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AST Survey Results 2011… Let’s discuss…

Posted by :devday On : July 11, 2011
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Category: Arsenal

Morning, afternoon, evening, where ever you are!

The Arsenal Supporters Trust Survey 2011 was released yesterday and it’s time to have a read through the report…

I haven’t commented on anything yet, the following notes are completely from the survey – my thoughts will come soon!

Ownership

Stan Kroenke will soon have a majority holding in Arsenal Football Club and control over all strategicdecisions. How important do you think each of the following areas of corporate strategy are?

  • Custodianship / looking after the long-term future of the club – 86% rated this extremely  important (5/5)
  • Accountability and openness to supporters – 67% rated this extremely important (5/5)
  • Financial management and enhancing Arsenal’s commercial operations: 89% thought this was very or extremely important (4 – 5 / 5)
  • Overseeing the manager and football performance of the club – only 44% rated this as important, 7% stating it was the least important

Now that Arsenal is more than 90 percent owned by two billionaire investors, do you think that relyingon the ‘sustainability’ model (where the Club only spends the revenues it raises) should remain a key corporate objective or is there a case for financial investment into the club by its major shareholders?

  • Retain self-sustainability model: 51%
  • Investment into Club by major shareholders (rights issue or donation): 38%
  • Don’t know: 11%

Once the takeover of Arsenal by Kroenke is completed, do you think he should make it a priority tocontinue to support both the Arsenal Fanshare scheme and to involve supporter shareholders in Arsenal’s ownership arrangements?

  • 96% of people said yes!

and that he should improve his communications with supporters including setting out his ambitions for the club and explaining the strategy he has to achieve them?

  • 96% of people said yes too!

Do you think Kroenke should invite Red and White Holdings, which owns a 27 percent stake in the Club, tojoin the Board?

  • 70% said yes, Usmanov should join the board

Selected quote:

The two main shareholders should work together. Minority shareholders and Fanshare members should be retained and AFC could develop a model of ownership that other clubs would aspire to.

Selected quote:

The question is, if Red & White were on the Board would this be constructive? The signs are that the difference in approach might cause disharmony

Would you support Kroenke paying a dividend or extracting management fees from Arsenal Football Club?

  • 94% said no to that question or refused to say yes (80% no, 14% not sure)

Do you think Kroenke Sports Enterprises should be more transparent in how it has raised the fi nance topurchase Arsenal Football Club?

  • 78% of people asked said yes

Football Performance

How satisfied are you with the football performance of Arsenal Football Club in recent years?

  • Highly satisfied, 2%
  • Satisfied, 22%
  • Slightly satisfied, 39%
  • Unsatisfied, 37%

Do you think that Arsène Wenger’s football philosophy takes too much precedence over the objective of winning trophies?

  • 69% of people agreed that the football philosophy was taking precedence

Now that the club is under new ownership, should former Board member David Dein be invited to return to theclub, in a football specific role, to support Arsène Wenger in delivering the club’s footballing objectives?

  • A high percentage – 69% – wanted David Dein to return

Selected quote:

Wenger needs to accept that he has taken on too much. Be brave and accept that help is needed

Selected quote:

It’s difficult to criticise Wenger or his great record but he has not strengthened the team with key players. What is needed is the Board to include someone who understands football – someone like David Dein

Do you think that if Arsenal does not win a trophy next season (which would be the seventh successiveyear without one) that the Board should conclude that Arsène Wenger has taken the club as far as he can?

  • 42% said yes, 40% said no, and 18% were unsure.

Selected quote:

I would like an explanation of the last 5-6 years of underperformance and whether there was money for big signings or not and how much the exit of Dein was a factor

Ticketing

Do you agree with Arsenal’s decision to increase season ticket and general admission ticket prices by 6.5percent this year?

  • Overwhelming 78% disagree with season ticket increase

Do you agree with Ivan Gazidis that the cost of attending live football is in danger of pricing supporters outof football and that the Club should make affordability a key priority of its ticketing review?

  • 96% of people agreed.

Do you think that the ticket prices Arsenal charge provide good value for money?

  • 50% of people think that ticket prices are NOT good value for money

How do you envisage the increase in ticket prices will affect your behaviour at Arsenal next season?

