Arsenal's money

As time goes by the extraordinary plans for Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium become clearer.

When the stadium deal was first announced there were a few of us with pens and back of beer mats who thought that financially this could be quite an interesting deal – if one that was a little tight.

Then we began to see the light.   Light in sense of the big “name the stadium” contract, and light in terms of the stunningly attractive and stunningly expensive Club Level seats, all of which are selling as season ticket seating.   

Already one of the most expensive clubs in the land to support Arsenal is going to be the club that is going to get far more through the gates than any other club IN THE WORLD.

“In the world” is right because even though some clubs have bigger grounds their average income per seat is much smaller than Arsenal is going to have once the Emirates is open.

Take Man U for example – with a top season ticket price somewhere in the zone of £600 they are already under half the price of Arsenal’s season tickets at Highbury.   What this means is that although Man U have 8000 or so more people per game than Arsenal will have, Arsenal will have an income of around 268% of that of Man U, for each game.

The figures become even more extraordinary when compared with top clubs from Spain and Italy, where entry prices are much lower.  Using the last set of comparative figures for turnover of clubs around the world, and assuming for the moment that marketing income remains much the same, Arsenal will, in 3 years time, be bigger than Real Madrid in terms of income.

What is also interesting is that both Real Madrid and Arsenal will have huge debts – Real because of its never ending buying spree, and Arsenal because of the stadium.   But the difference is that Arsenal will be paying a much lower amount in interest because their borrowing is guaranteed against concrete and steel, while Real have borrowed against player worth.   Ask any banker which one of those two he considers more viable when lending – and look at the interest rates then charged.

Thus Arsenal’s borrowing is limited and guaranteed – Real’s is unending and without guarantees.

What we can therefore look forward to is not just a lovely new stadium (albeit with very expensive tickets) but also a club that within 5 years is going to be the club with the highest turnover in the world, and in 15 years the richest club in the world.

Of course much of this has happened because of the buying policy of Sir Wenger.   Up to 2003 his average expenditure minus income per year was £4 million.   By 2004 Arsenal had at least 2 players who the club could never afford to buy at their present worth – Henry and Vieira,  and a host more (from Cesc to Freddie) who are now worth far more than they ever cost in the first place.   Clearly this policy is continuing with the endless stream of new under 21 talent coming into the squad.   

Indeed if one looks at the team that played in the league cup fixtures this year, some of that team, in 2006 will be in the first team – and again all brought to the club for next to nothing.

It is this extraordinary ability to bring in talent on the cheap that is a significant part of the economic miracle at Arsenal.