I think when you look at the other clubs they are building much more than that for the local community. Like Hotel and Malls etc. We could do that as well and garner extra revenue. The concourse is actually pretty big and our musuem is extremely dated and small, not fitting for a big club.
We should really be looking at a 75k to 80k seater given the size of the club.
Arsenal explore Emirates expansion to match rivals’ income
Arsenal have started to explore how they could upgrade and expand the Emirates Stadium to try to catch up with their rivals’ match-day income.
The ground’s capacity of about 60,000 was the biggest in London when they moved from Highbury in 2006, but its size, catering and corporate facilities have since been surpassed by those of Tottenham Hotspur, who earn close to £6million from every match at their 62,850-capacity venue.
Manchester United have also been looking into whether to build a new 100,000-seat stadium or revamp Old Trafford, while West Ham United have plans to increase the capacity of the London Stadium to 68,000, which would make it the second-largest ground in the Premier League. Liverpool recently expanded Anfield, which now holds 61,276 supporters.
Without a renovation, Arsenal cannot significantly increase their match-day income. They earned £102.6million from games in 2022-23, which is estimated by the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust to increase to more than £120million in the next accounts because of the team reaching the knockout stage of the Champions League last season.
Arsenal’s matches regularly sell out and they realise that they need to keep pace with the huge demand for tickets, as well as adapt to supporters’ changing catering and corporate needs, for example by improving internet access.
Arsenal’s owner, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, has experience of constructing stadiums, having built the state-of-the-art SoFi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams NFL franchises. The ground has a capacity of 70,240 and was first used in 2020.
It is not clear how Arsenal could increase the capacity beyond 60,704 in a cost-effective way, having added 780 seats in 2018. Experts have suggested that they could consider changing the gently sloping elliptical roof, which was shaped to help airflow and sunlight reach the grass, but have also pointed out that lowering the pitch will almost certainly not be possible, not least because it would affect sightlines.
Arsenal are among a number of clubs to charge more than £1,000 for a season ticket
Arsenal have 146 executive boxes, which is twice as many as Tottenham, who recognised that corporate fans increasingly prefer using hospitality lounges.
In the shorter term, Arsenal have appointed Populous, the firm that designed the Emirates Stadium, to improve the catering potential. “The demand for food and drink has grown so much more,” Chris Maddison, the head of food and beverage at Populous said last week at Leaders Week London, a conference for sports professionals.
“We are doing a redesign of the main production kitchen to triple it in size. That space is necessary to deliver the extra revenue that is being demanded, but it comes down to space. That links itself to cost.”
Tottenham earn more than £105million a season in match-day income from their stadium, in addition to their earnings from hosting NFL and rugby union matches, as well as music concerts. The stadium is equipped with the best bars in the league and the club earn nearly £1million at every home game in food and drink revenue.
Could convert one section to have small seats, and therefore more of them. Just sell tickets to dwarfs and midgets.
Only issue is we’d lose a bit of revenue on the kit selling side as they’d only need child’s sizes and not adults. Probably eat and drink less too.
Great thinking.
Let's take this up a notch though, we sell Arsenal-branded trenchcoats and just stack the child fans three high. If viewing is an issue, just mount periscope cameras on the epaulettes.
As a non-matchgoing fan living thousands of miles away, I'd accept a huge reduction in the reading age of the club's public announcements to achieve this objective and fund our future domination of England and Europe.
Like that line of thinking.
For the children who are at the bottom of the trench coat stack with obscured view we could perhaps supply them with a viewing device and charge them a discounted rate to watch the match through Arsenal Direct
Pets corner too - bring your pet along to experience that unique match day experience. Size and weight terms and conditions apply
If we were to allow our sizeable worldwide fruitbat fan base a limited form of membership, we could then allow these vital members of the Arsenal community to view matches hanging upside down from the shelter of the terraces.
Actually that's an option we could also open up to our fit and able fans of other species, at least after a medical is completed through one of a list of approved providers, and an appropriate legal waiver signed.
The top of the stands are wave shaped so there are gaps to the roof, wonder if filling these up are an option? or perhaps they serve a purpose, such as allowing light in or disrupt the wind patterns.
IBL In modern stadium wind and sunlight can be solved with man made solutions. Most stadiums are even fully covered these days.
I think Kroenke needs to expand the stadium, the demand is just going through the roof at the moment and we are letting 20-40m slip out of the window due to outdated facilities and lack of seats. But the local council is an issue.
I think Arsenal could easily afford to replace the roof completely, build a 4th tier and go 80k seats. Have another row of corporate boxes as well.
Clrnc In modern stadium wind and sunlight can be solved with man made solutions. Most stadiums are even fully covered these days.
