The formula for popularity. How Arsenal became the biggest brand in English club football « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Richard Bedwell and Tony Attwood
The formula for popularity?
Given that football clubs are brands, the start of each season is a chance to re-measure each brand and see how well it is doing.
Brands, we should explain, are what all businesses aspire to be. Being a brand means that your name is recognised instantly. You don’t have to say, “We’re Torquay United, a fourth division club, currently having a good run,” you say, “We’re Arsenal” and everyone immediately thinks Wenger, Emirates, quality, style, sold out, Walcott, Henry, Bergkamp…
The name, in a brand, says it all. Think, “Coca Cola,” and “Ben and Jerry’s” and you get the idea.
So given this it may be interesting to construct a formula by which you can measure the popularity of your ‘brand’ in its marketplace.
For a football club this could be considered to be season ticket sales and the four key numbers that are associated with those sales. These might be considered to be as follows:-
- How many have they sold?
- What proportion is that of the total available?
- At what average price were they sold?
- What is the level of unsatisfied demand?
In England only Man IOU can claim a higher number sold than Arsenal but, according to Matt Slater of the BBC, their sales are ‘less than 100% of availability’ at a much lower average price and with zero unsatisfied demand i.e. they have no waiting list.
Arsenal would therefore claim significantly higher scores on factors 2,3 and 4 and could, depending on the importance given to each of those factors in calculating the overall ‘popularity formula’, claim to be a stronger brand (in its consumers eyes) than are our friends in the North.
That, we could contend, would make Arsenal, by far and away, the strongest brand in the English market and with the highest demand to watch live. And that has been achieved without winning a trophy for five years and without going into hock to gamble on changing that.
Truly remarkable and a testament to the astonishing vision of Arsène Wenger.
But we must almost acknowledge that other clubs have seemingly sold their season tickets for the season. Aside from us there is Blackpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and the Tiny Totts (now celebrating 50 years without a league championship).
The London threesome (also in the Champs league this year, assuming the Tinies don’t give us one hell of a laugh against Young Boys) are also the most expensive clubs – although direct comparison in prices is difficult in that Arsenal’s tickets contain lots of cup matches, which the others don’t.
We should also take into account that the KGB in Fulham and the Tinies also play at really naff stadia, adapted from old grounds with terraces. As a result they are without one tenth of the facilities at Arsenal and without a fraction of the earning power of the Club Level and boxes at what (according to the chants last weekend) has now been renamed Highbury.
All three clubs also claim to have long waiting lists for season tickets, so it seems there are more than enough supporters in the capital to go around.
But elsewhere waiting lists are not what they used to be, as Manchester United can confirm, and this is what takes them down the brand ranking.
Blackpool’s sales are to be expected – a chance to have a day out across the country in the top flight for the first time since our first double. 12,000 tickets sold, but it is not quite the 40,000 seasons in the Ems, sorry Highbury.
Manchester City don’t yet come into the reckoning since last season they failed to sell out at each league game.
At Man IOU seasons are still on sale even though we have started the season. It is just as it was at Arsenal during the early days of George Graham, when I (Tony) bought my season ticket two games into the season. They gave me a selection of places where I could sit if I wanted – and if none of those were any good, I was told to come back and have another bunch to try.
The issue at Old Trafford is what happened to their waiting list which we were told was 24,000 last year? It has gone. Although we must admit they still sell about the same number of season tickets as Arsenal – although in a ground that is 17,000 larger. But even so it is one hell of a collapse in demand.
Liverpool did not sell all their season tickets by the time of the game against us, although they claim very few were left. On the other hand they just put their prices up by 17% which is not too helpful.
Everton, according to a survey by the BBC, started the season 1000 down on last year, and many other clubs have said they were about where they were last year – that is still selling season tickets as the season gets going.
So if we come back to our initial branding question and ask which is the biggest brand in English football, here’s the answers that we have got for the winners in each group
How many have they sold?
Arsenal and Man U at the top of the list with around 40,000
What percentage have they sold?
Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Blackpool sold out
What price were they sold at?
Taking into account differences in number of games given with a season, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea are close together in terms of regular seats. But Arsenal have massively more income from the executive areas, and have the biggest match day income in the world.
What is the level of unsatisfied demand?
Arsenal is 10 years waiting, Chelsea – we can’t really work out, but if you know, please do tell us, and as for Tottenham – very fishy.
To explain the Tinies – if you apply for a membership of the “silver membership” type Arsenal have, you are automatically put on the season ticket waiting list even if you don’t want one. So the season ticket waiting list is those genuinely waiting, plus those who have silver, many of whom are quite happy to trot along to just a few games. We have covered this issue before in depth, and the conclusion here (biased of course, but we did argue it through) is that Tottenham’s waiting list is much smaller than you might think.
So conclusion? Arsenal is the biggest brand in English club football.