  • 20% of people will attend fewer games
  • 3.5% of AST members will not renewed (AST members are very loyal, so that number will surely be higher in the real world!)
  • 40% say that they will not spend on merchandise to accommodate increase in ticket prices

Sentiment And Expectations

Reflecting on your own relationship with Arsenal and reviewing recent years, do you now feel a strongersense of belonging to the club?

  • 50% of people said no to this question

Do you think the Arsenal Board and its senior executives are in touch with Arsenal fans and have a goodunderstanding of their hopes and concerns for the future of the club?

  • Only 8% of people said “Yes” they were in touch

Looking at Arsenal’s new ownership structure, its ‘sustainable’ business model, its football managementand squad strength, and comparing it to the other Premier League clubs, how optimistic are you aboutArsenal’s prospects during the next five years?

  • 43% were optimistic or extremely optimistic, 31% pessimistic or somewhat pessimistic!

If you would like to review the AST notes in their entirety, you can download it in full here.

For those of you who are not members of the AST, you can join here…

Over to the comments…

devday

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  • Goner Get Ya

    The fans have spoken but I fear it will fall upon deaf ears!! All we want is for the club to challenge for major honors and to do that we need a better squad, everyone sees this apart for the key people at the top. Just need a bit of investment from the majority shareholders to boost our chances…that’s all. Why is that so difficult for them to understand?

  • Gooner Get Ya

    Usmanov and kronke seem be having a power struggle. What happens if Usmanov gets to 30% shares, anyone know?

  • Bonathan

    Interesting that fergeson has come out and said that he’s out of the race since he thinks nasri is moving somewhere else. wow, he must really believe that otherwise there’s no way he’d give up that easy, not until he’d signed an extension at arsenal. the comment would imply that city have nabbed him. unless chelsea or someone from outside the prem have got him.

    wenger has been quoted saying he thinks that nasri will be at arsenal this year, but couldn’t even bring himself to say that he thinks nasri will sign an extension yet. my opinion is that he knows nasri is going and he’s trying to bump the price up as much as poss. very similar to the modric situation. I may be being negative here, but it’s hard to read anything else in these quotes now coming from the horses mouths of wenger and sir alex.

    my money’s on him going to city. I mean, what do we expect? He’s obviously unsure we can win the title, so he’s waited to see who we might sign, he’s seen jenkinson and gervinho arrive, clichy depart and wenger coming out saying he won’t sign another LB and we’l only be signing 1, maybe 2 more. Can anyone here really, hand on heart, say that they think that will persuade him to stay? I know I can’t.

    Anyway, what seems certain is that, we won’t sign another LB. Wow, let’s consider our options:

    Gibbs: good potential. Still unproven, suspect defensively and up to now very injury prone.

    TV: our best CB, do we really want to be moving him to LB much? Will he be as good as he was after his long time out? more worrying, will he have reccurences of his injury, which was a mystery for a long time.

    and last, and least, armand traore: this is the guy who struggled for a game at portsmouth, had a pretty dire season with us, has sat on juventus’s bench for the last year, and now what are we really expecting here? let’s face it, if clichy had stayed, traore would have been sold by now.

    we may get lucky with gibbs, who knows, maybe TV will step in there. One things for sure though, we are once again living in hope. rather than making sure and making a signing, we are living in hope.

    we will not spend anything that we don’t make off sales, for about the 5th season running. it is blatantly obvious already. If they’d just come out and say this rather than getting our hopes up saying its going to be a big summer and investment in the squad will be made, it would be a lot easier to take. but this is dire.

  • devday

    @ Bonathan:
    That is true – re not spending until we sell… which is the most frustrating thing because all we do it sell…

    In reality, will Nasri sign a new deal? I doubt it – so what are we playing at? Lose him for free next year and buy a replacement (or not) or lose him for £25m this summer and re-invest?

    Noises from Ferguson’s camp sound like he is a goner – but to who? I would hate it if he ended up at another English club – perhaps no foreign clubs are interested?

  • yemi

    If Aresne is not buying a LB, then he must surely be buying a CB

  • agentsmurf

    Wenger seriously is sounding more and more senile everytime he speaks nowadays – he seems adamant he wants to keep cesc and nasri but on the other hand he is saying he hopes they stay. I think he needs to sit down with the pair of them and say look you’re noth staying END of.

