What is it like to work in a club that currently has the highest debts in world football?
Formally, this is so: we gained loans of more than 250 million pounds. But the financial situation of Arsenal is strong today. Much stronger than when we played Highbury. Due to the small size of the stands of this stadium and its lack of comfort, we lost less than 500,000 pounds in every match. And now, only the 9,000 premium seats that Emirates have are earning us the same monthly income as selling all 38,000 tickets for Highbury. The construction of a new arena for Arsenal is like a transition to a new weight category, to the category of real super clubs. And after moving to a new stadium, we restructured our debt by extending the loan term from 15 to 25 years and lowering the interest rate. The projected income of the club will allow us to pay quietly on this loan.
What is the total cost of the new arena?
About 350 million pounds, that is, 700 million dollars.
Too much.
But this is the most modern stadium in England, which has all the latest technology - like a system of electronic cards that are used instead of tickets. And this amount also includes the cost of transport infrastructure and the restructuring of Highbury into a residential complex. It will be completed by 2010, which will bring Arsenal extra money.
What guided you when you determined the capacity of the new arena at 60,000 people?
Researching our audience. Today, 130,000 people worldwide are members of the Arsenal official fan club. A steady daily demand for tickets is approximately 80,000. But it is always better to have a shortage of tickets than their excess.
You did not succeed in transferring the atmosphere of Highbury to Emirates - this is my opinion as a person who has visited both Arsenal arenas. Are the fans complaining?
It happens. When you move from an old apartment to a new one, something is always lost. But this does not deter anyone from moving if the new one is much better. The atmosphere is incredibly difficult to transport. Nothing, a new gain.
How did the fans perceive the sale of the name of the arena to the sponsors? MJ fans rebel against the possible renaming of Old Trafford.
You can only sell the name of the new arena. Renaming “Old Trafford” to “McDonald's” will not give anything - it will still be called “Old Trafford”. And Arsenal fans understand us. Without money, Emirates, such an ambitious project as a new stadium would not be easy to implement.
Close to the complete absence of English football players in Arsenal does not undermine the club’s domestic popularity?
I don’t think so. English players are a very sore point. This is not to say that we do not produce them: Ashley Cole plays at Chelsea, Jermen Pennant plays at Liverpool, David Bentley plays at Blackburn, and there are a dozen of our students in other clubs. But the majority still does not draw on the basis of Arsenal. As for the English football players from other clubs, they are currently overrated. We don’t want to pay inadequate amounts. Yes, and nothing.
Over the past 7–10 years, European clubs have been carrying out large-scale expansion in the Asian direction. What is Arsenal doing in this regard?
We study the experience of others' mistakes before making our own. Many clubs rushed to open stores in Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong, sensing a gold mine. Now these stores are closing one by one. There lived really gold, but the market is not so simple.
Talk about a certain European Super League that would unite all the top clubs in a full-fledged two-round tournament does not cease. How real is it, in your opinion?
The idea is interesting. But something, I doubt its feasibility. Some kind of revolutionary transformation of the current tournament structure is possible only in case of extreme financial interest. But she is not. Moreover, the championship of England is sold better than the European tournaments. Say, last season, tickets to Arsenal's matches with West Ham or even Everton went faster than for a match with Ajax. Ultimately, we sold both. But some clubs can’t fill the stands at Euro matches. Still, in the eyes of the English audience, the Premier League is a more established, more attractive competition.
Rumors periodically appear about the possible sale of Arsenal - of course, to the Russians. How much truth is there in them?
I think a little. The Russians in English football are a hot topic, and I understand the media that love to use it. But of the six main shareholders of Arsenal, holding about 80% of the shares, only one is currently ready for their sale. This is the ITV television company, which has a 10% stake in Arsenal and Liverpool.
They say that at the matches of Arsenal there are many rich Russians.
Boris Berezovsky has a box on Emirates. And, it seems, someone else - but I don’t know for sure. You will not remember everyone. We have 150 such boxes.