Is Stan Kroenke trying to move Arsenal out of the Emirates?

By Sir Hardly Anyone.

I do love the stories the bloggettas publish.  They brighten up my day.  They make me smile.  Guffaw sometimes even.  Snigger a bit.  That sort of thing.

Now most of these odd tales, as you may have noted if you regularly read my august column herein, focus on transfers, but today we 90min.com that brings us the thought that Stan Kroenke is going to move Arsenal.

Whereto we don’t know, but he is going to move Arsenal.

As background they helpfully point out that once upon a time (actually it was 1913 but the writer didn’t look it up to tell us) Woolwich Arsenal moved from Plumstead to Islington – although some of the local people were mighty annoyed about it and so were the council.   They set up a defence committee, and all that stuff, but fortunately Arsenal had Henry Norris on their side, so the locals didn’t stand an earthly.

But what 90min fail to remind us is that in the early days Royal Arsenal also played on the Invicta Ground, opposite the Manor Ground and moved across the road to the Manor in 1893 because the fiendish landlord doubled what was already noted as the highest rent for a football ground in England.  A rival club, Royal Ordnance Factories took over the Invicta and played for a few years in the Southern League, but eventually gave it up as a bad job.

Indeed they don’t even mention that when Henry Norris moved us to Islington it was to Highbury and then subsequently we moved around the corner to the Ems.

But anyway there is a fear that Stan Kroenke might move Arsenal a bit more than just round the corner, and even a bit further than the 12.5 miles (by road) from Plumstead to Highbury.

So what is the evidence of this I hear you cry, or I would hear you cry if you had the window open.

Well it is “the news that Stan Kroenke has decided to controversially move NFL side St Louis Rams out of St Louis and to Los Angeles instead.”

Now despite the split infinitive I perceive that because Mr Kroenke has moved an NFL club 1825 miles from Missouri to California, he could do the same to Arsenal.   So, geography books at the ready, where could he go that is 1825 miles from Highbury?

This is a tricky one.  There is nowhere in the UK that is that far from London, and indeed it is hard to find a European city that is.  Tiblisi in Georgia might do it. I wonder how much a season ticket costs for fortnightly air travel?

To back up the claims of the bloggetta they note that “the Rams were initially the Los Angeles Rams up until 1995 before they moved to St Louis,” but I suspect they then got the St Louis Blues and wanted to move out.  Ho ho.

However there is an interesting point here for the article continues, “Now Kroenke is taking them back to their spiritual home”.

So where is our spiritual home?   Plumstead Marshes is where we really started, I guess, unless Stan fancies a stadium on the rather crowded Isle of Dogs.  Or Highbury?  Knock down the apartments, dig up the garden and start again?

Apparently – and I must say this is the killer, “Arsenal fans have taken to Twitter to voice their concerns that they could suffer the same fate [as the Rams].”

Which proves that while you can’t prove anything with statistics, you can be as dumb as you like on Twitter.

Showing how seriously the bloggetta takes all this it then notes “the complete public outcry that happened when Wimbledon were taken to Milton Keynes by Pete Winkelman to form Milton Keynes Dons,” and thus, “it is unlikely Kroenke would disobey English tradition.

“Nevertheless, the news whipped Arsenal fans up into a frenzy on Twitter, proving that they perhaps do not fully trust their American shareholder.”

Oh.

Actually what I really like here is the fact that the article fails to note that Arsenal have in the last ten years or so spent a fortune on a new stadium.  Or that Stan already own Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, and if he did want to move a club he could think of moving that one.

So, thank you http://www.90min.com/ you brightened up my day.  Not that it needed brightening, but you know what I mean.

Three anniversaries all from the same day

  • 15 January 2010: Samuel Galindo signed from Real America.  Despite eight loan spells over the next five years, he never broke into the Arsenal first team for a league match and was reported not to have played a single game in his last four loan spells.
  • 15 January 2010: Mark Randall loaned to MK Dons.  He played in Bergkamp’s testimonial but never made the breakthrough and drifted into lower league Italian football before joining MK Dons in 2014.
  • 15 January 2010: Kerrea Gilbert loaned to Peterborough.  He got his chance in 2006 (the Year of the Seven Left Backs), and played in six league and cup games, but after his own injury never recovered. In 2014 he was reported to be playing for St Albans City.
Latest thoughts…

39 Replies to “Is Stan Kroenke trying to move Arsenal out of the Emirates?”

  1. can see how this could actually work.
    He moves the Rams to LA, and as a pacifying gift to the angered citizens of St Louis, he moves Arsenal there.
    It is only a matter of time before London gets an NFL franchise, there will soon be several games played at Twickenham, Wembley and WHL
    So, LA gets their Rams back.
    St Louis gets a top worldwide brand soccer team in return.
    London loses Arsenal, but gains an NFL team.
    You know it makes sense!
    And of course Wenger is clearly complicit in all of this.

  2. Sir Hardly Anyone said:
    “Which proves that while you can’t prove anything with statistics, you can be as dumb as you like on Twitter”

    Ha ha, that was one of those laugh out loud moments. I am with the writer, it never ceases to amaze me how happy some folk are to advertise their stupidity on social media.

