Arsenal: The damnation of Stan Kroenke

Stan Kroenke is the Arsenal owner. And on Thursday, #kroenkeout is trending on Twitter. This the damnation of the American’s tenure at the club.

You know that you are not well liked in the public eye when a hashtag demanding that you leave your job trends on Twitter. But that is the case with Stan Kroenke and his tenure as Arsenal owner.

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Kroenke first bought shares in the club in 2007, buying 9.9% of the club via his ownership of MLS franchise, the Colorado Rapids. He then bought an extra 2.29% as he looked to rival the ownership bid of Alisher Usmanov. On September 19 2008, he was accepted onto the board of directors. At this point, his ownership bid stepped up a level.

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He took his number of shares up to 29.9% during this period, which is just below the 29.99% threshold that demands any shareholder must make a complete takeover bid. Kroenke bided his time, although was the majority shareholder from this point forward, and eventually became the sole shareholder in August 2018 when Usmanov accepted his offer that valued the Gunners at around £1.8 billion. It is not a coincidence that the downfall of Arsenal football club has coincided with the surge of Kroenke as owner.

And the Kroenke damnation is most clearly represented in one, simple, painful graphic. Thanks to the brilliant @SwissRamble, who is a must follow for all financial aspects of modern-day football, all Premier League clubs have been represented by the source of their funds. You can see the graphic below:

The immediate thing to note about the above graphic is that 100% of Arsenal’s funds have come from operations, this being the revenue that they earn from the running of the club. When the board members at the club talk about being ‘self-sustainable’, this is precisely what they are referring to. Living within your means.

You will also see that no other team relies solely on operation revenue. There are those that lean more on being bankrolled by their owners, Manchester City chief among them, but every single team has at least some financial input from their owner/s. Even clubs like Spurs and Burnley that attest to being as self-sustainable and financial frugal as possible have invested ownership funds. For Kroenke, that is damning.

What is most enraging, however, is what is said. If the absence of owner spending came with an outward acceptance that Kroenke owning Arsenal for the profit, fans, while frustrated, would accept it. But that is not the case. Kroenke and the club have consistently and repeatedly stated that they are in football to win, to rival the best in the Premier League and Europe. But their actions and their words do not match up, not even slightly.

The situation, admittedly, is more confusing that one simple graph. But the fact that Kroenke’s ownership can be summed up in such a plain and painful manner is a sheer damnation of his motives and behaviour. I think you will all agree, #KroenkeOut.