Thursday, March 28, 2024

Return of fans delayed due to Covid-19 spike

Arsenal announced plans last month to bring fans back to the Emirates Stadium – albeit in a limited capacity – in early October.

The fixture against Sheffield United had been earmarked as the one which would see supporters see the Gunners play live for the first time since the 1-0 win over West Ham on March 7th.

However, those plans will have to be put on ice after a rise in Covid infections, with government minister Michael Gove telling the BBC, “We do want to, in due course, allow people to return to watch football and other sporting events but it is the case that we just need to be cautious at the moment and I think a mass reopening at this stage wouldn’t be appropriate.”

Obviously it’s bad news for fans, but for football clubs the financial implications could be massive, without revenue streams they had hoped to start trickling in again.

Whether there are implications for the transfer business we might do between now and the close of the window remains to be seen. Like every other club, Arsenal need cash to operate, to keep things running, pay wages and everything else, so it might be a case that outgoings are affected by this latest setback.

The Arsenal Supporters Trust have published updated analysis of the financial situation, with potential losses this year of £44m, and around £80m next year.

You can read the full analysis here.

Arsenal have spent around £30m on Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille, as well as the £1.5m capture of Alex Runarsson from Dijon, while bringing in £20m for Emi Martinez. Further incomings were already somewhat dependent on who else we might move on, and in the light of this news it becomes even more so.

Let’s see what happens. In the meantime, please stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask where required: we can all do our bit to help prevent the spread of this virus which is on the rise again.

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Ozenal

So our net spend so far is 11.5m?

If we manage to sell Sokratis, Torreira and Mustafi, we could be looking at recouping between +35-50m?

Which would mean around 23-38m to spend on player trading alone.

Biggles

Yes, but we’ve added £millions to the wage bill through Willian’s salary and Auba’s wage uplift. OK, there’s a saving on the wages for Martinez but we’re piling on the pounds in an already too large bill. And with gate receipts eliminated for the forseeable future, things are very tight financially.

Daveo

Things may be tough financially for transfers and stuff, but the club is fine. Our owner is extremely rich. He owns the club, his asset. His losses in the end. Worst case scenario for him is he abandons ship, which in turn is the best case scenario for us… Well until something rich arsehole takes over and does exactly the same. If there is one thing we can all agree on with COVID19 is that its funnelling a lot of money from the lower and middle class to the rich. So here is an example of rich taking a hit.… Read more »

Biggles

We know that the owner will not support the club in the way that a few others do so if the club’s financial position worsens, as it may well do, cuts will need to be made. This won’t be anything new – we’ve seen redundancies already. Money for wages and transfers will be effected as well and that could have serious consequences down the road. If a business is in financial trouble, very few owners pour more money in, they downsize to try and make it break even, if not profitable. I hope that doesn’t happen to Arsenal.

Daveo

Ultimately I’m hoping this euro super club competition happens and arsenal aren’t a part, national league boot the super reams out and they go back to being about clubs again and fans flock to that because it has heart and passion and the super league collapses along with its mega teams that aren’t invited back… Money fucked football when Roman took over Chelsea,which was the last straw. When the game doesnt generate its own income it’s false, like an inflated housing market propped up by city destroying empty apartments owned by foreign investors.

Scott P

That sounds nice to me, although as a fan outside of the UK, it would worry me as to whether I would be able to watch most of the games if TV broadcasts focus on the super league.

Daveo

If there is a will there is a way.

joeb

You hope it doesnt happen to arsenal? have you been in a cave for the last 10 years. the clubs is already run to break even or make profit.

Vonnie'

We saved all that by offloading Mkhitaryan.

Doghouse

As bad as it is financially for all clubs at least we don’t have a brand new stadium to pay off

Var Will Solve The Problem

I heard that we are looking to loan Luka Jovic from Real Madrid and if that happens are willing to sell Laca. I love Laca but I see the logic behind this deal.
Luka Jovic has great potential and a loan deal will work out for everyone!

Dave cee

I’d be delighted to see that deal happen!

