There’s been a bit of panic in the Arsenal Twittersphere that Gabriel was slipping through our fingers after worrying rumours emerged that United and City were in to ‘compete’ with us. Those worries seem to have been misguided, most newspapers are now reporting that Brazilian has chosen Arsenal. Sport Witness has done a nice job covering off what’s been going down. I was getting info last night from some ITK fans about which hotel he was in. I also dreamt about Cessna planes last night, no doubt our obsessives are studying private-jet manifestos as we speak.
I think we just have to accept that this is what the summer will look like for most players we go in for. We’re not the richest club in the room by a margin and every player is going to make sure they’re making the most out of pandemic offers, which I’d imagine are less rich than they were in January.
Needless to say, this would be a statement of intent signing from the new Arsenal recruitment team. I think it’d also close a nice loop if Sokratis ended up being the consolation prize for Gattuso.
There has been a lot of ‘WE LET RAUL LEAVE TOO EARLY’ chatter going off. Please, try not to indulge in that sort of thinking. We’re more than capable of doing business without him and this particular moment in time requires us to do things that work best for Arsenal. We need to get good prices, pay market rates, and keep deals as clear of hangers-on as possible.
I wrote a piece a few weeks ago about the need to rethink how we did TV deals. A few people in the know said it was unlikely we’d see a shift in the way deals dropped, but, it looks like SKY has shifted their approach with the EFL (DM).
- Next season, across all three divisions, all games will be live-streamed. Even Saturday 3pms, which has been a sacred cow
- Season ticket holders will get all the games free via club websites
- Casual fans will also be able to access the games for £10 a pop
I thought this piece was very interesting.
the broadcaster will permit clubs to stream all games that were scheduled for live TV coverage without demanding any compensation as long as the majority of fans are excluded from grounds.
The arrangement will be reviewed on a regular basis but is expected to remain in place until the Government permits a 50 per cent occupancy rate at stadiums.
Now, that to me looks like SKY is building some good faith for the next round of negotiations. They are giving a lifeline to the football clubs, fully aware that Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, and DAZN are probably waiting in the wings to buy up the content in the next round. It’s super smart.
This model has apparently been rejected by the Premier League who don’t want their clubs to stream their own games. I find this absolutely baffling and look, I’ve spent a few hours reading up about rights and I think I’m basically an expert now. Here are some numbers I pulled last time we chatted about it.
If Arsenal sold 200,000 digital season tickets for £90 p/m (9 months) that’d be £162,000,000. £21 a game. Maybe that’s a bit pricey. Perhaps they could charge £10 per game to hook more people into the season ticket. If you could find 500,000 subs globally, that’d be a £190,000,000. Simpleton numbers, but just trying to paint a picture of the things the TV channels could do to bring in a little more revenue. Appreciate you’d have to rework the entire HERO GAME model, but look, everyone is on their arse on the moment, no better time to give people options.
Now, I know those figures are unlikely, but if you worked off the SKY £10 a game model, Arsenal might go some way to getting some revenue back. It is VERY complicated though.
Here’s my basic numbers game.
If you sold all the games to make up the lost stadium revenue, you’d need to average 500,000 subs PER GAME. Connor McGregor who fights 2-3 times a year, generated 1,000,000+ $70 subs for his Cerrone fight earlier this year. Tyson Fury vs Wilder 2 850,000 subs at $80.
Arsenal has a huge fanbase, but that sort of number is monstrous to convert.
1) Not every country as the same wealth, so don’t assumer social followers converts to paying subscribers.
2) Asking people to sign up each time is laborious. CLICK £10 3x a week might grate.
3) We might be shit so the stream of interest could fluctuate.
Then you get into the complications of what you are selling. If Arsenal is playing Burnley away from home… who sells the virtual tickets? Can Arsenal bring 100,000 away fans to the game? Do they keep the cash if they do?
Then you have the idea of season tickets. Do I get a code if I have a real season ticket? Would Arsenal broaden out who could have a virtual one? What does a bulk price look like for one? How does it compete with the Sky monthly package? Is it global? Also, what do you charge? For an IRL experience, the cheapest price was £891. No fucking chance anyone is forking over a ‘support the wealthy footballers’ fee to keep Arsenal going. But what would you pay? We’d have to sell about 78,000 tickets at £1200 to make back the money we’ve lost (tells you how important corporate fans are).
