Exclusive: Arsenal could land extra ‘£9.5m’ with more on the way
Mikel Arteta could benefit from an increased transfer budget in future seasons thanks to Arsenal’s stadium expansion plans.
That is according to football finance expert Dr Dan Plumley who exclusively told Football Insider how much Arsenal could earn by expanding Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal may have to move to Wembley whilst they complete work to add an extra 10,000 seats and expand the Emirates to a 70,000 capacity arena.
Tottenham are inspiring Arsenal’s expansion with Spurs ahead of their north London rivals on the commercialisation of their stadium.
Arsenal’s stadium expansion analysed
Arsenal generate the third highest amount of revenue in the Premier League, and speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Plumley has crunched the numbers and believes the Gunners could earn a minimum of £9.5million extra from more seats.
“We will work with some conservative estimates, it depends obviously what they do with those tickets whether or not they are general tickets or hospitality or a little bit of both depending on what they do with the stadium,” Plumley said.
“If you look at their ticket prices this year they range between £30 and £115.
“If you say an average ticket might cost £50 and then you’re going to put 10,000 extra seats on that’s going to generate you an extra £500,000 per matchday, and then even in a normal Premier League season without any other European football that’s going to mean £9.5million across the course of the season additional revenue.
“That’s quite a conservative estimate as we know some tickets will be a higher price some could be hospitality related we don’t know the plans.
“It comes at a cost of course but that is the long-term gain you’re looking for is that extra money coming in year on year because you’ve got those extra seats.”
Arsenal face ‘challenging’ dilemma amid expansion plans
Many football fans already feel priced out of Premier League football, but Plumley thinks Arsenal will have no issues selling out an expanded Emirates Stadium even if it comes with backlash from supporters for higher ticket prices.
“This depends on the way they position the expansion and the pricing structure and what those tickets are,” Plumley said.
“This season category A tickets is up to £115 so its not cheap anyway, but its not cheap anyway and the ground is still selling out so it depends how we view this and what supporters we are judging this on.
“Ticket prices will continue to be an issue in English football, its challenging its high cost for a lot of fans but I think if you look at Arsenal they will sell those seats that’s the reality and whatever the cost is I think they will sell those seats.
“It can go to a number of things within the club, it can cover existing wage bills it can help towards that, it can do additional things you can look at infrastructure, other infrastructure development, you can look at the academy, the youth set up, you can look at bringing in a boardroom position or it can go into the transfer kitty. All those things are viable.
“What you are looking at across the board ultimately is more money in means more money to spend and how they choose to spend that is up to them. I think it’s always likely you see some of that money recirculating into the transfer market, that’s the nature of the business.”