    PS: Great article.

  3. Mandy, nice one!!

    I wonder if Spurs and their NFL links is relevant. I thought that perhaps they had given up on ever getting one over on us and had decided to play a different type of football. After all, even their new logo has a basketball instead of a football on it, so clearly a degree of American thinking!

    If Arsenal move to America, Spurs can literally have North London all to themselves and revert back to ‘soccer’. North London can then be returned to an empty space of irrelevance.

    One thing Spurs will need to change with their NFL connections is that emblem of theirs. Who out there really thinks a giant sized cock has that much pulling power…………..!

  4. Proudkev, yes, such an unfortunate emblem would certainly bemuse the Americans!
    They also have a bit of a problem if they want to increase their brand stateside, there is already a team over there called Spurs. May have to change their name a bit, using the tradition of incorporating their emblem, and the area from which they originate, maybe it is time to give the world the Middlesex Cocks?

  5. > Who out there really thinks a giant sized cock has that much pulling power…………..!

    Tyson Foods?

  6. OT In the Liverpool game, who took the corner that Giroud scored the first Arsenal goal from?

  7. Menace, believe it was Ramsey who took the corner for OG to score our second goal……or at least I think it was!

  8. Menace…Ramsey did.

    Thinking of moving Arsenal…why not to Nigeria? Even if Stan built another Maracana on any spot in my country there’ll always be 200,000 fans filling the arena whenever the team lines out. It’s just five hours flight from most parts of England and I’m sure it’ll be great advert for the EPL…

    Lol.

    Some bloggers seemingly take others for fools. Why would Stan ever think of moving Arsenal in this generation or ever?

  9. There were 3 goals 2 by G & one by Rambo. Rambo was assisted by Campbell. G’s 2nd was a Rambo assist. His first is not listed & TV did not show who took it. G touched it in at the near post with his foot. Usually it is Ozil who takes the corners & it was direct from the corner that G scored. Is there any utube footage showing that corner kick?

  10. Can’t find this story on 90min.com.Is it just on their Twitter feed or a wind up by Tony?

  11. Only if Stan is stopped from ripping £3 million q year out of Arsene will he make changes that might cause a move away from our present home.

    From his record of sport involvement it is evident his spiritual attachment is to money not locality and supporters.

  12. Looking at it on Arsenal Player, Arsenal 2nd goal, Girouds first, it seems like Ozil takes the corner & G scores at the near post. It gives Ozil another assist. It is this assist that I’m trying to clarify. It will take his tally to 17 this season.

  13. Thanks Mandy. Read it and am amazed that sensible people could get steamed up over such a load of nonsense.

  14. Tyson Foods is a huge food corporation in the USA. I know of them from a chicken point of view. But apparently they are the biggest (or close to the biggest) chicken, beef and pork processor in the USA. I think they call Arkansas home.

    If they were to buy a sports team, they might want the big chicken for a mascot. What they would do with it, I don’t know.

  15. it is beyond me why you would bother commenting on articles as dumb as that. i saw it, got a few words in, registered it was clickbait horseshit for morons, and moved on. yOu actually bothered to publish comment on it. your own special version OF clickbait rubbish. the “look at this rubbush clickbait we saw” type rubbISh clickbait. who cares? move on. and yes, i sm in turn annoyed ay myseLF for botheting to comnent .

  16. Tony

    Sorry. You’re quite correct I wasn’t going back far enough ( 5 days I think ) but Mandy gave me the URL

  17. Arsenal have the biggest support and the best and biggest stadium in the biggest city in Western Europe, already with decent transport links (compare with the Totts feeble connectivity in this regard). Think we’re about there already? I guess could make the stadium bigger (which I believe has been allowed for in the original plans) but this shouldn’t necessitate a move…

  18. Gord, cheers now I get it…..!

    Yep, always makes me laugh when I see a Spurs fan with a tattoo of what is essentially a chicken.

  19. Menace…

    Ramsey took the corner. Ozil couldn’t have taken and in-swinger flag kick from the left side of the opponent’s goal. Check again…it was Ramsey’s assist. Theo almost got a head to it before Giroud’s slightest of touches skewed it against Mignolet’s leg. The first time, I thought it was the keeper’s own goal…and I won’t be surprised if that goal is later chalked off Giroud’s number. I’m almost convinced, even after repeatedly watching it, that without Mignolet, Giroud’s flick wouldn’t have hit target.

  20. Thank you Tai. That must give Campbell 2 assists. He passed to Ramsey & to Giroud albeit via a deflection from a defender.

    Shame that Ozil didn’t get an assist. Gives him more incentive to score & assist in the next match.

    Dude I really loved your writing on Wenger. A rare gift to story tell in words.

  21. Thanks Menace…

    Unfortunately, Capmbell recorded just one assist… the last took a deflection.

    You see, I’ll never get to terms how assists are recorded. Once it’s an own goal it means no assist…what about the last opponent that forced the assist?

    Once it’s a penalty goal, no assist…what about the player that was brought down for the penalty? Or the player that forced the handball for the penalty? Same to free kicks scored direct. I never can understand those rules.