But what about an Arsenal RUNDLE deal (recurring-revenue subscription model and bundling). Amazon Prime is the best example of RUNDLE, they charge $80 a year for all sorts of perks. HBO gets away with £15 a month. Netflix £14ish. What would you give Arsenal a month? What could they bundle with a virtual season ticket?
Again, the numbers need to be HUGE to cover off our massive IRL season ticket holder deficit.
- £20 per month (9 months) = 500,000
- £25 per month (9 months) = 400,000
- £30 per month (9 months) = 335,000 (ish)
You’d need to make that fee worth it. Even if you are loaded, that £30 a month would still likely be your biggest ‘play’ subscription per month. But again, not impossible to think that the biggest game in the world ‘might’ be able to get a small percentage of their 40m person fanbase to pony up.
So, what have we learned here?
Local fans are really, really important. What we’ve also learned is there’s a massive opportunity right now to test the water by finding out what the true monetary value of our global audience is. The dream for a marketer is to have a consistent flow of revenue from superfans. It would be very interesting to see what our mega global audience would be prepared to pay directly to the club. Can you imagine how much our sponsors would love it? You’d have so much elite data to play with. That pool of RUNDLE subscribers would allow you to learn a lot about your audience and be more targetted with how you market the brand and maybe give you sharper indicators of where to take the team in the summer.
This sort of approach though is very much for the elite clubs. Collective bargaining in the Premier League is the acceptance that smaller teams would struggle with the above model. The disparity between the rich and poor would grow and you’d end up with a situation like the one in La Liga. Three teams at the top and everyone else slumming it in the cups. That wouldn’t be good. However, desperate times call for desperate innovation. Clubs need money, sitting on a now broken model out of fear of what is next is not good business sense.
Football should open its doors to something a little more fan-friendly. Right now, in America, every TV channel is putting the games I paid for via cable onto their new apps that I have to pay for. It takes me at least 25 minutes to find where the games are. By the time you add up the additional expense, you are paying through the nose. Fans need a simpler way to get to games, clubs and leagues taking more ownership might be better for fans and more lucrative for them. Well, that’s my hope anyway. This moment might end up fast-forwarding that realisation.
Let’s see what happens, the EFL has made a smart move, I hope the Premier League follows.
P.S. Freddie Ljungberg has quit Arsenal to pursue dreams of first-team management. I wish him the best. Totally expected move. He had a tasted of the dugout, no way he was going to want to go back to a behind the scenes role.
GOOD LUCK FREDDIE WE LOVE YOU!
Good luck freddie, when he took over, I felt he didn’t show enough fight to prove that he wanted to do a good job.
Maybe instructions from above but I found, in every game we were happy to draw.
Useroz- totally agree
Why the hell should we have heard of every player in every obscure league
If we want to adopt a Dortmund like model the. That actually means our scouts / data analysts or whoever does the work these days do find unknown bargains
We as fans quite naturally start researching the minute the rumours start
And what’s wrong with that? – we’re not paid to be football consultants
People putting these theories forward do speak make such non-points
I can freely admit I hadn’t hear of Gabriel but having looked at videos and stats on the player it looks a great bet and I would now be gutted if it didn’t happen The thought of a Saliba – Gabriel partnership at CB is really exciting and potentially solves a major problem that has dogged us for years It leaves only the midfield to solve and I’m sure the Partey deal is seen up although fully expect a bit of continual haggling over the price Aouar is the deal that would then be the icing but that is probably… Read more »
sewn up
Video and clips on YouTube.
The modern scout.
Pepe looked like Maradona on YouTube but the reality was he played like Madonna.
Luiz isn’t going anywhere this summer. It has to get us at least 5 mil in transfer fees and him actually wanting to go to let go of him. And our new CBs need an acclimating period and need to play with someone that knows the league. Luiz can help with that. It is either Mustafi or Luiz to phase in both of them. So I think he is staying. Gabriel, Saliba, Luiz, Mari is a good blend of CBs. Despite being injured the recent rejuvenation of mustafi has peaked interest. Napoli and some other teams are interested according to… Read more »
Pierre
Just agreeing with another poster who saw it as it was.
