Sources: Tottenham close to agreeing naming rights deal worth £21m-a-yr more than Arsenal
Arsenal currently earn just £4million on an annual pro-rata basis from the stadium naming rights component of their deal with Emirates, sources have told Football Insider.
That is well below the benchmark for a club of the Gunners’ stature, with Man City’s agreement with Etihad worth approximately £20m per year and Tottenham looking to strike a £25m-a-year deal.
The figures, which do not encompass the UAE-based airline’s front-of-shirt deal with the club, were shown to Football Insider by a respected data-gathering firm which specialises in the sports commercial industry.
The yearly £4m fee represents just a £1.2m upswing on the deal struck with Emirates when Arsenal first moved into their 60,260-seater stadium in 2006.
That means that at its current rate, the deal has failed even to keep pace with inflation – £2.8m in 2006 is worth £4.3m in 2022.
The North London arena will continue to be known as the Emirates Stadium until at least 2028 under the provisions of the last naming rights renewal deal in 2012.
Arsenal have received around £40m per year in total from Emirates since the last front-of-shirt deal, which runs until the end of the 2024-25 campaign, was announced in 2018.
But that includes front-of-shirt, naming rights, training kit sponsorship and various other privileges such as the branding for the pre-season Emirates Cup tournament.
For context, Man City earn £67.5m per year from Etihad for naming rights and front-of-shirt alone, while their training kit deal with OKX is worth another £20m annually.
Tottenham meanwhile will earn £62.5m-a-year across the same three channels if they are successful in securing a £25m-a-year stadium deal.
As revealed by Football Insider on 18 October, Spurs plan to announce a record-breaking deal before Christmas.
The Gunners’ association with Emirates is now the longest existing sponsorship relationship in football.
The club had the lowest commercial revenue of the so-called Big Six in the last recorded financial year, although hopes of a long-awaited title challenge in 2021-22 will likely translate to improved income in this department.
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