the Prawn Ring? KJ
I think this could be the worst idea since bad ideas started. If you look at every club that has gone public, every one has had problems. From Leeds going bust, to Man Utd in the middle of a takeover battle, it seems to me that the only long term thing that floating on the stock market does is bring grief. If there is a need for a big injection of cash (I don't see why as we're constantly being told that all funding for the new stadium is in place and there are transfer funds available), surely there would be no shortage of private investors willing to buy into a club of the stature of Arsenal under the existing share scheme. And I'm not sure about the Packers' type shareholding scheme mentioned by Roscoe, I already pay good money for a season ticket, shirts, programmes, etc., I don't want the club coming back cap in hand for more money from me.
Im not to sure about how shares work but cant the club issue 49% of the total shares for the public and have the owner with 51% so even if someone like say Glazer buys 49% he still wont be in charge? i dunno im a newb
What's rail privatisation got to do with anything?! Arsenal is already a private company, just not on the main stock exchange.
Exactly. Its a privatly traded company. My intention was to illustrate why going public traded might be bad idea, and the rail network provided a suitable analogy...
Essentially yeah, if he has 49% he's not in charge. However, he would only need other shareholders with a 2% holding in the company to vote with him on any particular issue to push it through. It's just dangerous, what iof the owner of the 51% decides to sell up? Then it's down to whoever comes up with the biggest pile of cash which decides who controls the club. Whatever you say about the current board of directors, they seem to have the interests of the football club fairly high up their list of interests. Once it is a publicly traded company, and if it's successful, then businessmen like Glazer, who have complete disregard for the interests of the club as long as it's making money, get interested. It does seem to me that the current board pretty much let Arsene get on with things on the playing side. I'm sure that bids have come in for, say Henry, that Wenger has dismissed and we know Theirry has said he doesn't want to leave anyway. Now if a businessman with no links to football sees Abramovich, for example, coming up with £70m for Henry, he could accept the bid and unsettle Henry by making it public. He can pay out £20m for a new centre forward (probably not as good, but soemone who could get the job done) and makes a nice fat profit. That profit either goes into his pocket or goes into the stadium or club's bank account, increasing the value of the assets of the club and therefore the shares before he sells out to the next guy to come along. And I haven't even started on the demands of shareholders for ever-increasing profits!
i would oppose going public, the current Board of Directors puts the interests of the club first. The last thing Arsenal needs is some corporate mogul like Malcolm Glazer buying the majority of the shares leveraged by massive loans, thus driving up the price of tickets, further alienating the working class from football. Heck I could see some clown like Glazer being forced into doing a "lease back" with the London Colney training ground to finance the deal. Chicago Bears 21 Green Bay Packers 10