Biggles

What a wonderful word “if” is. My understanding is that we’d try and use Torreira in a player + cash deal for Partey so there’s net expenditure there (around £20 million or so). Sokratis is a 32 year old very average player (being polite) with a year on his contract. Not sure how much he’d fetch, particularly in this market? Mustafi – well, that’s a real puzzle. A monumental waste of £35million (couldn’t we do with that now, eh) for another “very average” player, on an over generous wage (often a stumbling block) and currently injured. Should buyers form an… Read more »

Jeremy DG

The grim reaper is standing by to take the lower league clubs. I get that with bigger teams you have wider issues such as overcrowded public transport but with careful planning these issues can be overcome as the Bundesliga has shown. Instead we have a reactionary government who are making it up as they go along to look like they are doing something (mostly not supported by science) and as a result people are losing the their sense of community and livelihoods. There is no reason why clubs in areas where the virus transmission, hospital admissions and death rates are… Read more »

Anonymarse

Yeah unfortunately we don’t do careful planning do we

Or just planning. Or thinking.

ClockEndRider

Of course none of it is due to the endemic stupidity of people in this country, not distancing, going on foreign holidays and mixing in environments almost certain to ensure a highly contagious virus can spread. But hey, it’s not the people’s fault. That would involve actually pointing fingers at real people and that would be an “-ism” of some kind. Far easier to blame “The Man”.
Get a grip.

Anonymarse

Why proceed on the basis that everybody is sensible and responsible when that’s obviously not the case …

I mean we tried that before and it didn’t go well …

Most people probably are, but it only takes a few idiots and the messages coming out of the government can’t exactly be said to be clear either.

If we had been really smart we might have anticipated that the first time and less people would have died. It seemed pretty obvious to me.

loose_cannon

Baffling comment, people don’t make choices in a vacuum. If the government they trust tell people it’s safe to go back to the office, go on crowded public transport, go to school and uni, go to pubs and restaurants indoors and, yes, to go on holidays then who are you to say they’re stupid for believing them? All while Cummings and co are flout the rules themselves. Mixed messaging, poor prioritisation, rank hypocrisy, u-turn after u-turn, lack of tests and PPE. It’s been a total shitshow, but easier to blame the population as a whole than, you know, the people… Read more »

loose_cannon

Urgh, feeling dirty talking about politics on here XD

Anonymarse

Yeah sorry best stop that. Pisses me off.

Anonymarse

Well yeah that’s more like it really isn’t it …

Chalmers gang

Whilst I agree about personal responsibility the government hasn’t covered themselves in glory either, more like their own urine…

Anonymarse

Obviously people should take responsibility for their actions.

That goes for the government too, they’re not big on that are they. Flouting their own rules and trying to blame other people for their own mistakes for example …

JeremyDG

So I assume you have been doing everything perfectly in line with government protocol? Somehow I doubt it. Covid has indeed given a platform to the self riteous. Look, some people are always going to disobey rules, most will some of the time and some will follow the rules to the letter. That’s not about being educated or English, it’s human nature. We will have to live with this virus like we do with many others and you can’t just keep locking everything down and panic the moment there is a wave. It will become an endless cycle which will… Read more »

Homer

Not British.

But, have a hard time with your comment.
You may not have realized that COVID19 is a deadly disease that is spread by by humans breathing.

50,000 new cases in Britain as of yesterday, sept. 21. So yeah, there is a BIG reason why its not safe to have…WTF are socially distanced spectators at a football ground anyway. Sounds physically near impossible.

Yes yes, by all means, I care more about your pocket book than my own life.
Wait, no. No I don’t. That’s effing krazy. No offense.

JeremyDG

A life isn’t a life without a sense of community and a purpose. If you are trying to protect everyone at any cost you might as well stick everyone in a padded, bio secure cell for the rest of their days.

Johnny 4 Hats

Phew. Thanks Jeremy. I was beginning to think I was the only person who had a sense of proportion about all this. I totally agree with everything you say and believe we all have choices to make. I look at the numbers and I don’t see a deadly pandemic. I see a nasty illness that certain people should be especially careful of. To those people I say keep safe. Life is not free of risk. We take it everyday we are alive. Unless you want to wait the year to three years (depending on who you believe) for a vaccine,… Read more »

Uhtred

Covid spike my arse!! If the virus was as bad as they say then every supermarket worker would be dead by now.

Matt

You’re welcome to look at the number of actual deaths and fathom the sheer magnitude of it (more than one coffin per seat at Highbury) or the amount of excess deaths due to the effect of Covid on healthcare (more than one coffin per seat at the Emirates). You’re welcome to be uninformed, just don’t impose the effects of your ignorance on others.

SY23

Just to point out that this is also an uninformed view, or rather one which contextualises the figures poorly against something like a stadium – which we consider to be large on a human scale – rather than the scale of population figures, which we have a harder job imagining.

