Time To Move

It doesn't matter how many times I walk out of the Arsenal Fish bar towards Highbury Stadium, I still get a buzz from seeing the magnificent outer fascia of the East Stand. I cannot think of another stadium in the UK which has such a glorious frontage. Perhaps I am being a little nostalgic or perhaps it is because it is surrounded by uniform rows of terraced houses, but Highbury Stadium rises like an Ayers Rocks in the middle of a desert of terraced conformity.

But now, it must be said, however painful it may be, that the time has come to make another walk to another stadium. In short, Arsenal must grab the bull by the horns and move to a purpose built stadium on the wasteground behind Kings X station. Before any of you choke on your designer lager let us look at the facts of life. The biggest clubs in the world all have stadiums which have space around them, space to develop their stadiums, to service their customers leisure requirements, to market their clubs in a way which reflects their brand image.

Arsenal have a strong brand image, yet in recent years every time they have tried to develop it around Highbury Stadium they have a bunch of NIMBYs shouting about how the development will harm their quality of life. Well excuse me you middle class twits, Arsenal moved here in 1913 and ever since then they have played in front of large crowds every other week for nine months of the year. The twits who go on about parking were not even born when Highbury used to boast 70,000 crowds yet these fools talk about the area being unable to support 50,000 crowds. But enough of these people. Let them have a supermarket or a B & Q on their doorstep, so they can shop till they drop, and have their dinner parties where they can talk about the merits of stripped pine doors or parquet flooring above carpet, it is time for Arsenal fans to enter the brave new world of a new stadium.

Forget the fact that David Dein likes shiny new American football stadiums and the glitz that accompanies it, I am talking about Arsenal needing to project their brand image into the new millennium. Don't blame David Dein, because he has seen the future and it works. Even if Arsenal get their wish to knock down the Clock End and East Stand (something I advocated last season), it means looking at a huge influx of money. It would probably mean a public floatation because the costs would be around £60 - £100 million.

Now, as Mr Dein knows well, and as Newcastle fans are finding out, when you become a public company you hand control of your company over to shareholders. In reality what that means is that you hand control to a Pension Fund manager whose only desire is to maximise the return for their shareholders. The club then needs to be able to sustain growth and profitability. This then puts a strain on resources because the main income generated by a football club is from players, who all of a sudden become assets, and players are a high risk, high return asset with a limited selling life. Look at what one City analyst at Solomon Smith Barney said this week: " When you can get a good price for an asset whose value can only go down then you have to sell at the peak because of the impact of the Bosman ruling."

That may be good in the world of the city where profit is god and to hell with the rainforest and mankind's future, but every football fan knows that that you cannot reconcile financial logic with footballers. An ageing asset should be sold to maximise revenue, but tell that to football fans who see an old striker get off the bench to score a vital goal in a league match or the last minute of a cup tie. This is what football is all about, it brings joy and wealth the city analysts could never imagine. This is the dilemma facing clubs. Run football like a business and there would be nothing left. It happened at Brighton. Sell the ground for £7.5m, even if there was nothing to replace it. Result absolute misery.

That is why Kevin Keegan left Newcastle and people also tend to forget that only three years ago, Alex Ferguson was moaning that all everyone kept talking about at Manchester was remuneration and return on capital, and if it got any worse he was off. These city analysts care nothing about our pain and suffering when Wrighty has an off day. They would have sold him to Benfica for £6m but we know its bad business even if he couldn't hit a barn door at twenty paces at the current time. With him in the side we feel we can beat Chelsea and go on and win the FA Cup and a place in the top four.

So, to enable the football team to develop and prosper there must be associated businesses surrounding the club, generating the cash returns necessary to please the alternative masters of profit, which is why Arsenal must look at moving. Even if they do develop Highbury Stadium into a 50,000 capacity how much scope will this give them for associated activities. Do you think that the club could service the loan necessary for building on a £40m turnover with a £12.5m salaries bill on football alone? No other club in the world can. Look at what Chelsea are doing with the village concept of restaurants, hotel and conferencing facilities. Tell me that Kings Cross is not a better site with its immediate proximity to the Channel Tunnel rail terminal. Only three hours to the centre of Paris and Brussels. You couldn't do that by aeroplane from the centre of London. The scope for profit is immense: profits that will enable Arsenal to have a sound fiscal policy to develop the team, but without one you can't have the other.

It is no good looking at the profits from merchandising. The current fashion will only have a limited shelf life in terms of increasing revenue. Arsenal must look to be a global business marketing brand and that means selling facilities to the world of business. Like it or lump it football has moved on and only those clubs which can generate sufficient income to attract the best players on stratospheric salaries will prosper in the new millennium.

If Arsenal do decide to develop Highbury we will have to find an alternative ground for one season as half of it will be leveled. To leave Highbury will be a big wrench for many of us, but we must look to the future the same way that Arsenal moved to Highbury at the turn of the century. Look back in anger sure, but stay at Highbury while Kings Cross rises from the rubble then move straight in like Derby did. To live on dreams will make us all sad together, while Chelsea, Manchester, Milan, Barcelona and other forward thinking clubs play in a European league with the best players. We can stay at Highbury admiring our art deco frontage while we play Coventry, Wimbledon and Manchester City.

We all loved our teddy bear wallpaper when we were kids but we grew up and moved on. Why should we wallow in the past with our love for Arsenal. The club is in the heart, changing the bricks and mortar will not deflect from our love of Arsenal.

Plenty of other fans have left their old grounds to find enjoyment and renewed passion at their new homes. We must do the same. I see the spending of £40m at Highbury a bad investment and a poor return for future generations of Arsenal fans. There have been two major visionaries in Arsenal's past; Sir Henry Norris realised that Arsenal must get in to the first division at the end of World War 1 and lobbied (corruptly) to ensure it happened, then Herbert Chapman made Arsenal the most famous club in the world by having foresight and a grand vision. I hope that the current Arsenal board have the same vision. We must plan to move now before the chance has gone.