With their new 42,000-seat soccer stadium, nestled on the Bosphorus shore near an Ottoman palace, Istanbul’s Besiktas are blessed with a venue likely to inspire jealousy among teams across the globe.
But the vision which it offers of a new era for Turkish clubs, long beleaguered by financial woes, was clouded before the first ball was kicked on Monday night when police fired tear gas as crowds gathered near the arena.
Heavy-handed security marred the team’s final game at its old stadium three years ago and is just one of the challenges, alongside low attendance and high debt levels, that Turkish soccer needs to tackle to boost its global standing.
For Besiktas board member Metin Albayrak, gazing down upon a stadium decked out in the 13-times Turkish champions’ black-and-white colours, the $100 million Vodafone Arena is a major part of the solution to those problems.
“This stadium is very important for Besiktas and Turkish football, to take Besiktas forward both financially and spiritually,” he told Reuters before the arena’s opening.
He said Besiktas was set to reach a target of 120 million lira ($42 million) annual gate receipts, up from just 20 million at the old stadium, having sold some 30,000 season tickets.
Attendance in Turkey averages just 7,000 but, despite high ticket prices, Besiktas are seen capable of keeping the arena full of fans eager for a return to their home venue after three years’ absence, soccer writer Bagis Erten said.
“There is a great longing among fans, so everybody will go to matches,” he told Reuters.
“But things such as the price policy and police intervention might mean even the Besiktas fans who want to go most change their attitude next season.”
Turkish clubs are under pressure to raise prices and attract more spectators to pay off mounting debt after years of overspending driven by ambitions to join top international rankings.
Opaque ownership structures, which have shielded clubs from much of the oversight of commercial law, and buying in celebrity players has left the 18 teams in Turkey’s top league 4.2 billion Turkish lira in debt.
That led last month to champions Galatasaray, despite the boost of a new stadium opened five years ago, being banned by UEFA from European competition for a year for failing to meet financial regulations.
Against that backdrop, Albayrak said clubs needed to temper their ambitions with realism and live within their means.
“Someone might say ‘my income is enough to buy a mid-range car but I want a Ferrari’. But if I get a Ferrari I will go bankrupt. It’s the same with clubs.
“They need to act according to their earnings,” he said.
The close scrutiny of UEFA was a blessing in disguise for Turkish football, Albayrak said, helping it to put its house in order and instilling discipline among clubs tempted to make big name transfers to curry favour with fans.
“Football is very popular in Turkey and it is a way of life for people and everyone is focused on one thing, they like big foreign transfers. But at the end of the day, clubs need to be managed like companies,” he said.
With six games remaining, Besiktas beat Bursaspor 3-2 in Monday night’s match, putting them six points clear of Fenerbahce, who have a game in hand.
Besiktas last won the domestic title in 2009.