Matt

This makes no sense. But if you’d rather just say 0.1% of the population has died and that’s just fine with you, go ahead. It’s easier to deny the reality of the virus or justify not wearing a mask or whatever if you don’t think about the actual cost to people’s lives.

Eternal Titi Berg Pat Nostalgia

Is coffin added to the imperial and metric systems?

Arsenorf

You’re welcome to watch UK Column or the Corbett Report, among other serious outlets, for a thoroughly substanciated analysis of the sheer magnitude of the scam that is the Covid-19 pandemic.
For instance, did you know that the definition of “pandemic” as per the OMS was changed in 2009? Can you guess what they did change in it?

Matt

I think everyone’s best off not giving airtime to the wacky, racist conspiracy theorists you recommend. Fairly sure this bullshit goes against the commenting policy here.

Anonymarse

A small proportion of younger, healthy people end up in hospital or die

A larger proportion may end up with longer term side effects

The real issue is once you have enough cases in the general population it spreads to the more vulnerable people and then you have carnage like we had before …

FactsNotEmotions

Reality is that when you look at the charts for death rates then everything is within normal limits.
Look at it via the graph on “cases” and then people panic.
In my opinion unjustifiably.
Look into the dry tinder hypothesis and patterns clearly emerge.

A Different George

A little worse than that even–a small proportion of millions of young, healthy people is still a very large number. And the nature of this disease is that, without preventive measures like business closings, social distancing, and masks, it will indeed infect all, or almost all, of those millions.

Anonymarse

Yes I suppose I am understating it a bit. It’s nasty stuff.

NW5Gooner

You speak with such authority on these matters I can only assume that you have professional experience in the field of epidemiology. Where did you study?

Have you had any peer reviewed papers published on this matter that I could look up?

I’d be interested in hearing more.

Dave cee

That made me laugh! Thank you.

A P

Uhtred is the first documented case of Covid infection through his ass hole.

Homer

I like your avie name. Bernard Cornwell, brilliant writer! My current favorite.

Your comment, I like much less, unfortunately. 🙁

Qwaliteee

Wow. That’s Olympic levels of ignorance, mate.

May I suggest you go online and check out not only the number of deaths in this country, but globally.

Your attitude and the attitude of those like you – are a big part of the problem.

Arsenorf

2Your attitude and the attitude of those like you – are a big part of the problem.”
Kettle, pot, glass houses and all the rest…

Qwaliteee

Really? People trying to stay safe and adhere to the rules regarding health and safety in an epidemic are the problem…?

As opposed to those who simply can’t be fucked to wear a mask, or observe social distancing, or generally make some sort of a fucking effort to help – but instead ignore the warnings, take the piss and have nothing else better to do than indulge themselves in Looney saloon bar conspiracy theories, that have no fucking scientific or factual evidence to back them up whatsoever….?

You want to grow up mate. You’re talking like a Spurs fan.

Matt

Partey’s cancelled?

Boydy

Don’t forget we’re about £10m lighter on wages with Mhiki gone. Does the SwissRamble do live estimations of these kind of finances so you can see the net spend to date?

Hantal

Probably absorbed by Willian and auba

Martyn

Surprise surprise. The government have seen that the premier league can survive with TV only. My guess is the whole season will go without fans because once the ‘second wave’ has come and gone, the government will start preparing us for the third and fourth waves. Wave goodbye to fans in grounds. I feel so sorry for the lower league clubs.

Jeremy DG

I’d be even more sad to see the end of spurs. Who would we laugh at?

Biggles

The article should serve as a wake up call to Gooners who think just saying “we should buy player x for £millions” or “sell player y for £millions” should make it happen. For Arsenal the empty Emirates will be particularly damaging as we know. For example, we cannot sustain an expanding wage bill (thanks to recent increases for Willian and Auba – Martinez wasn’t a huge earner in the other direction) for long against falling income. The bill was too high before Covid – a CL bill on Europa League money as a paper suggested. To buy, we must sell… Read more »

Dave cee

Let’s think about this. If it is going to happen in England it will most likely happen across the big 5 leagues, in which case finances will go down further across the board. I don’t think this is going to hit Arsenal particularly harder than other clubs, even given our high match day revenue figures. If Arsenal are going to suffer so are the clubs like Atleti and Lyon we supposedly want to buy from. That means no new contracts for Partey or Aouar. It also means players in last year of their contract ( like Papa, Ozil e.g )… Read more »

Biggles

What happens in other clubs is up to them, I (and I suspect, you) don’t know anything about their finances really. You’re wrong about Arsenal though. It will hit Arsenal harder than other Premiership clubs – let’s stick to them – because we derive a greater % of our total income, about 25%, from gate receipts than any other PL club. The other so called “top 6” clubs are mostly/all around 17%-21%, if memory serves. This has been the case since the move to The Emirates to help cut the stadium debt, and is the reason why overall ticket prices… Read more »

Qwaliteee

It’s Kroenke’s problem.

