Word: stadiumitis
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With the American media descending on Beijing this week and looking for a headline before the sports start, the move almost guarantees that China will take a beating in the foreign press. Those stories will not be about the impressive architecture of the Bird's Nest stadium, or how the new fleet of Olympic buses are running smoothly. Now, headlines will point to how a humanitarian essentially got kicked out of the country. The timing could not be worse...
...including luxe retailers such as Lacoste and the Japanese clothing maker Muji. Overhead, a 44-foot yoke of LED screens, designed by David Rockwell to echo the undulating roof line of the nearby Saarinen building, hangs from the ceiling, displaying airline promotions and, someday, digital art. Areas of stadium seating have been stationed around the atrium - ideal for sitting back and watching passersbys...
...Ticket sales for home games, which means that stadium size matters: it is no coincidence that Manchester United, which seats 76,000 at its Old Trafford ground, is the richest of the English clubs - Liverpool's Anfield stadium holds only 45,000, by comparison, which at ticket prices averaging around $80 means that United generates as much as $50 million more than Liverpool in annual ticket sales. High rollers like Real Madrid and A.C. Milan, not surprisingly, play in stadiums that hold upwards of 80,000 fans...
...Gillet (who jointly own Liverpool) and Randy Lerner (Aston Villa); and billionaire prestige investors such as the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has invested more than $1 billion in Chelsea, and former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who last year acquired Manchester City. Chelsea, with its 42,000-seat stadium, might be considered an underperforming asset from a strictly business point of view; its revenues in the years since Abramovich took over are far lower than what he has invested. But owning the club may be less a business venture than a vanity investment for the Russian billionaire...
...within reach of the top teams requires spending more money each season to keep pace with their efforts to concentrate the world's best talent in their team. And if a club is unable to attract a prestige investor, it becomes essential to expand revenue - most importantly by increasing stadium capacity. Arsenal two years ago moved from the 38,000-seat Highbury to the 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium, which helped the club double its annual revenues to $180 million. The problem, of course, is that building a new stadium takes massive capital investment, and Arsenal recently admitted that...