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!

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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.

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