    The man who refuses to spend money is willing to lose any fee for Nasri by holding him prisoner for 12 months. Having just wasted £12million on a striker/winger/midfielder (does anyone know what he really is?) that we don’t need Wenger now says he is happy to forfeit £25million on Nasri. Yeah, of course you will. Wenger goes on to say if we lose Cesc and Nasri we will become a small club. Ahheemm, if you hadn’t been such a dreadfully wasteful manager over the last 6 years handing trophies to other clubs these players would want to stay. As soon as Wenger boastfully stated winning isn’t everything it was over, the players took him literally and gave up. Interestingly following Wenger’s stupid remarks today, Ferguson has come out and said Man Utd won’t sign Nasri because the turncoat Frenchman has agreed to go elsewhere. Yes we are definitely living in a Wenger Wonder World. We are all wondering what guff he will come out with tomorrow.

  • rado

    My fellow gunners, i know we are all frustrated with the slow paste of the club /wenger transfer dealing but i think the coach deserves some benefit of doubt and our patience since the window is not yet closed. How many times HAS HE PROVEN US WRONG IN THE LONG RUN? WE CONDEMNED HIM FOR refusing to pay big for Players like wright philip,melo,robinho,joe cole, canton cole,robert green,quaresma to mention few but look at those players today and what investment they have been for those who went ahead and pay for their service. the point is, the manager his not in a position to gamble on these big singing like Ferguson has done when you look at what man u paid for players like(berbertov,hargreaves,veron,bebe,obaton,anderson,manucho,diouf)or chelsea with players like(shevi,zikov,bosinwa, tores), i wont even bother talking on man city because we all know the turnover of their players and the exorbitant transfer fee they pay.i know we could point at the likes of denilson, ebue,squilashi, aluminia and co but their fees can not be compared to the millions of pounds gambled away by theses clubs.fine, wenger gambles too much on unproven talent but i dont think he has too many options considering that we cant gamble on big names like our pairs .we all want him to mix it this time around but we should allow him find the right bargain, assess him when the window closes and not before lets keep the faith.

  • http://Twitter.com/Leeroycypher LeeroyN2

    Frustration comes hand in hand with Arsenal, but you love to hate and hate to love this team, it’s quirks, rollercoaster seasons and sometimes very stubborn manager. We all have our own perceptions of the ideal player(s) who would fit in perfectly at our club. For whatever money we think necessary or availability. The reality is we(fans) can do nothing but sit through the ride, through it’s ups and downs. Continue to support the Manager, Players and Staff, through the highs and the lows and be what you are and always will be, a fan and a supporter of the club no matter what. COYG!

  • afc4life

    @ rado:
    Yes, we will get the names of the players wrong.
    But the sentiment that we need players is correct!

    We definitely need a left back and a centre back.
    Only Vermaelen & Sagna are good enough for the back 5.

    And finally we need to keep Cesc & Nasri and sign a left winger.

  • http://Twitter.com/Leeroycypher LeeroyN2

    @afc4life – I hope indeed we find use for a class winger. We have forced too many players into roles they are not comfortable with. Time now for a different side of Arsenal to be born. Mentally and strategically. I’ve said before, Arsenal are transparent to some Managers and teams. COYG

  • Gooner Get Ya

    A quick poll: should this be Wengers last season as Arsenal manager if we win nothing?

  • http://twitter.com/Leeroycypher LeeroyN

    I vote – YES.

    That is because, I would want to know how much time you would give a ‘New’ Manager to win “something”.

  • afc4life

    @ Gooner Get Ya:
    From the article…

    42% said yes, 40% said no, and 18% were unsure!

  • Gooner Get Ya

    @ afc4life:
    And what is your answer?

  • yemi

    I can only support Wenger being sacked if it is not done the we our player transfers are handled i.e. Replacing quality with cheap & average. I’d rather have a wenger than a southgate or avram grant and the likes.
    But if u guarantee me a better coach, why not?

    Having said that, we should also note that no top coach will take the emirates job without being guaranteed funds for getting playersg
    Not this sell before you buy. Clichy was sold for £7m, which top LB will u get for the same price? Or what top CF will u get for the price u’ll get selling B52? Or denilson? Or alumina? Or squillaci?

    I think the whole management needs injection of fresh blood/ideas. I tought that will come with KSE takeover but nothing is happening on that end