His total lack of investment is killing this club. He contributes nothing, except a name on the board beginning with ‘K’, whilst the rest of us have to stump up some of the highest ticket prices in this country for Europa League football.

Unless Mikel Arteta can achieve a miracle, then it’s really only a matter of time before fans will vote with their wallets and simply not bother.

Never mind Covid, it’s Kroenke and his lack of investment that’s this club’s biggest problem.

Javoroncov

I’m fine with contributing nothing IF he manages the club well. His management style reeks of laziness. Just throw everything to Wenger, then Gazidis, then Raul, and now Arteta and hopes it works while he is busy playing golf in the US. It’s the neglect from this shitty owner that leads us to the present state.

Qwaliteee

Check out what he is investing in a certain Stateside stadium – and contrast this with Arteta and Edu having to look down the back of a sofa to try and find the perfectly reasonable amount of money for his perfectly reasonable transfer targets.

It’s beyond a joke.

Qwaliteee

*their

Qwaliteee

Sell Lacazette and you’re screwing our chances of top four for another season – and we remain exactly where we are not only in terms of our league position but also our capacity for ‘raising funds’

Surely that’s got to appeal to you.

joeb

Same for all clubs bar maybe chelsea and city. you dont have inside info of our finances or wage bill so stop waffling on like youre some kind of expert on the subject.

karl

It was always a long shot to bring back live football as we head into cold weather. I just hope we can keep TV football going to get us through.

Eternal Titi Berg Pat Nostalgia

The way I watch games, none of the money goes to Arsenal.

Javoroncov

How about Stan giving us back the 6 mil he tooj for “Advisory fee”? Or even better, he sells the clun to someone who cares.

Qwaliteee

And people vote this down.

Incredible.

Javoroncov

Must be some sorry blokes who still clings to beliefs such as “We are a club with values”, “We are better than those oligarchs” etc.
Come on, this club is full blown corporate cash cow now and Kroenke is no better than Abramovich or UAE. So at least let me have someone who cares about football and gives us some fun over a shitty owner who does not give a flying fuck.

Arteta's Hair

Todays announcement means any potential transfers are probably dead as we will not have fans in the stadium for half in not all the season!!!

So KSE will keep all £££ in the bank!

Ron Dodson

We are dealing with some of the same statistical misinterpretation here across the pond. I have parents with immune disorders, I keep them at home, well cared-for and out of harm’s way. The general populace should be okay. Ivy league statistician William Briggs illuminates in his typically biting, funny, but informative fashion. I’m sad, because I was planning a trip to London and the Emirates. https://wmbriggs.com/post/32606/

BODMAS

What a pity,for so many years wanting to visit England and watch The Arsenal play,I got the visa and now lost interest in visiting. Let fastward this year. Whats going on? Painful heart ❤ ?

ArseCLE

Tough loss for lower league clubs and it’s a big Unknown for the future.

When it comes to our run in in the League, games 3-7, I think no fans will be to our benefit when it comes to taking maximum points.

Although the actual football is the least of our worries with covid

Qwaliteee

My take on all of this is just to reiterate what Blogs has said about staying safe and each and every one of us, as human beings, doing our bit to help defeat this virus. I love my football dearly, but common decency has to come first here – quite simply, people’s lives are at risk – and, for me, their welfare is surely far more important than recreational sport. If I have to wait another year or whatever it takes to go back to the Emirates, then so be it. We might even have a solid defence by then.… Read more »

joeb

Peoples lives are at risk every time they leave their house. Maybe lock yourself inside incase you get hit by a bus. brainwashed fool.

joeb

Not yet anyway apparently thats the next stage of the virus. buckle up.

Qwaliteee

One of my mates initially took the piss out of people who took this virus seriously.

Then he lost his grandmother to it.

He doesn’t take the piss any more.

joeb

My friends grandad got hit by a bus.
He survived thankfully
But it cost me my job as a bus driver.

Qwaliteee

You’ve actually got a friend?

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