Last night’s demolition of Real Madrid was emblematic of the fact that Arsenal have clawed their way back into European football’s aristocracy once more – both on the pitch and financially.
The man whose mind-melting free kick brace inspired the 3-0 victory over the 15-time European champions, Declan Rice, was a £100m signing. That comfortably beats Real Madrid’s transfer record.
For context, Real are the richest club in the world by revenue and have been for 14 of the last 20 seasons. Arsenal are 7th on that list, with turnover of £617m in the last financial year, compare to Real’s £900m.
The Gunners’ revenue growth between 2022-23 and 2023-24 was extraordinary and goes hand in glove with what Mikel Arteta’s side have achieved on the pitch.
Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
Two successive Premier League finishes is set to become three in 2024-25, barring a biblical collapse of biblical proportions from runaway leaders Liverpool.
And while silverware in the post-lockdown era has eluded them, returning the Champions League – the world’s second-most lucrative sports competition in the world on a per-match basis after the NFL – provides a platform to change that.
| Position | Team | Played MP |
Won W |
Drawn D |
Lost L |
For GF |
Against GA |
Diff GD |
Points Pts |
| 1 |  |
31 | 22 | 7 | 2 | 72 | 30 | 42 | 73 |
| 2 |  |
31 | 17 | 11 | 3 | 56 | 26 | 30 | 62 |
| 3 |  |
31 | 17 | 6 | 8 | 51 | 37 | 14 | 57 |
How much Arsenal have earned in Champions League prize money
Arsenal have earned monumental prize money for reaching the last eight of European football’s premier competition in its maiden season under a controversial new format.
Banking just shy of £99m so far under a revamped, UEFA’s new revenue distribution system has been kind to them.
If, as they are now firm favourites to do, they reach the semi-finals, they will pocket another £13m. Win the whole thing and the total prize pot will be around £125m, if not a touch more.
Falling out of the Champions League and losing what could be 25 per cent of your turnover is an occupation hazard that Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke doesn’t experience in his other sports ventures.
There are still good seasons and bad seasons for LA Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Rapids – but a bad season in the NFL, NBA, NHL or MLS is still a profitable one.
Arsenal, by contrast, have been a loss-making team for the last six seasons. Those losses need to be underwritten and it is Silent Stan and his increasingly influential son, Josh Kroenke, who absorb the hit.
Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
Arsenal continue to make big financial losses – how do they turn it around?
Football clubs have three primary income streams:
- Media – Television, streaming, centralised prize money
- Commercial – Sponsorship, merchandise, events
- Matchday – Ticketing, hospitality, food and drink
Every now and then, Arsenal will benefit from a big bump in media income – a new Premier League rights deal or the extra revenue from the revamped Champions League format, for example.
But these contracts are centrally negotiated by UEFA and the Premier League and Arsenal have relatively little influence. Plus, their rivals benefit here too, so it’s difficult to gain a competitive edge.
Raising matchday income is tough. There is justifiable resistance to ticket price rises and there’s only so much you can squeeze from the corporate hospitality sector with your existing infrastructure.
Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
If you can satisfy the demand, the alternative is to expand the stadium, as Arsenal are planning to do. However, that is exceptionally expensive and takes years to bear fruit.
Commercial income is the one remaining arrow in Arsenal’s quiver, then, and the Gunners had until recently fallen some way behind their peers in the so-called ‘Big Six’.
Given that the Kroenkes want a self-funding model in the long term, any deficit has a direct impact on the budget available to Arteta and the new sporting director, Andrea Berta.
However, the latest accounts show not quite a full recover but definite signs of life.
Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
Arsenal’s commercial income has leapt up by £71m in a single season, sparked by a new training ground naming rights deal with Sobha Realty and the extension of their front-of-shear partnership with Emirates.
And the latest news from the football finance sphere signals another quantum leap could be imminent.
Arsenal exploring bumper new sponsorship deal
In January, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment – the holdings company that oversees all of the billionaire’s teams either side of the Atlantic – revealed a major switch-up in commercial strategy.
Arsenal managing director Richard Garlick emailed staff as KSE to tell them that Stan and Josh Kroenke have given their blessing to launch a new centralised sponsorship division.
In layman’s terms, the new department, which is being overseen by Arsenal commercial director Olly Dale, will sell shared sponsorship contracts across multiple teams in the KSE network.
That means the North Londoners could be set to share more sponsorship deals with the Rams, Nuggets, Avalanche and more, with the aim of deliver more value and extracting more cash from partners.
And with one of Arsenal’s biggest sponsorships up for grabs at the moment, we could be about to see how effective this strategy is.
Visit Rwanda have been Arsenal’s shirt sleeve partner since 2018 in a deal worth around £10m annually.
Incidentally, Rwandan president Paul Kagame is an Arsenal fan, regularly visits the Emirates and is said to have personally had a hand in the partnership.
That deal expires at the end of the season and has come under heavy scrutiny due to the Rwandan government’s policies. Increasingly, the mood music suggest Arsenal will choose not to renew.
Now, sports business insider Lukasz Baczek has reported that Arsenal are exploring a three-year deal with a new partner in the £15-20m range, which could equate to £60m over the contract length.
That would be a significant uptick on the current deal and would bring the Gunners level with several of their peers in the Big Six.
Commercial income is increasingly competitive and Arsenal chief commercial officer Juliet Slot needs more and more to run to stand still to keep pace with her rivals.
A 50-100 per cent bump in the sleeve sponsorship category would be seen as a coup.
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The Emirates sponsor derby: Arsenal vs Real Madrid
A brief aside – after Arsenal themselves, the Emirates airline was the big winner in last night’s Champions League classic.
Officially, the match took place at the Arsenal Stadium as UEFA does not allow branded stadiums to bear their names in its competitions.
But with both Real Madrid and Real Madrid sponsored by the UAE airline, the clash was a feast of exposure for Emirates.
Arsenal’s front-of-shirt deal and naming rights deal with Emirates is worth a reported £50m per season and runs until 2028.
Last season, Real received a £2m bonus from Emirates for winning the Champions League. Arsenal can expect something similar if they lift the trophy in Munich on 31 May.
Could Donald Trump tariffs affect Arsenal’s commercial search?
One potential stumbling block as Arsenal negotiate with potential new sponsors is the chaotic state of the global economy.
Donald Trump has placed tariffs on almost every country on the planet. Foreign governments have responded in kind with retaliatory tariffs.
The received wisdom is that this will affect the sponsorship market and make foreign investment less attractive to both investors in the United States and beyond.
It may not move the dial in football’s commercial sphere too much in the long term, but blue-chip firms who may be considering Arsenal as a partner will be taking it into account.
