Arsenal will be able to compete with the world’s biggest clubs “within the next two years,” chief executive Ivan Gazidis has told shareholders at the club’s annual general meeting.
Once again Gazidis trotted out the line that Arsenal’s financial philosophy will pay off when UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations become more rigorously enforced.
“In the next two years, we will have the financial resources to sit and compete among the leading clubs in the world, which is an extraordinary achievement,” Gazidis said.
“Financial success is relevant because it supports our football vision… the money we make is made available to our manager and he decides how to invest those funds.
“Arsene has done a magnificent job against the spending of our major competitors.”
When Gazidis is saying wait two years, what he is referring to is Arsenal’s shirt sponsorship and kit supplier deals are up for renewal.
When Arsenal was financing the move to the Emirates they signed a long-term deal worth £90 million that covered 15 years of stadium naming rights (£42 million) running until 2020/21 and 8 years of shirt sponsorship (£48 million) until 2013/14. Following step-ups means that the shirt sponsorship deal is worth about £5.5 million a season, which is well below market rates.
Consider that Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City all earn at least £20 million from their shirt deals, you would expect that Arsenal’s new shirt sponsorship deal will be worth over £20 million a season, which will add another £15 million a year to the club’s turnover.
The story is similar with Arsenal’s kit supplier, where the club signed a 7-year deal with Nike until 2011, which was then extended by three years until 2013/14. This Nike deal is worth close to now £8 million a season, which is nothing compared to the £25 million deal Liverpool has with Warrior Sports and the expiring soon £25.4 million deal Manchester United has with Nike.
I would expect that Arsenal’s new deal would be in line with these two, meaning around £20 million a year, a nice £12 million jump from current levels.
So in two years, Arsenal’s commercial revenue should jump by at least £27 million due to these two new deals. That is the equivalent of signing one top player per season. Which is why Gazidis says wait two years.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
This club is rubbish, wenger, gazidis and other board members, they are all trash. Just making other clubs supporters to be making jest of we arsenal fans. What do one do I love arsenal and can see myself supporting another club even Barca.
Well too bad.
so we like to say what a great financial basis our club has yet we achieve this by selling our best players year on year to cover the costs of the board negotiating such poor deals on sponsorship!
Me myself i refuse to spend another penny at arsenal this is not rocket science 8 years no trophys =8 years of selling world class players and replacing with young good ones = the club and the board getting richer and mug fans getting poorer
@john, how much do you/did you pay for your season ticket? just out of interest?
1000 GOLD SEASON PLUS 70 SILVER
u are mad! U toy with fans’ lives. Gazidis!! How I no fan book 4 ticket next season
£27 M a year which will probably go into Kronoeke’s back pocket
Is frustrating,so wat his also saying is dat dia won’t be trophies till 2yrs time,oh! Hw i wish i could just 4get dis club nd join some oda club..no insults to me pls..dat’s frustrating u knw.
We keep saying when the FFP comes into play, we shld plan on things we cant control is a wrong move. Truth UEFA will not clam down on teams like barca, r.marid etc. Cause they wil lose a lot of money if those teams are not the champions league cos of the FFP rule, even the league wont be same is those teams do not play. Arsenal shld plan on things they can control, players, wages and training. We have so much players on wages that dont offer us much in terms of value to resale them or even play. If arsenal wants to be run as a business, the brand is not our football but the satifaction given to the consumers (fans), player like diaby will be written off as bad debt. Our brand should be value for money and satifaction which means great football with trophies. Fans needs a braging right that is our satifaction. Arsenal needs one for his fans.
My fellow gunneRs if we stop wtchn arsenal matches and allow the so called board to count some losses,maybe they’ll know that we don’t fetch money from river
Let me say, I`m not a trophy hunter and I won`t quit on Arsenal if the shelf is empty providing they are competitive, entertaining, exciting and pick up a pot once in a while, like the League Championship. I`ve long since accepted that we don`t have the money to be anything else but an upper six club and untill the rules change that`s how we`ll stay, along with a string of others. The EPL is now so predictable it`s not worth taking seriously and English football is nothing more than a joke.
On the back of this, godzila is offering us a inferior product for the next two years, so look forward to the reduction in my season ticket.
Worst is that arsenal is not entertaining anymore…. boring football with crosses… Please dont make these b@st@rds rich…
I’m sick nd tired bt left wit no options dan to support my dearly Arsenal, tearssssssssssssssss