During Stan Kroenke’s largely unsuccessful reign as owner of Arsenal Football Club, the American businessman has had to field multiple offers for his stake in the team. Alisher Usmanov was the first person to try, offering to buy out Kroenke’s shares in May of 2017. The Russian oligarch was the second-largest shareholder at the time, but wanted full control of the club. However, Kroenke refused to sell to him.
Eventually, Usmanov relented. In 2018, Kroenke bid over half a billion pounds for Usmanov’s 30% stake in the club, and the Russian accepted. The transaction saw Kroenke become the sole owner of Arsenal.
The next major suitor for control of Arsenal was and still might be Aliko Dangote. Dangote, a wealthy business magnate from Nigeria, has previously come out and stated that he is more than prepared to gain ownership of the club. In 2016 he stated with regard to buying out Kroenke, “There’s no doubt, it’s not a problem of money.” He then went on to say that he wished to focus on the “$20 billion of projects” he had on his plate before turning his attention to buying Arsenal.
According to The Africa Report, the oil refinery that had taken up his time for the last few years was expected to be operational in “early 2021”. Given that it is almost May, a concrete approach from Dangote might be imminent later in the year. This is reinforced by multiple instances since the 2016 quote in which Dangote has reiterated his interest in buying the club once his oil refinery has been built.
However, in the wake of the Super League catastrophe, a new potential buyer has emerged. On Friday, as Arsenal slogged their way to a 1-0 home defeat to Everton and hundreds of Arsenal fans cried for Kroenke’s departure just outside the Emirates Stadium, Spotify founder Daniel Ek announced his interest in taking the club off the current owner’s hands.
This latest exclamation of intent to test Stan Kroenke’s resolve has unsurprisingly excited many among the Arsenal faithful. The events of the last week have effectively united virtually the entire fanbase against the man who currently controls the club. However, before we can get especially hopeful about the prospect of Kroenke selling the club and walking away, a few aspects of this situation must be considered: how serious Ek’s proposed takeover is, how likely Kroenke Sports and Entertainment is to sell at this current juncture, and whether Ek would be a more effective owner than the person in charge now.
How serious is Ek’s takeover bid?
Indications are that Ek seems pretty serious about wanting to buy the club from KSE. As revealed by The Telegraph on Monday, Ek has teamed up with Thierry Henry, David Bergkamp, and Patrick Vieira in his pursuit to assume control of Arsenal. While it is highly improbable that the three Invincibles have enough money to significantly contribute financially to Ek’s bid, the move appears strategically calculated. Getting arguably the three greatest Arsenal players of all time involved serves as a giant step toward winning the public relations battle, and casts Kroenke in an even more negative light than before.
On Wednesday, Ek appeared in an interview on CNBC. During the interview, he was asked about his interest in buying Arsenal. In response, Ek declared that he was “very serious”, had secured the funds for what he described as a “compelling offer”, and that he hoped the Kroenkes would hear him out. When reminded that the Kroenkes look unwilling to sell, the Spotify CEO said he was prepared for his takeover bid to be a “long journey”, emphasizing that he had been an Arsenal fan for 30 years and only wanted what was best for the club.
Speaking of which, Ek appears to be a dedicated Gooner by all accounts. The man himself stated on Twitter back in 2008 that he has been an Arsenal fan since 1991, inspired to become one by Anders Limpar. According to Kaveh Solhekol of Sky Sports, Ek is said to be an “Arsenal obsessive” who has been to Highbury and the Emirates Stadium many times. Apparently, he even watches live matches on his laptop during Spotify board meetings.
This lends credence to the idea that the Swede is deadly serious about purchasing the club. A fan as passionate about Arsenal as he is and with billions in the bank surely fancies their chances of buying the club they love. So it comes as no surprise that he has apparently tried to buy out the Kroenkes before, as reported by The Guardian.
Despite the Kroenkes’ seeming unwillingness to sell, a formal offer of £1.8 billion is expected to be made in the coming fortnight to test their resolve, according to The Telegraph. It looks like Ek means business. Whether that will cause the Kroenkes to budge, however, is a different matter.
How likely is KSE to sell?
The Super League fiasco has left Stan and Josh Kroenke more vulnerable to public ire than ever before. After years of little to no investment, absenteeism, and delegation of responsibilities to unworthy appointments, the Kroenkes’ involvement in the Super League is seen by many as a longstanding endgame. If this is true, the current Arsenal owner has shown his hand for naught. Regardless of whether he intended it, a message has been received loud and clear: Kroenke has not put in the effort needed to improve Arsenal because the Super League or something like it was the plan all along.
This perception has resulted in Arsenal fans demanding his exit like never before. The hashtag #KroenkeOut trended on Twitter, Josh Kroenke was publicly lambasted during a meeting with the Fans Forum, and a protest involving thousands of fans took place outside the Emirates last Friday. The pressure on the Kroenkes to sell is more immense than ever.
With the Super League looking like it’s not happening for at least the next few years, some hope that Silent Stan will finally throw in the towel and cut his losses. Now that an easy way back to the big time is out of the question, Kroenke either needs to put the work in to make Arsenal a top-tier club again or admit defeat, sell for a pretty penny, and let it be someone else’s problem.
Many fans would tell you that there is a third option that Stan would take: continue to do relatively little and collect his dividends while Arsenal languishes in midtable. However, that choice simply is not economically feasible. As reported by James McNicholas of The Athletic early last month, Arsenal have now reported losses in the last two years — £27.1 million after the 2018/19 season, and £47.8 million after the 2019/20 season. Seeing as this season has taken place entirely within the setting of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Arsenal’s losses from this season are expected to reach nine figures. As explained by Swiss Ramble, out of the Big Five and Spurs, Arsenal make the least money in terms of pounds per minute.