    Can somebody here please educate me?

  22. Paddy: I thought the original piece was very funny, and Untold often publishes stories that some of us think are funny. A bit like the one the other day about Ozil and saying why we shouldn’t have bought him.

    We often comment on articles from elsewhere and I believe a fair number of people enjoy such commentaries, particularly on articles that they have not got round to seeing.

    As for the click-bait theory, Untold has had fractionally under 6 million page views in the past 12 months, and we are running this January at around 150 percent of the level of page views that we had last January, so I am not really sure we need to try and bring in other people just to get a click.

    Clicks don’t particularly do anything for the site – they don’t take us up the rankings on Google because Google simply doesn’t work in that simplistic way any more.

    We have also be accused of making money out of getting people onto a page – but I can tell you as publisher that is not the case. We only make money from our advertisers if people click on an advert – and see an article which is thought to be stupid would not actually make anyone stay long enough on a page to click. Believe me, I have all the figures and analyses, and do know what happens on this and the other sites we operate.

    I don’t know why ever story which brings forth the sillyness of other people on the internet causes so much annoyance but it just seems to. And although it may not be believed, we honestly don’t get any benefit out of these stories. I just think they are an interesting reflection on the way football is seen. And that fits our mission: “Football news from an Arsenal perspective”

  23. Tai

    You should try watching rugby union. So many bewildering rules.
    To me it’s just big blokes going full on at each other.

  24. what in the bloody bejezuz of unnatural unsightly manifestationionismz??????

    How dare Kronke, he will never take arsenal away from London. We have to start a protest and an online petition, get it signed by over 100,000 people so the issue then has to be discussed in parliament.

    MOBILISE NOW, KRONKE GO AWAY!!!!!

  25. Im off to arseblog, arsenalfantv and other blogger sites to rally the fans into for the online petition, who’s with me?

  26. LOL – Anyone who thinks that Stan Kronke is stupid enough to move Arsenal from London needs to be certified. Arsenal are the most profitable brands in London sport. Man United being the most profitable in EPL, followed by Liverpool & then probably Arsenal. Chelsea has some brand support but nowhere near Arsenal.

    So to sum up. Kronke is more intelligent than most of you who think he will move Arsenal from London. If anything he might bring some US franchise to use our stadium (LA Rams or sheep or whatever).

  27. Sports teams in US and Canada are teams…not clubs. They do not have the deep roots in most cases that English football sides do.

    There is a long history of teams relocating in North America unlike the UK. (The St. Louis Rams were previously the Los Angeles Rams and previous to that the Cleveland Rams. The previous St. Louis team, the Cardinals, now reside in Phoenix and previous to being in St. Louis were in Chicago…There is absolutely no comparison between the EPL and the NFL as regards team movement!!!

  28. thought teams in US are franchises, not clubs/institutions like in Europe. Its easy for them to relocate at will. BUT I read elsewhere that to relocate he had to sign a big cheque of around 1 billion in dollars. And people expect that to have an impact on us.

    If only business was that simple…

  29. tony, i suppose that what i really find tiresome is the fact that the internet somehow manages to elevate what would previoysly have been nothing more than idiotic pubtalk that never went beyond a table of dimwits, to somethingthat otherwise i.telligent people end up discussing. we all sometime end up wsdting our breath on matters we should ifeally remain blissfully awate if. ps. crap phone, not worth effort to tidy up typos!

  30. I suggested approx 4 years ago that I could see the day with more foreign owners taking control that in the future (within 10yrs) they may favour the idea of PL or a euro league games being played overseas such as US,Far East to open the clubs up to their new global fans. A club could use its UK ground for say 80/70% of home games & the rest in either 1 or 2 other foreign venues. Foreign owners imo do not have the same emotional pull as fans who’ve grown up with the club as part of the family. M.City already have clubs in US & Aus so there are possible ‘2nd home’ venues in place.

    Some here have said Kroenke is not a stupid man. They are right. He’s a very clever man, but shows no emotion towards the club It’s all about big money & being associated to the best league in the world.With a new LA stadium being planned the clever man can see the marketing bucks of his ‘Arsenal Sports Franchaise’ playing there & his other US teams playing London.

    Just a thought & not one I like at all.

  31. One other point. This was all about the stadium. The US and in particular the NFL has a long history of local authorities building stadia for sports teams and then turning all revenues over the team. It is believed that the cache of having a major league team in your city makes it more attractive for business, tourism and has a positive effect on budgets. This is hugely debatable. The NFL is a moneyspinner and they have not hesitated to move teams away from jurisdictions that don’t pony up and build free stadiums for their teams. The other major sports in North America tend to move teams only when they are losing great amounts of money as opposed to the NFL, who moves a team if they are not making ENOUGH money.

  32. Drunk Cock Fight .

    This drunk man is taking a piss and starts to blame his dick for his life. So he slapped it and says that’s for getting my wife pregnant. Then “Wack Wack” slaps twice and that’s for getting my girlfriend pregnant. Then “Wack Wack Wack” and that is for pissing on me when I’m talking to you.

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