I think Kroenke needs to expand the stadium, the demand is just going through the roof at the moment
Fuck it, why don't we build a roof and stick seats on the underside of it so fans can watch matches upside down, strapped to a harness. Easy and relatively cheap way to expand capacity. Could even market it as an all new viewing experience, an industry first etc.
Wait, did i just hear 'outdated facilities'? Emirates stadium has outdated facilities?
USArsenal Yeah, I visited most of european stadiums and went on tour over the past 2 years, Emirates is definitely dated compared to the top ones for hospitality and corporate stuffs.
Our dressing rooms and managerial rooms has been updated extensively since Arteta arrived but the press box, wifi, f&B still lags behind the rest as well
Saw a Bloomberg article yesterday saying similar that we want to get up to 80k seats
That article is behind a paywall for me. Do you subscribe to the Mail Jazz?
Asterix No I don't, as soon as the page loads I usually click on reader mode and the article shows up. I'll post below:
How Arsenal can supercharge the Emirates Stadium to catch up with rivals - experts reveal five...
Isaan KhanJosh Kroenke's words were brief, but a sign of where Arsenal and the Emirates Stadium are headed.
Despite only opening in 2006 and with the memories of Highbury still fresh, the 60,000-seat, £390million arena has already started to lag behind the Gunners' rivals and is in need of renovation.
'The internal conversations are starting to occur about (the stadium),' Kroenke, son of the club's owner Stan and his point man in the UK, told ESPN in July. 'It is not an easy renovation, but we see the possibilities of what's there.'
It's understood that talks are at an early stage and the Islington Council and Transport for London (TfL) have yet to be approached by Arsenal. But behind the scenes, Mail Sport can reveal that council diktat, safety concerns and choosing the best way to expand the Emirates are just some of the hurdles that the club must overcome.
But it's necessary. At 60,704 seats, Arsenal currently have the fifth-biggest stadium in the league - they were second when the Emirates opened. Manchester United (74,197) remain ahead, while Tottenham (62,850), West Ham (62,500) and Liverpool (61,276) have all shot past them.
And Manchester City could soon also be usurping the Gunners — they are expanding their North Stand which could push the Etihad past 60,000.
The £390m Emirates Stadium only opened in 2006 but the arena has already started to lag behind the Gunners' rivals
At the same time, other teams are looking to expand even further or move elsewhere for more room. Man United are looking at building a 100,000-seat 'Wembley of the North', while West Ham plan to increase the capacity of their London Stadium to 68,000.
Reports emerged last week that Arsenal have set a target of 80,000 seats, which would make the Emirates the fifth-biggest stadium in Europe behind the Nou Camp, Wembley, Twickenham and the Stade de France.
Under the ownership of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE), Arsenal have often kept on the front foot. Pride is at stake. They are again in the mix for the title, yes, yet there's a hunger to regain the edge their rivals off the field.
Firstly, there's the necessity. Adding capacity is a logical step, particularly when it comes to increasing revenue and reducing a season-ticket waiting list that stretches over 10 years.
In the latest Deloitte financial figures, for the 2022-23 season, Arsenal made £464.6million in total revenue. That was significantly less than Manchester City (£712.8m), Manchester United (£648m), Liverpool (£593.8m), Tottenham (£549.6m) and Chelsea (£512.5m).
For that same season, Arsenal's wage bill (£235m) was also smaller than all of their Big Six rivals. So there is room for improvement.
Neighbours Spurs, for example, trump the Gunners for catering and hospitality. They earn close to £6million a match at their venue, and while Arsenal's total annual figure (£102.6m) is impressive, it still trails Man United (£163.4m) and Spurs (£117.6m).
In the summer Arsenal increased the price of their season tickets by up to six per cent. That has left fans paying at least £100 more, with prices ranging from £461.50 to £2,050.50.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has seen Spurs overtake Arsenal for catering and hospitality
The Kroenkes have ambitious plans on and off the field for the Gunners, including the stadium
Arsenal are hoping to increase the capacity of the Emirates amid huge demand for tickets
So what can they do? Here are a few options, based on conversations with expert construction developers.
One option is to get creative with the existing seats, ripping them out in certain areas and replacing them with slightly smaller ones. Even making them smaller by an inch, for example, would increase capacity by a few thousand.
Another avenue is to lower the pitch. The playing surface at the 70,240-seat SoFi Stadium, home to the Kroenke-owned LA Rams of the NFL, is 100ft below ground level, allowing expansion vertically rather than outwards.
This is important as the Emirates is penned in a little by its surroundings, with railway lines running close to the West and East stands. However, it is unlikely that Arsenal could pull this off due to the design of the stadium and the restrictions that lowering the pitch would place on sightlines.
