SF North London Derby: Gooners 4, Spurs 3
March 5, 2010 | 1 Comment
On Sunday, February 28, 2010, the first annual San Francisco North London Derby took place at Crocker Amazon Playground in San Francisco, California. Read more
Interview with John and Matt Simmons – Authors of Winning Together
August 29, 2006 | 41 Comments
Many people don’t like to talk about the commercial aspects of the game. Like frightened ostriches they shove their heads in the sand, recalling the ‘good old days’ when fans were smashed into pens, blacks weren’t allowed to play and getting piss drunk and in a bust up was considered a good afternoon. Fortunately most Arsenal Americans live in the 21st century and understand the era in which we live and follow the Arsenal. Recently John and Matt Simmons, a father-son Gooner pair wrote a book entitled “Winning together: the story of the Arsenal brand” (you can get it at www.amazon.co.uk). It’s an intelligent look at the game today and how Arsenal are ‘playing’ off the field. It reveals that in fact Arsenal supporters have much to be proud of. I recently caught up with John and Matt and they were kind enough to answer my question regarding Arsenal FC, U.S. fans and their book…
Rick Liebling: You talk about Brand Identity in your book, and I think it is a great point. It is something that has been lost here in the States as teams, especially new ones, try to be all things to all people. I think fans play a critical role here – what can fans do to shape the identity of a team (brand), and should a club embrace fans more in this area?
J. & M. Simmons: Brand identity is not something you hear discussed a lot in football, but it has always been there. It goes with obvious things like the team colors and crests, but is more deep-rooted than that as it?s based on our perceptions of what the brand/team stands for. We set out what we believe these values are in the case of the Arsenal, but we argue that the values are based on the reality and tradition that have built up over many years. And those values are the bedrock of the brand identity. They?re not a marketing concoction, although you can use marketing to make them even more powerful. But Jeff Bezos of Amazon says ?a brand is what people say about you when you?re not in the room?, so the brand?s real identity in the case of Arsenal is in the minds of fans.
But fear of loss of identity is a very real one for fans “over here”. Identity and location have always been closely linked for most fans – which is why the infamous case of the MK Dons (previously Wimbledon FC) so shocked and scared people. Of course, the MK Dons were following the lead of American sports, where several established franchises have been re-located in more welcoming (or profitable!) cities.
The fear for Arsenal fans was that we would go down this road. We?re sure we would never have relocated to another city altogether (I think even the English FA would have said no to that), but we could easily have found ourselves playing 20 miles outside London in a soul-less new development by the side of a motorway. For us, and many other ‘local’ Arsenal fans, this would have been a massive blow to our sense of identity. It might not have been such a big issue for our foreign fans, or even our many fans from around the rest of the UK.
When it comes to shaping the identity of a club it is the local fans who will inevitably play a larger role, if for no other reason than it is very hard to consistently influence people from thousands of miles away. This said, at a big club like Arsenal it is hard for even local fans to directly influence the club’s identity. Manchester United fans have found this to their cost recently in their losing battle with the Glazers. United fans now have two choices: pay up and shut up (accepting that the club’s identity is no longer their own) or go and support FC United instead (the ‘real’ United, established by fans and currently playing way down the league pyramid).
In this respect fans of small clubs are luckier – with the recent proliferation of supporter’s trusts, many of whom now have a seat on their club’s boards, more and more fans are able to directly engage with their clubs. This is something that should be happening at every club. At the moment it only happens when clubs are in desperate trouble, and need their supporter’s money!
Steve Rushin – Sports Illustrated’s American Gooner
March 6, 2006 | 3 Comments
Over the years Arsenal America has brought you interviews with people like Nick Hornby and the Fox Sports World Report crew. Today, we add to that illustrious list with Sports Illustrated columnist Steve Rushin. Steve recently was named the National Sportswriter of the Year, an award bestowed by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. His Air and Space column is always worth a read. In fact, that’s how I learned he supported Arsenal. A couple of years back he referenced our old ‘Schadenfreude of the Week’ feature. I remember people sending me emails saying we were in Sports Illustrated. Well, I tracked Steve down and he confirmed he was a Gooner. Recently Steve was kind enough to answer some questions. As you’ll see, he’s a legit Gooner from some time back…
Q: How/When did you become a Gooner?
I was assigned by SI to cover an “American football” game at Wembley in the early 90s. Dallas vs. Detroit. I was taking a cab directly to the stadium from Heathrow and the driver wanted to make sure that I knew what a special place Wembley was — and not because it hosted NFL pre-season games. So he began giving me a crash course on English football with a special emphasis on his favorite club, Arsenal. Near the stadium, we passed a Nike billboard of Ian Wright. I believe the caption was “Behind every great keeper is a ball signed by Ian Wright.” So this Gooner/cabbie — who had lived in New York for ten years and was versed in American sports — began to tell me how Wrighty was “a bit like your Charles Barkley” in that he was controversial and a showman. I don’t remember anything about the NFL game that day but I knew I wanted to get back to Wembley for an England match or Cup final and I knew I wanted to see Wrighty at Highbury.
