Copenhagen: Pubs, info and plan

[Biggsy1]

Must be after 5am when the freaks have come out, could be spiderman

edit - i'll be honest I didn't see the gimp I thought it was an arty silhouette but:
"What goes on in Copenhagen stays in Copenhagen" :)

I'm not happy just realised I booked our flights back into Heathrow then we have to commute to Gatwick which will cost 30 quid and take 1:45 mins with 2 changes before we catch our flight back to manc, what a fucking joke not happy!

is that on Friday?

Yeah friday, well pissed! Gonna ring BA tomorrow see if they do transfers hopefully can get a free one!

 

[bluejimmines]

There's one that flies at 16:00 stop off at Heathrow for an hour then on to Manchester. I'll send you the flight details if you want, see if there's room left

 

[Morten]

Friends,

You have already heard some stories about your Thursday night opponent, but I would like to give you another story about the club. The story of F C K (as we call the club – stands for FC København) is actually pretty remarkable.

The Copenhagen suburb club Brøndby in the 80s and 90s dominated Danish soccer. They produced known players as Michael Laudrup, Peter Schmicel and Daniel Agger.

Two old clubs (KB and B1903) in Copenhagen wanted to go up against Brøndby and in 1992 they joined forces to create F C K. The first 5-6 years was bumpy road, where the results on the pit were a rollercoaster ride. The main problem was management problems, which lead to these “unstable” results”. But in 96/97 a guy called Flemming Østergård became president of the club, and in ten years time he has been able turn a “simple” football club into a solid money machine. For this achievement he now goes under the name “Don Ø”.

When “Don Ø” took over the club it was already listed on the Danish stock exchange, but with a poor share price and only 7 employees besides the squad.

Today the club has an annual turnover above 100M£ with a profit over 10M£ and there are over 3.000 employees. The market cap of the club (if someone wanted to buy all the shares) touched 400M£ in May 07 making it one of the most expensive football clubs in the world. The recession on the stock market has cooled down the share price, but yet an interesting story.

So what has been the recipe for “Don Ø” to create such a financial monster from simple football club?

Well, first the club broadened its view from just the basic income such as tickets, merchandise, sponsors etc. They started using the stadium for lots of activities - from rock concerts to speedway shows and Christmas parties for large corporations.

Secondly they moved into other business areas. The largest fitness chain in Denmark is today own by F C K (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.fitnessdk.dk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fitnessdk.dk</a>) and they also own a 25,000m2 leisure centre with 700,000 annual accommodations - <a class="postlink" href="http://www.lalandia.dk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.lalandia.dk</a>.

And last they have entered property development, where they build (and rent out) office building as a part of the stadium and at the moment they are building another and even bigger leisure centre in another part of the country. The new centre also has 1,500 summer/vacation houses.

So F C K is big business. But it is very important to emphasise that football is still the cornerstone in the “company”. “Don Ø” has just gone beyond Bingo games and lottery. And thus, you are lucky to make 5M£ from selling your biggest talent in years it is nothing compared the money in property development.

A lot of the big European club finds this business model very interesting, so this “new” way of running a football club has brought F C K close to the G14 club.

For F C K sustainability is an important thing and they believe their business model is stronger because of the continuity. They are not depending on a rich uncle – they “earn” their own money.

Thus, F C K by far has the most expensive squad in Scandinavia with 15-20 players from different national teams, they just don’t through in all the money for buying expensive players because each of the business areas in the club must contribute to the revenue, but the financial strength in the club makes is easier to turn down offers from other club.

2006 was the break-through year for F C K where the club for the first time entered Champions League.

Places to search for more info:

fck.dk - The official website of the club – has an extensive area in English
Sidelinien.dk - The official fan clubs forum, where we also have an English-speaking forum

 

[Padre]

Thanks Morten. Some interesting stuff there.

 

[BlueBoy85]

Cheers Morten

 

[Biggsy1]

These danish fellas are pretty friendly, i just hope the ladies are too ;)

 

[bluejimmines]

Thanks Morten, was Don O a local businessman who came good for you or was he already successful elsewhere?

