10 years of building the emirates: a period of success
By Walter Broeckx
As most of you will know we here at Untold have
always been taking the patient way of looking at things when it comes
to X years of won nothing.
We have pointed at the changes in the PL where some
clubs have rich sugar daddy owners who throw money around as if it is
nothing. Well for them it probably is nothing. If people cannot see that
this has a major impact on all Arsenal has done in the last 10 years
then well nothing will make them see.
In fact and don’t worry Tony I will not be entering
on your history ground but we do have a little thing to remember this
summer. Because well it all started 10 years ago. It all started in July
2003 when the building of the Emirates started. Or better said the
removal of what was on the ground before it became our brand new
stadium.
Now when we over here point at those rich owners
and at the fact that we build the stadium it gets brushed aside as
nothing important. After all we are The Arsenal and should be competing.
Now in order to compete you need rivals. And I thought it might be
interesting to have a look at teams who also build a completely new
stadium in the PL era. And I might have forgotten one so please feel
free to fill in.
But first let me start with what Arsenal has done.
We build the Emirates and works started as said in 2003 to have it
finished in July 2006 for the first game in the new stadium ever with
the Dennis Bergkamp testimonial game. The total cost of this and I will
use the same internet source for all the comparing with the “rivals”
for building the Emirates is £470M. Or also £470.000.000. That is rather
a shocking big sum of money.
Arsenal had to make sure that they would be able to
pay that kind of money themselves. We had no sugar daddy to give it to
us. And at the same time at Chelsea one turned up and spend money like
mad.
All those years building we did win a few things at
the start, still managed to get to a few finals along the way in the
last 10 years. But yes after 2005 we didn’t win anything. But we managed
to keep ourselves in the top 4 each season.
Now how did it work out for all those other clubs who build a new stadium like we did? Let us find out.
Southampton: St
Mary’s Stadium has been home to the Saints since August 2001.
Relegation in 2004. Bankrupcy along the way. They came back to the PL
in 2012. And the capacity of the ground is 32.689. One could say half
the Emirates. The building cost is said to have been £37M. Or also
£37.000.000. That is not even 10% of what we had to pay. And yet they
ended in big big troubles.
Derby
County : The Pride Park Stadium has been Derby’s home since 1997. At
first things went rather well for a while. But then relegation came in
2004 and they never came back. The capacity of the stadium is 33.502.
And that is again half of the Emirates capacity. And the building cost
is said to have been 28M. Or also £28.000.000. Again compared to the
Emirates this is only 6% of the total cost we had to pay. And yet Derby
paid a hefty price at the end.
Middlesbrough
FC: The Riverside Stadium is the football stadium, which has been the
home of Middlesbrough FC since it opened in 1995. But then trouble came
along and they got relegated in 1997. They did came back in 1998 and
things seemed to stay well but at the end they went down again in 2009
and stayed down since then. The capacity is 34.998. And the building
cost at the time (some 10 years before the Emirates) was around £16M. Or
also £16.000.000. That is not even 4% of the cost of the Emirates.
Coventry City: They moved to the Ricoh Arena in 2005. After that they had a long battle
to remain in existence and for the moment they don’t have the stadium
and are moved out. If anyone can inform me about how things stand please
do. The capacity of the stadium is 32.604. Again half the Emirates
capacity. And the building cost was £113M. or also £113.000.000. That
is around 24% of the cost of the Emirates.
Leicester FC : moved to the then known Walkers stadium in 2002. A
bit of a bad luck as the closing of their old ground coincided with
them going down. Maybe the cost of the building a reason? I don’t know
for sure but it could have something to do with it of course. They went bankrupt
in oktober 2002. Nowhere near the Pl since then. The capacity of the
stadium is 32.312 and again that is almost half the Emirates. And the
total building cost was said to be £37M. Or also 37.000.000. That is
around 8% of the cost of the Emirates.
Bolton
: The Reebok stadium was built in 1997. They got almost immediately
relegated in 1998. But they did manage to come back in 2001. But now
they are down again since 2012. The capacity of the stadium is 28.100.
And the building cost in those days was £25M. That is around 5% of the
cost of the Emirates.
So all those 6 clubs who have build their new
stadium like we did with the Emirates have gone down, went bankrupt went
in to all kinds of troubles.
In fact the combined cost of those 6 stadiums is
£256M. Those 6 stadiums together cost less than what the Emirates has
cost Arsenal. This one club has to pay more than those 6 clubs had to
pay all together.
Arsenal stayed in the top 4 in the 10 years since
we started the building of the Emirates now 10 years ago. If people
cannot see that as an immense success then I wonder when they will be
happy. If you can name me one club in a league as competitive as the PL
who have build their stadium like we did, who have to face mega rich
money around throwing owners at other clubs and stayed in the top 4
please do. I think the list will be very short.
And that is why I cannot talk of this period in
time as “a failure”. I think it is an unbelievable success. We could
have been where the other 6 are or have been.
