The news that the building of the apartments on the site of Arsenal
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The news that the building of the apartments on the site of Arsenal’s Highbury ground was greeted with a mixture of disinterest and disinformation by the press. In reality it is a stunning reminder of just how huge the financial machine at Arsenal is becoming. Arsenal will get around £100 million in pure profit from the sales over four years. This money is in addition to all the other income Arsenal have from the move to the new ground – the massive increase in turnover on match days, and all the additional marketing income. This money therefore has never been accounted for thus far – the loans etc that Arsenal have taken out for the new stadium are not based on getting money from this sale. So it is pure extra profit. When the deal was announced the Arsenal made these points clearly, but the few places that took up the story ran it as “Mr Wenger and the Arsenal board are on a collision course over the windfall”. This is nonsense – the money is not there yet, and has not been set aside for anything – it is extra money the club will get in the future. Without the new money the stadium is still paid for, and there is lots of money in the pot for transfers. Now we can say there will be lots of money in five years time as well. |
