It has been almost a year since Josh Kroenke revealed that Arsenal were considering lifting capacity at the Emirates Stadium – and the financial landscape looks increasingly geared towards that.
A football club has three main income sources – media, commercial and matchday – and Arsenal earn far more from the first two categories than they do through the turnstiles at the Emirates.
The same is true of every Premier League club, in fact. Bricks and mortar are, quite literally, a ceiling in terms of how lucrative this revenue stream can be.
Photo by James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images
However, domestic media income is showing signs of plateauing after a decade of boom, while the football finance industry agrees that growth in the international market can’t continue exponentially.
Commercial income meanwhile is an area Arsenal have addressed of late.
Previously, they were the ugly duckling of the so-called Big Six in terms of their earnings from sponsorship, merchandise and events, but their 2023-24 accounts show they have caught up.
Photo credit: Serena Taylor/Newcastle United/Getty Images
But commercial income is an ultra-competitive field and, while clubs are always trying to capture new ‘fans’ in overseas and domestic markets, there are only so many customers you can sell merchandise to.
As a result, more teams – Arsenal included – are realising that matchday income, while expensive to procure, is the way to steal a march on their rivals.
Josh Kroenke, son of Arsenal’s ultimate owner Stan Kroenke, explained last summer: “It would be premature to talk about any plans in depth, but the internal conversations are starting to occur about [the stadium. It is not an easy renovation, but we see the possibilities of what’s there.“
Since then, there have been a flurry or reliable reports reinforcing what TBR Football suggested was likely some time ago – that Arsenal could spend as much as £500m to add 20,000 seats in N5.
The North Londoners’ plans have no doubt been hastened by what they are seeing around them.
Everton are set to move into a world-class new stadium next season. Man United have revealed their plans for Europe’s biggest stadium. Chelsea are looking at building an entirely new home too.
And on a slightly more tawdry note, there will surely be an element of frustration that arch rivals Tottenham have the jump on Arsenal when it comes to monetising their fanbase.
But what might a redevelopment of the Emirates Stadium look like? News from Stan Kroenke’s wider sports empire may provide a clue.
Stan Kroenke seeks Ball Arena approval – a sign of things to come at the Emirates Stadium?
Real estate has always been central to the Kroenke Sports & Entertainment network.
The group has led the construction and redevelopment of several capital expenditure projects for its teams, though the jewel in the crown is the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
That arena – home the NFL LA Rams franchise – is the most expensive ever built and, commercially speaking, the most lucrative too.
| Stadium | Cost (adjusted for inflation) | Location | Opened |
| SoFi Stadium | $5.5 billion | California, USA | 2020 |
| MetLife Stadium | $1.99 billion | New Jersey, USA | 2010 |
| Allegiant Stadium | $1.90 billion | Nevada, USA | 2020 |
| Wembley Stadium | $1.85 billion | London, UK | 2007 |
| Yankee Stadium | $1.79 billion | New York, USA | 2009 |
| AT&T Stadium | $1.79 billion | Texas, USA | 2009 |
| Mercedes-Benz Stadium | $1.56 billion | Atlanta, USA | 2017 |
| Singapore National Stadium | $1.41 billion | Kallang, Singapore | 2014 |
| Tottenham Hotspur Stadium | $1.33 billion | London, England | 2019 |
| Optus Stadium | $1.17 billion | Perth, Australia | 2017 |
More recently, KSE have been seeking approval for plans to develop a huge area of car parking adjacent to Ball Arena, the home of Kroenke-owned Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche.
Now, Law360 has shed some more light on the blueprints for the 64-acre sight.
If his petitions are granted by the state court, a the £2bn-plus project will include a new 5,000 seat venue, a hotel, 6,000 housing unites and a public park.
It will also guarantee that the Nuggets and Avalanche remain in the city until at least 2050. Given that Kroenke relocated his NFL franchise from St Louis to LA in 2016, that is a significant commitment.
Many believe that Kroenke’s ownership of sports teams is at least partly motivated by them being a beachhead for further investment in the area.
That is likely to be the case at Arsenal, where land is far, far more limited than it is in Denver but where there will almost certainly be some sort of complex or commercial district attached to any redevelopment of the Emirates.
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Josh Kroenke mural vandalised at Arsenal
Ahead of Arsenal’s last match before the international break, a 1-0 win over Chelsea last Sunday, a fan-made mural of Josh Kroenke near the Emirates Stadium was defaced.
It was a pretty tame act of rebellion, and one likely in response to the Gunners’ lack of action in the January transfer window, which cost them any feeble hopes of keeping pace with Liverpool in the title race.
Kroenke, as the man who broke the news of plans to increase capacity at the Emirates to 80,000, has been the public face of his father’s regime in North London in recent years.
He will likely be given a hands-on role in deciding the commercial direction of the stadium development, if and when it comes to pass.
Any upgrades would surely focus on the hospitality and ‘experiences’ markets, where elite clubs are increasingly looking to push the envelope as far as matchday income is concerned.
A season ticket for Arsenal’s Diamond Club, for example, the most exclusive area of the stadium, will set you back £30,000.
JPMorgan meanwhile recently sponsored another swanky suite at the Emirates, a venue seen as much by the Kroenke regime as a place to do business as it is the spiritual home of the football team itself.