🍺
Arteta obviously wants Gabriel. That’s worth more to me than legions of armchair scouts.
“” true.Ozil and Sanchez are prime examples of what went wrong under Wenger.”
Thought Ozil was OK under Wenger and Sanchez was quality
Once Gabriel has been signed I am pretty sure that Arsenal will start offloading players before the next phase of arrivals. Whilst there will be the usual clubs in Italy and Turkey attempting take players on loan or swaps I think that apart from perhaps Mkhitaryan and Sokratis who are now in their 30s the club will resist loans or swaps for the younger players whom they wish to offload. I would be very surprised if Guendouzi, Torreira and Maitland-Niles were allowed to go out on loan or in a swap unless it was part of a deal for a… Read more »
G of H
“”””Video and clips on YouTube.
The modern scout.”””
Absolutely.
Never seen this one play. So can’t comment if he can actually DEFEND.
Could tell after 2 minutes- Pepe was a farcical signing at that price.
Lille must love Arsenal FC.
£100 million they have trousered off us in 12 months.
For what they fleeced us on Pepe- they should have given us Gabriel as a bloody goodwill gesture…
Tony I thought Gabriel was 22m not 27m.
A very expensive Brazilian chambers, it seems.
You got it mixed up: actually it’s age 22, price 27. Though something tells me age wise he’s actually 22+27.
CG Goodwill. Ha ha. Exactly. Lille have become our new Barcelona. Fleecing our cash. I want this cat to be good. And of course, having a 22 and 20 year old CB pairing could be our defence for the next decade. Along with Leno, Martinez, Tierney and Bellend we do have a very young a potentially great defence. I don’t like us pissing £60+ on Willian and Auba at their ages, but I get the thinking…but it’s misplaced. IMO. I’d rather throw Martinelli and Saka in and cash out on Auba and Lacatalent. That money would get us Aroah (sic)… Read more »
I have got the Polish Canal + sports package for around 10 quid per month. Each and every AFC game was available for the last few months, either on the Canal + channels (league) or the Eleven Sports (cups).
Will renew it for the season.
SUGA
Polish TV?
Let me guess, as a bonus to the football you get a bit of bear baiting thrown in for giggles or perhaps a bit of shooting AK47’s at oil drums for 60mins?
Guns,
nah, just the standard EPL broadcast 😉
that would sure be fun tho 😆
I have a bad feeling that the Gabriel lad is not good.
Granted most haven’t watched him but the few who have don’t seem to rate him..
Rundle would certainly be a negative for people who, for various reasons, have found it necessary to share a season ticket.
I have a bad feeling that the Gabriel lad is not good.
So why does Arteta want him?
“Never seen this one play. So can’t comment if he can actually DEFEND.Could tell after 2 minutes-…”
Wow, CG, such a restraint….keeping your powder dry I suppose.
Pepe was farcical at that price but Zaha at 80 m was shrewd?
Hey , Since Tierney can’t be trusted to stay fit in any other formation but five at the back, apparently, maybe it’d be a good Idea to get Chilwell from Leicester as a back up at 80 m, again. What you think?
Look Arteta also wanted Cedric and Mari and got both signed,With whats been delivered by the duo up to now, I’d need more convincing that this lad will be anything different
Absolutely hope PSG gets some serious whooping from Bayern tonight
Neymar is outrageously talented but easily the most dramatic prick in world football.
With whats been delivered by the duo up to now
With 5 league starts between them I think it’s a bit early yet to judge.
“A local called Kafatos, said: “Another group of British men started abusing them, saying he was a rubbish footballer and played for a rubbish team.
“They were also calling him a fridge and I didn’t really understand what they meant by that.’’
Ah, poor Harry. Hate to see it.
“ Luiz isn’t going anywhere this summer. It has to get us at least 5 mil in transfer fees and him actually wanting to go to let go of him. And our new CBs need an acclimating period and need to play with someone that knows the league.”
