Arsenal's American quiet majority shareholder spoke up at the AGM but it is the noises he makes now after hearing fans' concerns that matter
No Arsenal AGM would ever be complete without a customary clanger from the club's old Etonian figurehead, the septuagenarian chairman Peter Hill-Wood. Midway through proceedings, with Hill-Wood inviting a question from the floor, he consulted his notes and stopped the inquisitor in his tracks. "I'm terribly sorry," he interjected. "There is one more resolution."
That resolution just happened to be the business of re-electing Stan Kroenke, the majority shareholder, on to the board. Once the chuckling and muttering from down below had subsided, the faux pas was quickly resolved. Those for raised their hands, two against thrust up a rebellious arm, and the motion was passed. "Stan, you're still here," Hill?Wood quipped to the quiet American to his left.
Although it was not exactly a momentous meeting from Kroenke's point of view, it did mark an important change in his relationship with the Arsenal supporters. For the first time he felt willing and able to speak to them directly. It has taken more than four years, during which he was connected to the club first as business partner, then investor, now majority shareholder, for him to actually introduce himself to the masses. "Mr Kroenke would like to say a few words to you," said Hill-Wood, met with the sound of much mumbling and bated breaths.
The sports mogul from Missouri took centre stage, and began. "Hey, it's great to be here." And with those six little words, delivered with affable assurance in his low bass drawl, the few hundred shareholders in the room got to know what the man with the controlling stake in their club sounds like. But they did not get a great deal more.
What's the plan, Stan? A five-minute speech did not give much away. The gist was more or less this: Here I am. I don't mind saying a few words seeing as you obviously wanted the gesture. I like what this club stands for. I am happy to be here. And I am not going anywhere in a hurry. "We love London. You had better get used to seeing us, my family and I, because we will be around," he concluded. He is expected to attend his team's Premier League game at Chelsea this weekend, but notably that will be his first match since Arsenal hosted Liverpool six months ago.
Whatever Kroenke had planned to give away of himself, in one impromptu incident he gave away a bonus. A glimpse of the man behind the bucks. One subversive question invited Hill-Wood to stand down as chairman, proposing David Dein should come back to replace him. As Hill-Wood endeavoured to give an answer, Kroenke leaned over and seized the microphone. "Can I add something? We are all fans. Peter has our support. We are with you," he said pointedly. Those who have met him say as one that he is a genuine guy, and in that moment he showed that quality to a wider audience.
At the end of a meeting which was a little more combative in atmosphere than the usual courteous formality, it wasn't just a case of how much the Arsenal supporters learned about Kroenke, but also what message went in the other direction. Kevin Whitcher, who edits the Gooner fanzine, was pleased to see some vocal unrest being aired by those below the raised red pedestal where the board were seated.
"It was a fantastic meeting, because the one thing that came out of it is the fact that Stan Kroenke will go away hearing what his fan base actually thinks," Whitcher said. "I'm sure he gets information from the club which doesn't reflect that. Firstly, the questions submitted were obviously not nice as those selected were difficult questions. Secondly, people expressed their discontent in catcalls. We do want to get behind the team, but hopefully the board will get the message. The perception is that profit and loss sheets are the priority but football has changed."
The plush Woolwich Suite at the Emirates Stadium, so named in honour of the workplace of the club's founding fathers, is about the length of a football pitch and the plum leather seats were filled with shareholders who still seemed supportive of Ars�ne Wenger but wary about the club's commitment to a self sustaining business model. The crowd was not significantly smaller than previous years, even though the number of shareholders has reduced from a figure of around 1400 to 650 since Kroenke began to hoover up shares during his takeover.
For the first time in recent memory, board members were not re-elected with complete agreement. "Not unanimous!" yelled a dissenter to make the point. Arsenal fans have their grievances, and the change of ownership encourages them to air them. Tim Payton, of the Arsenal Supporters Trust, suggests supporters "would have been more sympathetic to the self-sustaining model if it came from the likes of Danny Fiszman or David Dein, who didn't have the wealth to compare with the more aggressive models Arsenal are up against. But 95% of the club is owned by two billionaires, but we are told they have to put up ticket prices."
It looks more like Stan, rather than the fans, has something new to chew on.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/oct/27/arsenal-fans-agm-stan-kroenke
Jason Snelling C.J. Spiller Darren Sproles LaRod Stephens-Howling
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