 

[Ace/UC]

And then there are those of us, that miss the days when our club cared about the fans, and not about making a profit.
Yes, Don Ø has done some great thing for us, but he has also done some terrible things. I'm not stupid, I know that we have to have to make money, so we can keep the club alive. But still, I really don't like the way he has turned our club into an brand.
And what's really sad is, that a lot of our fans don't care. They just want to watch football, and be entertained, and don't give a fuck, that our club is geting sucked into this massive company.

ohh well, maybe I'm just paranoid.

 

[pedigreeblue]

Thanks Morten..and i guess all those Fried Chicken shops aint doing too bad for you either...

Friends,

You have already heard some stories about your Thursday night opponent, but I would like to give you another story about the club. The story of F C K (as we call the club – stands for FC København) is actually pretty remarkable.

The Copenhagen suburb club Brøndby in the 80s and 90s dominated Danish soccer. They produced known players as Michael Laudrup, Peter Schmicel and Daniel Agger.

Two old clubs (KB and B1903) in Copenhagen wanted to go up against Brøndby and in 1992 they joined forces to create F C K. The first 5-6 years was bumpy road, where the results on the pit were a rollercoaster ride. The main problem was management problems, which lead to these “unstable” results”. But in 96/97 a guy called Flemming Østergård became president of the club, and in ten years time he has been able turn a “simple” football club into a solid money machine. For this achievement he now goes under the name “Don Ø”.

When “Don Ø” took over the club it was already listed on the Danish stock exchange, but with a poor share price and only 7 employees besides the squad.

Today the club has an annual turnover above 100M£ with a profit over 10M£ and there are over 3.000 employees. The market cap of the club (if someone wanted to buy all the shares) touched 400M£ in May 07 making it one of the most expensive football clubs in the world. The recession on the stock market has cooled down the share price, but yet an interesting story.

So what has been the recipe for “Don Ø” to create such a financial monster from simple football club?

Well, first the club broadened its view from just the basic income such as tickets, merchandise, sponsors etc. They started using the stadium for lots of activities - from rock concerts to speedway shows and Christmas parties for large corporations.

Secondly they moved into other business areas. The largest fitness chain in Denmark is today own by F C K (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.fitnessdk.dk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fitnessdk.dk</a>) and they also own a 25,000m2 leisure centre with 700,000 annual accommodations - <a class="postlink" href="http://www.lalandia.dk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.lalandia.dk</a>.

And last they have entered property development, where they build (and rent out) office building as a part of the stadium and at the moment they are building another and even bigger leisure centre in another part of the country. The new centre also has 1,500 summer/vacation houses.

So F C K is big business. But it is very important to emphasise that football is still the cornerstone in the “company”. “Don Ø” has just gone beyond Bingo games and lottery. And thus, you are lucky to make 5M£ from selling your biggest talent in years it is nothing compared the money in property development.

A lot of the big European club finds this business model very interesting, so this “new” way of running a football club has brought F C K close to the G14 club.

For F C K sustainability is an important thing and they believe their business model is stronger because of the continuity. They are not depending on a rich uncle – they “earn” their own money.

Thus, F C K by far has the most expensive squad in Scandinavia with 15-20 players from different national teams, they just don’t through in all the money for buying expensive players because each of the business areas in the club must contribute to the revenue, but the financial strength in the club makes is easier to turn down offers from other club.

2006 was the break-through year for F C K where the club for the first time entered Champions League.

Places to search for more info:

fck.dk - The official website of the club – has an extensive area in English
Sidelinien.dk - The official fan clubs forum, where we also have an English-speaking forum

 

[scall11]

It's embarassing at how the fans from European teams are so welcoming to us, and we don't do anything half as welcoming or friendly.

In Spain, we got adopted by some Santander fans who took us round the town and refused to let us buy them a beer. The Danish (and Faroese) have been brilliant with us, so I can't wait until we get over there and meet up with them.

skål