Lads, here’s how you give a penalty away…
With 5 league starts between them I think it’s a bit early yet to judge.
Mari maybe, but that cameo performance against City before going off injured was really worrisome, painfully slow and was getting dragged all over the place
Soton fans literally couldn’t believe we came in for Cedric, he’s been average for them for years and suddenly you’d think he’ll improve us at the age of 28?lol
Pointless signing I think, Bellerin and AMN are so much better
Victorious
Don’t worry, they’ll get a whooping.
“A local called Kafatos, said: “Another group of British men started abusing them, saying he was a rubbish footballer and played for a rubbish team.“
He can hardly argue about either of those claims.
“They were also calling him a fridge and I didn’t really understand what they meant by that.’’
Nor did he. That’s bordering on two syllables!
Palace Zaha valuation was 80m last season only because 25% of his transfer fee would’ve gone straight to Man U , so in effect one could say CP thought Zaha was a 60m player for whom some Arsenal fans wanted to pay a 20m premium going straight to a direct CL places rival.
If Belleron is better than Cedric, he must be awful.
RB looks like a weakness for us next year.
LB too, for the games when Tierney is out injured.
Still, we were never going to solve years of poor investment and an unbalanced squad overnight.
People like to hate on Luiz but of Mustafi, Sokratis Chambers and Holding he is the only one that actually shows something tangible to our team. Mustafi has been decent since Arteta took over but he is a train wreck without someone to hold his hand. Luiz can be terrible on his day and world class on his day too. But he is the only leader of the center backs who we need to get rid off. That’s how bad our players have been at CB. And that’s the truth.
As an American Arsenal fan trying to watch games can be a hassle sometimes. Currently NBC sports Gold covers all league games. I think that’s 15$month and I can watch every league game. But that’s changing this year to NBC’s new streaming service Peacock. Not sure cost yet as it’s currently free. Gotta pay 5$ month for Europa and CL games and it’s a similar fee to Fox Sports for FA cup games, couldn’t tell ya what carabo is on….I’d honestly pay most reasonable prices for full Arsenal coverage, $30/month probably $40 for no hassle one stop shop all Arsenal… Read more »
I notice a lot of these streaming sites have really poor quality stream jumping picture ,freezing, overhaul a really bad experience I had Now Tv and An Arab company I cannot remember and they where Pants. So I ask what is the point of buying a Good good television and have a shit experience. Amazons Christmas stream on Boxing Day was pretty good but not on the level of Sky. I think eventually Amazon will be the company that has the clout and ambition to televise live games and at a cost most people will find very acceptable through its’s… Read more »
Tom “””Hey , Since Tierney can’t be trusted to stay fit in any other formation but five at the back, apparently, maybe it’d be a good Idea to get Chilwell from Leicester as a back up at 80 m, again. What you think?””””” Chiswell = seems very overpriced. (Them Foxes as shrewd as they come) Tierney= Overpriced and injury prone. As soon as Tierney reverts back to a back 4- he will be crock. His posture ,its all wrong. All over the shop. Needs to work on that. West Hams left back always impresses me. British and robust too. Takes… Read more »
Sell Laca for 40 mil, take Suarez on 13 mil… here 27 mil 😀
Belleein will get better, he has been rusty mentally after the long injury.
Are the Gunners trying to play mind games with Madrid and Ceballos with all these rumors of an interest in Thiago or is this legit?
Gabriel Mag is the Brazilian Stones, nothing like Saliba
You heard it here 1st!
With Saliba you can clearly see his elite potential bubbling just under whenever you watch him play unlike Gabriel, even his YT reel isn’t impressive
So much negativety on here it’s disgusting let’s see what the player can do before we write him off
Also Thierney is fantastic when he plays. Hopefully he is over his injuries and can start playing regularly.
By all accounts slab Maguire & his entourage were being quite loud & obnoxious. If so,a dumb look drawing attention to yourself with other undesirables ,who lets face it ,don’t need much of an excuse to want to lay into him.when will these Brit players ever learn……..
