Inside Arsenal’s new ‘£20m’ double-your-money deal, ‘ambition achieved’ for KSE

In the spring, Arsenal will publish its annual accounts. This package of documents is expected to show an increase in revenue around the £700m mark, up from £614m the previous season.

If they reach £700 million, they will become only the second Premier League club in history after Manchester City to do so, although Liverpool are also expected to reach that milestone at the same time.

Arsenal’s revenues are booming

Mikel Arteta’s side reached the Champions League semi-finals in the first year of UEFA’s lucrative overhaul of its flagship competition. The 36-team league stage and knockout stages are expected to have earned the club more than £100 million. Adding in seven extra matchdays at the Emirates Stadium and commercial increases, the total bank for north Londoners from Europe was probably closer to £150 million.

Meanwhile, the Premier League prize money was worth around £175m. And while Arteta and his players struggle to avoid becoming the first team in the Premier League era to finish second in four consecutive seasons, they earned just a few million less than champions Liverpool last season.

On the commercial front, Arsenal sealed several new sponsorship deals with blue-chip companies, continued its foray into streetwear culture with a number of merchandise lines and also brought more premium hospitality and experiences to the Emirates. The team behind the scenes – led by Juliet Slot and, at KSE level, Olly Dale – deserve huge credit for their work here.

Kroenkes implemented a new financial model

Stan Kroenke has given his son and N5 enforcer Josh Kroenke his blessing to increase his spending in recent years.

Initially, the funding increase was aimed at returning Arsenal to the European heyday and generating revenues large enough to cover the club’s costs, as well as investing in the personnel and infrastructure, both physical and digital, needed to drive revenue growth.

But now it seems that KSE also has a more overt sporting ambition.

Arsenal’s spending this summer was around £250 million on a net basis, which is indicative of a regime which, having committed almost £400 million in outside investment over the years, is now seeing the fruits of its labor.

New Deel partnership likely to earn Gunners £20m a year

As a club grows commercially and on the pitch, it secures bigger and better sponsorship deals.

Arsenal are bound by their kit deal with Adidas, worth more than £75m a year, until at least the summer of 2030. The front-of-shirt and stadium deal with Emirates meanwhile runs until 2028.

The Gunners also sold the naming rights to their training ground to Dubai property company Sobha in 2023 in a deal believed to be worth around £8million per season. This represents a considerable sum for a newly created sponsorship asset, although its value is considerably less than the £15m sometimes quoted in the press.

Until recently, the only key item in their business inventory whose future was uncertain was the duties on shirt sleeves.

Arsenal have partnered with Visit Rwanda since 2018, with the tourism board paying the club around £10 million each season in the latest iteration of the deal.

However, the partnership has come under scrutiny and a targeted fan campaign due to Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s alleged arming of insurgent rebels from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Kagame, by the way, is a true Arsenal fan.

The two countries reached a peace deal two weeks ago, but the PR damage for Arsenal has long been done and, as a result, they have decided to move forward with a new partner.

In the second week of December, Arsenal and HR platform provider Deel announced a new “multi-year” deal which, according to reliable reports, would evolve into a deal starting next season.

But what is the likely value of the deal? According to sources, Arsenal were aiming to bring their shirt sleeve rights in line with those of English football’s biggest hitters, at around £20m.

“The problem is that Arsenal are fighting to become the preeminent club in London again,” says Kieran Maguire, Professor of Football Finance at the University of Liverpool, in an exclusive conversation with Arsenal Insider.

“If they win the Premier League this season, I think we can say the ambition has been realised. And therefore a £20 million deal reflects their status.

“People forget that they have had six consecutive seasons without Champions League football. Those days seem to be ancient history. These are things that sponsors take into account on the buying side of the deal.

“Arsenal are once again seen as leaders in the Premier League, where previously they were in danger of dropping out. If you look at their salaries and income a few seasons ago, everything was stable. But now we are seeing huge growth.

“Wage-wise, part of it is the way they have recruited and part of it is the bonuses they pay to compete in the Champions League and at the top of the Premier League. I think Arsenal realize that this is the kind of investment they need to make to be competitive commercially and on the pitch.”