Nick Hornby Interview
October 15, 2004 | 16 Comments
For many Arsenal Americans, Fever Pitch was a major factor in their development as a Gooner. It was our entr?e into the history of the club. It has, in fact, become the Bible for Arsenal fans.
It would be hard to underestimate the importance of this book. Today it seems every team has a fan who writes about the trials and tribulations of rooting for the hometown XI. But in the early 90s, when admitting you were a football fan was like admitting you liked pro westling or demolition derbies, these autobiographical odes were a rarity.
Nick Hornby helped change the perception of who a football fan was. He did so with style, sincerity and passion. He then went on to write some more great books, High Fidelity and About A Boy among them.
Nick was gracious enough to take a few moments and speak with Arsenal America:
ArseAm: As a lifelong supporter of Arsenal, what is your honest opinion of those of us here in the States that may have just started following Arsenal during the Wenger era? Can a person who doesn’t live near the stadium, who may never even have seen the team play live, really be considered a fan?
Nick Hornby: I would never judge anyone’s fandom. There’s always someone who’ll tell you that true fans live in the borough, or travel to every away game, or haven’t missed a game for twenty or fifty or a hundred years – or that true fans always believe their team to be the best, even when it’s patently not true. It’s all rubbish. One thing I will say for you guys: if you began during the Wenger era, your response has the virtue of logic. This team plays fantastic football, even if they don’t win everything.
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Exclusive Interview with Michelle Lissel of Fox Sports World
October 1, 2004 | 48 Comments
Television is a ruthless business. In order to make it you’ve got to be tough, and good. Sure, we’ve all seen the recent trend in sports of having “babes” as reporters. They last about a season, or less, and are soon forgotten. Michelle Lissel has got talent. And if you read her bigsoccer.com forum, plenty of male admirers as well. She was nice enough to answer some questions….
ArseAm: Michelle, you seem quite comfortable mixing it up with Jeremy and Bobby, what’s your sports background?
ML: The “Bobby” shows as we like to call them, really are my favourites! It’s a chance for us to “let loose” a little from the usual format. As far as my background…I’ve been here at Global coming up to 7 years now.Prior to working on the Report, I anchored on our late night half hour sports show and did the usual, hockey, football, baseball etc. That gave me a chance to cover some great events like Grey Cups, and the World Junior Hockey Championships…two of my personal favourites.
Exclusive Interview with Bobby McMahon of Fox Sports World
September 24, 2004 | 8 Comments
As this week?s poll clearly indicated, Bobby McMahon of Fox Sports World has a loyal following among Gooners. So I figured the least I could do was get him for an interview. Bobby was kind enough to accept the offer.
Arsenal America: What’s your background, how did you get to where you are today?
Exclusive Interview with Fox Sports World’s Jeremy St. Louis
September 17, 2004 | 9 Comments
For those of us here in the States, Fox Sports World is the greatest cable station going right now. They show soccer, and lots of it. They also have a nightly show, the Fox Sports World Report, that is like SportsCenter, only if SportsCenter showed nothing but soccer highlights.
Arsenal America recently had the chance to catch up with Jeremy St. Louis, one of the lead anchors for the show…
ArseAm: Ok, let’s get this out in the open right now. Are the rumours about you and Michelle Lisselle dating true?
JSL: Hahaha – ummm no. Michelle is way too good for the likes of me. We are just friends and colleagues but if people actually think we’re dating, we must have some decent chemistry on the air.
Interview With Author Jon Spurling
October 14, 2003 | 3 Comments
Recently, I had a chance to speak with Jon Spurling, author of ?Rebels For The Cause ? The Alternative History Of Arsenal Football Club?. For the many of us who are relatively new to Arsenal, this is a terrific book that provides a fascinating insight into the history of the club and how we are perceived by others (opposing fans, the FA, the media, etc).
Jon does a terrific job of balancing his obvious affection for Arsenal with not being afraid to uncover some of the more seemly aspects of our dear club. Because so many Arsenal America members didn?t grow up steeped in the myths and legends, I wanted to go a bit deeper and Jon was kind enough to answer some questions:
Frank Simek Interview
February 20, 2003 | Leave a Comment
Looks like the Frank Simek article got lost in the change-over. Here it is for those who missed it…
Arsenal FC has players from some of the biggest soccer playing nations in the world on their books. France, Holland, Brazil, The United States (hey, we finished in the top eight in Japan/Korea!). That?s right, Arsenal youth team member Frank Simek hails from Illinois, the heartland of America. I had a chance to chat with Frank after he had competed in a recent U-20 tournament here in the States. Frank has established himself with the youth team setup at Arsenal, appearing in the majority of the Gunners U-19 matches and even getting a game with the reserves in November. At this rate it seems fans of both Arsenal and the U.S. national team will be keeping their eye on this Yankee Gunner in the years to come.
RL – What was it like watching the U.S. during the World Cup this summer?
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