Big game tomorrow against Manchester United at MetLife Stadium.
Before we get to all of that, let's just start with why here?
I see a lot of Spanish clubs come to the United States now.
A lot of Italian teams do their pre-season tour here.
Why is this so important for us in football Club?
Sure. Well, firstly, thank you for having me
on the show today. The U.S.
has become a number one international market and we see that anecdotally every
time we come to the U.S., we come every couple of years.
We can see the games growing and we can see Arsenal's popularity is growing and
we also see it in the numbers. So last season with NBC Sports, we had
the record audience for Arsenal, Manchester United.
We see our social media following growing very fast.
20% of our retail business is in the US and we played the MLS All-Star Game in
Washington, jam packed full and jam packed full of Arsenal fans, which was
great to see. Great to see.
Lots of money. And I'm sure you're also spending lots
of cash as well. And I'm sure a lot of Arsenal fans want
us to go straight there. How much have you spent this summer on
football talent? Well, so I guess the story about this
summer really starts with looking back at last season.
So last season we had what we considered to be a successful season.
We took the title race right until the last weeks.
In the end, we finished second rather than the first that we were fighting
for, but we have one of the youngest squads in the Premier League.
So this season there going to be another year more experienced.
And what we've done this summer is supplement that fantastic squad with
three new signings, the three positions we want to strengthen the three players
we wanted and we were delighted to get them right at the start of the window.
So we have them here with us on tour in the US and it means they can assimilate
in the squad and it was a heavy, significant investment and that
investment really shows the ambition of our ownership group.
You know, they have had a enormous success with their franchises in the
U.S. over recent years, winning the Super
Bowl, winning the Stanley Cup and then winning the NBA championship.
So they've really invested behind the team and have really supported us this
window. So we will be ready for the fight this
season. Thank you for making last season so
interesting till the very end and congratulations on your purchases.
But let me let me put you in a tough spot, if I may.
Sure. There's two views as to what model
should major sports run. One is the U.K.
model where you don't have forced equalisation, where you have relegation.
One is the US model, where you don't have relegation, you have forced
equalization. If you were to create the premiership
fund from from scratch, would you keep the current model that allows a few
teams to dominate all the time? Or would you go to more like a U.S.
model that allows for far more equalization?
I'd keep the model that we have at the moment, and I think it's proven to the
Premier League as the world's biggest league and the world's biggest sport.
And I think one of the reasons the Premier League is so, successful is
the broadcast distribution. The Premier League is actually
relatively equal. So the top club in the Premier League
gets roughly 1.8 times the the bottom club in the Premier League.
So we try and keep the revenue distribution as equal as we can to make
sure the league is as competitive as it can be.
And it goes in cycles. Sometimes you have a period where teams
dominate and sometimes you have a cycle where it's where it's more competitive.
I'm rooting for Sheffield United. Sheffield, the Sheffield United being
Joe Elliott Destined. So being a QPR supporter and just
looking up to the Premiership, you'll understand how we feel about our
inability to ever penetrate because of what happens above us.
But let me ask a question. So you, seeing all this US support, come
to Arsenal and I'm hearing there's a lot more interest in soccer, as they call it
here on their do. Is this a pull factor, a push factor?
Is this people being pulled by the fact that NBC's covering more games or is it
the fans that are pushing people to talk more about U.K.
soccer, including Tom and John? I think it's a little bit of both.
I think NBC have done a fantastic job for the Premier League over a long
period, both in terms of how they promote the game and how they've also
educated the audience around, around all things football.
And we see it in their view with numbers.
I think NBC's viewership numbers last season were 20% higher than the season
before. We've got our game tomorrow at MetLife.
It's going to be a sellout. It's going to be our biggest ever game
from a revenue perspective that we've ever played in the U.S.
And I think it's going to be Metlife's biggest ever soccer game that they've
had in their stadium as well from a revenue perspective.
So the demand is really, really, really there and it's growing really quickly.
Got to talk to you about Saudi involvement in the game increasing and
increasing through the summer, particularly over the last couple of
years with that purchase of Newcastle more recently.
What does it feel like to see over Football Club to be competing with a
country, not a single person, but a nation?
What does that feel like? Do you feel like you're doing that now
this summer? Well, it's the Premier League.
One of the reasons the Premier League has been so successful is because it's
so unbelievably competitive. And, you know, Newcastle are another
team that are stepping forward in that competition.
They had a very successful season last season.
They're in there in the Champions League.
So it's a it's always a dynamically changing market.
And another big change that everybody's been talking about this summer has been
the number of players they've actually transferred to Saudi.
So that's another interesting development in the game.
It's new. It's a little bit too early to know how
that's going to affect the Premier League, if at all.
And we'll all be watching with interest. Long ago in my youth, I saw the
Rochester Lancers and a wonderful guy named Charlie Ciano try to make this
happen. And the fact is it was perceived by me
and everybody else in America is minor league football.
What is the symbolism of Messi going to MLS now?
Does he take them from minor league football to something new and different?
Well, the MLS has been on, as I understand, a good growth trajectory
over many years. The league's expanded.
There's been a number of expansion franchises for us at Arsenal.
We want football or soccer, as we may call it, here to grow in popularity.
So we want there to be a vibrant, healthy domestic league in the MLS.
Messi is a generational talent, so have him in and that's playing in Miami, I
think will have a really, really positive effect.
At the same time, the new Apple TV deal is going live as well.
So we're really hopeful that it will help continue to grow MLS.
And we've seen in the few days we've been here how much coverage that has
been around Messi and how many people have been talking to us about Messi.
And that's what we want. We want we want that conversation.
Did you think Harry Kane could come to MLS?
I'm sure the fan. I would like Harry Kane to get out of
the Premier League, to be honest with you.
I won't ask him to show my deep the actual deal when I've got 45 seconds,
but I want to squeeze this in. The Apple deal is huge for a football
player to get a slice of the TV money directly like that.
Do you see more of that happening? Well, I don't know the details of the
Messi deal, so I just read what everybody else reads.
But it's not I think Messi. Well, I can really say that.
I think Messi can have a really, really significant impact on the game.
And I'm sure in this country and I'm sure it is a really competitive process
to get him to play here because there's lots of people that would love Messi
playing in their league. And I'm sure MLS had to work really hard
and really creatively to get him here. And they've been successful because he's
here and he's drawing a whole lot of interest.