As an investment in Kroenkes’ extensive sports portfolio, Arsenal is hemorrhaging money right now. But you could probably decipher that from the club manipulating players into pay cuts, announcing 55 redundancies, and receiving a £120 million loan from the Bank of England. The club’s continued decline will only see that problem get worse, especially if they continue to pay wages and transfer fees like they are still a top-four side. That again leaves KSE the choice of either quitting while they’re ahead (“ahead” being used rather generously here) or taking a more active role to bail out the capsizing ship that Arsenal currently resembles.
At the moment, KSE appears to have chosen one of these two options, but not the one fans would have preferred. When asked directly during the Fans Forum if he and his father had plans to sell the club, Josh Kroenke firmly stated that they had “no intention of selling.” In light of Daniel Ek’s takeover bid gaining popularity, Josh Kroenke informed around 350 of Arsenal’s staff on Tuesday during a 50-minute call, according to James Olley of ESPN FC. Later that day, the Kroenke’s released a public statement reiterating that they would not sell under any circumstances and had no plans to even entertain an offer for the club.
Obviously, the Kroenkes cannot be forced to sell if they truly want do not want to sell. Unless they have representatives privately facilitating negotiations behind the scenes, odds are that a public statement saying the Kroenkes will not entertain any offers means exactly that. At the end of the day, it would not be surprising if the mounting pressure caused by the Super League and Ek’s subsequent public bid for ownership did not matter to Stan Kroenke. This is the man who moved the Rams, his hometown’s NFL team, to Los Angeles in search of better perks and a bigger market.
That being said, however, everyone has a price. The case with the Kroenkes might just be that their price is unreasonably high compared to the current valuation of Arsenal. Unless the current review of football undertaken by Tracey Crouch leads to dramatic government intervention, the possibility of Arsenal getting a new owner appears rather remote at the moment.
Would Ek’s ownership be any better than KSE’s?
Even if Ek somehow managed to buy the club, one has to wonder if that would really improve Arsenal’s fortunes. On one hand, Ek appears to have an emotional investment in the club that the Kroenkes have not so much as pretended to possess. A man who watches matches during board meetings for one of the most successful companies in the world would surely be passionate enough to move heaven and earth if he owned the team. His tech background suggests a tendency for innovative, data-led approaches, which would surely feature in his running of the club.
However, there are reasonable concerns that the Spotify CEO would be out of his depth should this foray into the world of professional sports prove successful. The Kroenkes at least owned several sports franchises before acquiring Arsenal, with a portfolio that includes teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLS. They had experience running big teams (although that experience does not appear to have worked in their favor in English football). Their two biggest American teams, the Rams and the Nuggets, are currently among the strongest contenders in their respective leagues.
Would Ek’s relatively lacking know-how given his background in the tech industry prove fatal to his ability to run the club? Perhaps. But his consortium with Henry, Bergkamp, and Vieira suggests that he would appoint a board of former players and other football experts. According to The Telegraph, it is believed that Ek would be open to fan representation on the board of the club. When asked about the same concept, Josh Kroenke was cagey and chose to say that there were pros and cons to that kind of setup. Ek’s supposed openness to fan involvement has earned him a stamp of approval from the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, who have stated, “We welcome the interest of Daniel Ek and will support any potential buyer who will allow fans to own a real equity stake and have a voice on how our club is run.”
One thing that is unclear is how Ek would be able to finance Arsenal’s wheelings and dealings. Worth around $4.9 billion, Ek still would not possess the astronomical wealth of an Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour needed to drastically increase owner-led investment in the club. Ek probably would lean into making Arsenal well-enough run that it can spend its owner money and get results, but it appears based on his net worth that fans should not expect him to inject more cash in than the Kroenkes have.
Lastly, there are potentially moral qualms to wrestle with should Ek gain ownership of Arsenal. Spotify is rather infamous for its poor treatment of artists. Spotify’s compensation structure has seen artists’ revenue decline despite the rise of music streaming, leading to criticism from some of the biggest names in the industry. While these concerns pale in comparison to the ethical quagmires surrounding the involvement in football of journalist-murdering monarchies, oil barons with alleged mob affiliations, or habitual violators of human rights, it is an important reminder that people who have amassed the amount of wealth required to buy clubs these days very rarely have done so through entirely pleasant means. A billionaire who hasn’t crossed at least a few lines to get where they are is essentially a unicorn, and Arsenal fans should keep that in mind when emotionally courting new owners.
What does this mean for Arsenal?
In the short term, the Kroenkes will likely be spurred to action more so than they were after the Europa League debacle. They have promised investment by Arsenal in the coming summer transfer window, and Josh Kroenke has pledged to engage with fans on a more consistent basis. Whether these guarantees come to pass remains to be seen, but the current owners now have multiple reasons to show they’re still fit to take Arsenal back to the top.
In the long term, this probably does not mean much. Again, Ek’s chances of tempting the Kroenkes into a sale look fairly slim. But this current saga could open the door to more approaches in the future. As stated previously, a bid from Aliko Dangote could be right around the corner. Maybe if enough suitors come knocking, the Kroenkes will be worn down enough to auction to the highest bidder and call it a day. But that could just be optimism talking.
In any case, the stage is set for long, drawn-out affair. And if Arsenal’s European dreams come to an end next week, it will be nice to have another source of entertainment until the season concludes.
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