From an Indian point of view, you pay a dish tv fees somewhere around INR 1000 (~10£) / month. You get all the channels and one of the star sports channel shows the matches. It must not be a huge earning since it’s broken in a 45min + 15min + 45min. These 15min would fetch lots of advertisers and £££, but compare it to Cricket where you get a min of advertisement every 6min – over 3hours, with some drink breaks and half time (30min may be). PL rights were bought by Hotstar one season some time back and you… Read more »
Maguire is an idiot by all accounts he took a few slaps to sort his attitude out
Cunty Git and Guns of Fuckney have finally found each other. Bless them, hope they have a wonderful relationship together filled with bitterness, negativity, racism and bland animosity. Just feel sorry for there kids.
Gabriel looks like Koz
Hard to beat on one on one.
There is really a lot of nonsense spouted by media about “quarantine” . First there would be no restriction on a doctor or medical team examining a “patient”. Second finalising and signing contracts can be done at distance without direct contact. Third I am pretty sure that Arsenal have access to properties where the player can live and will have access to gym, swimming pool and garden. So the player will not be exactly restricted. Bluntly I don’t think being out of circulation for 14 days is a major headache for any club concluding a transfer 3-4 weeks before the… Read more »
CG
What a load of shite about Tierney.
You’ve had it in for him from day one, as you have on everything Arsenal since the departure of Wenger.
A major plus point for the team and yet you keep digging up the negatives.
Were you this persistent with Diaby, Wilshere, Walcott, Cazorla, Ox, RVP etc and their postures.
Of course not.
“Cunty Git and Guns of Fuckney have finally found each other. Bless them, hope they have a wonderful relationship together filled with bitterness, negativity, racism and bland animosity. Just feel sorry for there kids.”
You don’t appreciate this wit?
“Pepe looked like Maradona on YouTube but the reality was he played like Madonna.”
Be careful, he likes to threaten people about breaking into their houses and ravaging their families.
Arteta about to pinch the Brentford ste piece coach. That’ll surely make CG happy atleast.
Andreas Georgson off Brentford.
Identified by Arsenal to take Lundbergs
role.
Head of development at Brentford is said
to be a set piece specialist?
I think the problem of not watching the live game is for the fans only in uk and Ireland. Because for rest of the world, there are different kinds of deals with the broadcasters and all the matches will be shown live.
I guess there won’t be too many subscribers from other parts of the world as they may have subscription to their operators who are showing the games live. You need to expect nearly 90% of arsenal media’s total subscribers from uk and Ireland only.
Crimson “”””……osity. Just feel sorry for there kids.”””””” Well ,mine, don’t talk to me anymore.( Well one does only when she wants money sent back to the UK)………. Graham “”””CG What a load of shite about Tierney.”””””””” Only time will tell, on this one. But I think we all know – he will be in an infirmary/hospital sooner rather than later with an injury or two. Raulishuss “””””Arteta about to pinch the Brentford set piece coach. That’ll surely make CG happy atleast.””””” CG is always happy ( believe it not) If he is as good as the Brentford goalkeeping coach… Read more »
Graham have to agree Tierney is one of the shining lights he is a proper player
New post
£10 to live stream one match? Are you having a laugh???
In China I can live stream every match (legitimately) on my smart TV for £1.50 a game
£10 for the privilege of a fucking tv stream of one match is an absolutely hideous deal. Unreal milking of the fans if so
God there is some real crap being posted on here today from our elite in the know analysts including writing off a player who hasn’t even signed yet
What utter drivel – how do some of you even hold down jobs?
When debate centres around our elite in the know experts on here writing off players who haven’t even signed yet , you just know it’s not worth reading further
Some of you have your heads up your arses thinking you know about players who you’ve never seen play
The club will have more idea fortunately than you will so the drivel is pointless
How do some of you even hold down jobs?
On the point of subscriptions. I have a box where i can get every ss channel, inc sports & ppv, every bt channel, sky movies, bein sports etc etc for 40 quid a year i kid u not. Is it kosher? I’ll let u decide. Oh an btw all in fhd, hd
So it turns out that it was Everton that made the late move for Gabriel, not PSG or United.
Anyways we need to start moving out 3-4 defenders now.