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.
