Financially, Arsenal are behaving like a superpower again.
Their commercial performance, which under Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s (KSE) self-funding model funds the transfer and wage budgets, has been rejuvenated in recent years.
In the spring, Arsenal will release their annual accounts. That set of documents is expected to showcase a jump in revenue to somewhere around the £700m mark, up from £614m the previous season.
If they do hit £700m, they will become only the second Premier League club in history after Manchester City to do so, although Liverpool are also expected to arrive at that landmark at the same time.
How much would you like to see Arsenal spend in January?
Arsenal’s revenue is booming
Mikel Arteta’s side reached the Champions League semi-finals in the first year of UEFA’s lucrative re-think of their flagship competition. The 36-team league-phase and knockouts are expected to have earned the club in excess of £100m. Adding in seven extra matchdays at the Emirates Stadium and commercial uplifts, the North Londoners’ total bank from Europe was likely closer to £150m.
Premier League prize money meanwhile was worth in the region of £175m. And while Arteta and his players are aching to avoid becoming the first team in the Premier League era to finish as runners-up in four consecutive seasons, they only earned a few million less than champions Liverpool last term.
Commercially, Arsenal struck several new sponsorship deals with blue-chip companies, continued their foray into streetwear culture with a number of merchandise lines, and delivered more on the hospitality and premium ‘experiences’ front at the Emirates too. The team behind the scenes – headed up by Juliet Slot and, at KSE level, Olly Dale – deserve huge credit for their work here.
Kroenkes have implemented new financial model
Stan Kroenke has given his son and enforcer in N5, Josh Kroenke, his blessing to ramp up spending in recent years.
Initially, the funding increase was to get Arsenal back into Europe’s big time and delivering large enough revenues to cover the club’s costs, as well as investing in the personnel and infrastructure, both physical and digital, needed to drive turnover growth.
But now, it seems like there is more overt sporting ambition coming from KSE too.
Arsenal’s spending in the summer was around £250m on a net basis and indicative of a regime who, after committing almost £400m in external investment over the years, are now seeing the fruits of their labour.
New sleeve partnership with Deel likely to be worth £20m-a-year to Gunners
As a club grows commercially and on the pitch, it gets bigger and better sponsorship deals.
Arsenal are locked into their kit deal with Adidas, which is worth over £75m annually, until at least the summer of 2030. The front-of-shirt and stadium deal with Emirates meanwhile runs until 2028.
The Gunners also sold their training ground naming rights to Dubai real estate firm Sobha in 2023 in a deal said to be worth around £8m per season. That is a fair chunk of change for a newly-created sponsorship asset, albeit one worth considerably less than the £15m sometimes quoted in the press.
Until recently, the one key element of their commercial inventory whose future was uncertain was shirt sleeve rights.
Yet ANOTHER major Arsenal sponsorship deal
Who else would you like to see the club partner with? 🤔
Arsenal have been partnered with Visit Rwanda since 2018, with the tourist board paying the club around £10m every season in the most recent iteration of the deal.
However, the partnership has been the subject of intense scrutiny and a targeted fan campaign because of Rwandan president Paul Kagame’s alleged arming of insurgent rebels in neighbouring DR Congo. Kagame, incidentally, is a bona fide Arsenal fan.
The two countries struck a peace deal two weeks ago, but the PR damage for Arsenal was done a long time ago and, as a result, they have decided to move forward with a new partner.
In the second week of December, Arsenal and HR platform provider Deel announced a new ‘multi-year’ arrangement which reliable reports have since suggested will evolve into a sleeve deal from next season.
But how much is the deal likely worth? According to sources, Arsenal were aiming to bring their shirt sleeve rights in line with the very biggest hitters in English football at around the £20m mark.
“The issue is that Arsenal have been battling to re-establish themselves as the preeminent club in London,” says University of Liverpool football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire in exclusive conversation with Arsenal Insider.
“If they win the Premier League this season, I think we can say that ambition has been achieved. And therefore, a £20m deal reflects their status.
“People forget that they had six seasons in a row without Champions League football. Those days seem like ancient history. These are the things that sponsors take into consideration from the buy side of the deal.
“Arsenal are once again seen as a leading light in the Premier League, whereas they had previously been in danger of dropping out. If you look at their wages and revenues a few seasons ago, everything was flatlining. But we are now seeing a huge amount of growth.
“In the wage department, that is partly to do with how they have recruited and partly because of the bonuses that they are paying for competing in the Champions League and the very top end of the Premier League. I think Arsenal realise that this is the kind of investment they need to make to compete commercially and on the pitch.”
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