Arsenal world’s biggest earners
ARSENAL generate more match- day income than any team in the world — £101.84million a season.
The north London club now earn more from their home games than European giants Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich — and the extra revenue has seen them leapfrog Chelsea in Deloitte’s Money League for the first time since 2010.
Arsenal’s 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium, their home since 2006, generates approximately £3.7m per match from gate receipts, corporate hospitality sales and catering.
That has enabled them to overtake the continent’s biggest clubs. Real Madrid, who still top Deloitte’s annual Football Money League, made £100.12m from games at the Bernabeu, and Barcelona raked in £90.17m at the Nou Camp.
Manchester United are next on the list, generating £87.96m at Old Trafford, and Chelsea are fifth with £71.84m. Liverpool (£57.85m), Manchester City (£43.98m) and Tottenham (£41.83m), feature at eighth, ninth and 10th.
Dan Jones, a partner at Deloitte, said: ‘Arsenal benefited from the first year of their new kit sponsorship deal with Puma to drive impressive commercial revenue growth of 34 per cent, and their match- day revenue was the highest of any club in the Money League, and nearly £30m greater than Chelsea’s.’
The news may not console Arsenal fans who pay the highest ticket prices in England and have won only two FA Cups since they moved to their new home in 2006. However, they are top of the Premier League on goal difference and their increased spending power has enabled them to finance big-money moves for Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in recent years.
MEANWHILE,
the Premier League are set to release a chunk of the £8billion television rights money a month early, in July, in a move which is likely to prompt some early summer spending.
The initial payment was due to be handed to clubs to coincide with the start of the 2016-17 season, which kicks off on August 13.
Clubs have lobbied for some cash to be made available early, largely to help newly promoted sides pay player bonuses — often significant sums which clubs new to the top flight cannot easily pay straight away.
These clubs may also lack the finances to recruit players immediately and therefore miss out on targets. But the proposal will also enable the other clubs to start moving early in the transfer window.
The majority of the massive payout comes from the record £5.14bn deal for domestic TV rights for the next three seasons, paid by Sky and BT Sport.
The rest will come from overseas rights which are expected to bring the total to £8bn.