A further alternative is to renovate individual stands, which would require closing parts of them for a period of time and briefly reduce matchday revenue. The West Stand in particular would be tricky to work on, as that houses the team dugouts and changing rooms, but the others each have gaps between the back row of seats and the roof that could conceivably be filled.
The next option is the roof. There is understood to be scope for it to be replaced so more rows can be built in the upper tier or as a new fifth tier, though this would be expensive and the view from the top of the extended stand would be limited.
The left-field curveball move would be to relocate elsewhere. The club have made no suggestion at all of this being contemplated, and given that 2006 really isn't all that long ago, it would be a seismic decision.
It would also cause issues for Islington Council and Transport for London (TfL). Mail Sport understands the council is acutely aware of the benefits the Emirates has brought to the local area.
The SoFi Stadium, home to the LA Rams, is the inspiration for other new stadium builds
Arsenal played at the impressive stadium in Los Angeles during their pre-season tour of the US
Unlike other areas in London boroughs, the local Highbury and Islington community has continued to have a thriving pub and restaurant scene — driven by matchdays — despite the impacts of Covid which has seen many venues elsewhere have to close down.
This season the club have moved towards holding more non-footballing events to further boost their revenue. The Emirates hosts the 2024 XTX Markets London Chess Classic from November 29 to December 7, with December 4 a rest day which is when Arsenal play United. Conversations on the deal began in June.
The tournament, which is in its 14th edition, usually takes place at Kensington Olympia. Arsenal also announced this week that the stadium will be hosting a Robbie Williams concert on June 6, as part of his European tour.
Mail Sport understands the club are eyeing further hosting opportunities, particularly of an international appeal.
So the possibility of the Kroenke ownership uprooting to build a new, bigger stadium elsewhere is not one they want, however unlikely. That said, it is understood that the council have long had reservations around an increase in capacity because of crowd safety concerns and the supposedly inadequate public transport close to the ground.
The council and TfL's relationship with Arsenal is a complicated one and predates the Kroenkes buying shares in the club in 2007.
Arsenal submitted a planning application for a new stadium in November 2000 but it took until December 2001 for the council to approve their planning application with a number of local groups opposing the move from Highbury.
To get planning approval was a long, tempestuous process. It's understood that Arsenal had to provide an undisclosed amount of money to TfL to improve Holloway Road underground station, the closest Tube stop to the Emirates, as there were council concerns about matchday safety in terms of overcrowding.
Manchester United are considering building a 'Wembley of the North' to replace Old Trafford
But it's believed that the money Arsenal provided was instead used for work on Highbury and Islington station, which is a 15-minute walk from the Emirates.
As a result, Holloway Road and Drayton Park stations - the two closest to the ground - are shut on matchdays because of the risk of overcrowding, while Highbury and Islington and the Arsenal Tube stop have lengthy queues after matches.
If the north London club are to apply for planning permission and get the council green light for expansion, Mail Sport understands money will be needed for work on at least Holloway Road underground station to increase its capacity. Whether the Kroenkes would want to stump up the cash for this remains to be seen.
Owner Stan's background is in real estate. It's how he began to earn his multi-billion dollar fortune, building shopping centres and apartment buildings. He has developed many plazas near Walmart stores.
In recent times, building work in relation to his sports teams has spiked. In August, his Rams team moved to a new team training facility and headquarters in Woodland Hills where Stan has spent around $650m (£507m) on a development which incorporates practice fields, offices and hotels.
In October this year, Denver City Council approved Stan's plan to turn 64 acres of parking lots at the home of his Denver Nuggets basketball and Colorado Avalanche ice hockey teams into an expanded downtown area with 6,000 housing units, a 5,000 seat venue and a new hotel.
And then there's SoFi, the jewel in their crown. Having opened in 2020, the 3.1m square foot state-of-the-art venue boasts a double-sided oval video board — the first stadium to have one - and has been the inspiration for Real Madrid's renovated Bernabeu and the forthcoming 'new Old Trafford'.
When Mail Sport visited SoFi on the Gunners' summer US pre-season tour, we were shown the various swanky suites and told how the venue will be temporarily transformed into a swimming pool for the 2028 LA Olympics. It's a very striking and unique arena, and a symbol of the owners' ambitions.
And even with talks at an early stage, it appears the Emirates is next on the Kroenke's list.
Whatever they do to increase capacity will come at a hefty price. But in the ever-competitive Premier League, standing still means falling behind - and Arsenal certainly cannot afford to do that.
we should just share with Spurs. there's enough space - we don't even have to worry about adding another trophy room. we'll just fill theirs with our bling.
