According to a financial breakdown by football.london, Arsenal are expected to have £90m to spend on summer acquisitions and that’s without any player sales.
Arsenal’s yearly wage bill is believed to be in the region of £200m but failure to qualify for the UEFA Champions League will see the club miss out on around £25m.
The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) have released their latest findings on YouTube, having taken an in-depth look into the club’s financial position.
They belief that the club is in “rude health financially“, and have plenty of money to spend on new players this summer.
Alexis Sánchez and Mesut Özil still haven’t committed their long-term future to the club but the fact that the wage bill is around the £200m-a-year mark means they should be able to offer high wages for two of the league’s best attacking players.
Estimated revenue and new TV deal boost
For the current financial season, which ends this month, the AST have estimated that the club will earn somewhere in the region of £420m. This is an increase of £70m from the 2015/16 campaign, which is mainly due to the new TV deal. There is also a locked in profit of around £40m, which could also be potentially higher.
With all of that being said though, there’s one key issue here. Arsenal are now in the same financial league as Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham – as opposed to Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City.
The move to the Emirates brought higher gate receipts but with other clubs following suit, the advantage is gradually reducing with everyone eager to compete for record profits.
Champions League vs Europa League
Last season, Arsenal received just less than £50m for reaching the last-16 of the Champions League from UEFA.
In comparison, Liverpool were defeated by Sevilla in the Europa League final and earned around £27m.
The estimated difference in prize money is around £25m between round-of-16 in Champions League and Europa League semi-finalists.
Wage bill and debt
As previously mentioned, Arsenal’s wage bill is close to £200m. United’s is near the £240m mark whilst both Chelsea and City are hovering around £210m.
Spurs’ current wage bill is £120m-a-year. So, Arsenal can afford to pay both Alexis and Özil a weekly packet of £300,000 (£15m-a-year), but would need to sell some players to free up wages for new signings too.
The club’s debt is believed to be around £200m, which has been described as a “very manageable” figure.
Commercial revenues and share prices
Arsenal’s current shirt and kit sponsorship deals with Puma are worth far less in comparison to rival clubs, such as Chelsea for instance. Yokohama’s deal with the Premier League champions is set to add around £60m-a-year in commercial revenue, totalling £180m – which is also at least £60m more than the Gunners.
Chelsea are on a similar level to Manchester City with their Ethiad Airways deal, but local neighbours United rule the roost with an eyewatering £280m-a-year from commercial income.
As a result, they’ve all got more to spend than Arsenal in terms of wages and transfer budget if they allocate their finances correctly.
Stan Kroenke bought his first share in Arsenal over a decade ago now. He has paid about £425m for his 67 per cent shareholding within the club. If he were to hypothetically sell his shares now at the current price (between £17,500 and £18,000), he’d make a profit of £200m on his investment.