When you hear the person sitting next you moaning about paying the player’s wages, don’t dismiss them out of hand, especially not if they’re an Arsenal fan whose match day revenues pay a bigger percentage of player wages than any other Premier League club.

A study, undertaken by University of Liverpool School of Management lecturer, Keiran Maguire, has shown that Arsenal fans are streets ahead of their nearest rivals, Manchester United with a steep drop as you move down the table to Swansea City whose matchday revenues account for just 9% of their player’s wages.

Kieran Maguire said in a blog on the university’s website, “By far the biggest contributor to clubs’ coffers was broadcasting rights, which brought in over £1.7 billion, a sum likely to be substantially eclipsed in 2016/17 when the new Sky/BT deal commences.

“This means that for every £1 paid in by fans through the turnstiles, the TV companies are putting in £2.86. Commercial income, in the form of sponsorship, advertising and so on, brought in £975 million to clubs.’

“The upshot of all this is that broadcasters and sponsors are now calling the shots.

“This is evidenced by some early season fixtures having kick off times changed. The English Premier League, or EPL as it now likes to be known, now has Southampton fans having to travel to Old Trafford at 7:45pm on a Friday night in August. A couple of weeks later Brighton fans have the joys of a 5:30pm kick off on the Bank Holiday Saturday.

“No public transport for either set of fans who want to return home after the match. So fans therefore have the extra cost of overnight stays if they want to watch their teams.”

Maguire’s findings:

Premier League 2014/15 £’000 £’000 £’000 Wages/
Team Revenue Matchday Wages Matchday
Arsenal 343,719 100,401 192,213 52%
Manchester United 395,178 90,583 202,561 45%
Newcastle 128,830 26,784 65,087 41%
Tottenham Hotspur 196,377 41,248 100,832 41%
West Ham 120,747 27,212 72,715 37%
Liverpool 297,947 58956 166,085 35%
Chelsea 319,456 70,778 217,067 33%
Burnley 78,770 7,318 29,395 25%
Southampton 110,619 18,297 78,258 23%
Everton 125,572 17,904 77,515 23%
Leicester City 104,437 13,091 57,438 23%
Manchester City 351,766 43,330 193,821 22%
Hull City 84,090 10,000 55,611 18%
Aston Villa 115,692 13,848 83,777 17%
Sunderland 97,007 11,567 75,158 15%
West Bromwich Albion 96,269 10,695 69,801 15%
Crystal Palace 102,396 10,246 68,028 15%
Stoke City 99,626 9,923 66,580 15%
Queen’s Park Rangers 85,875 8,125 72,914 11%
Swansea City 102,954 7,731 82,541 9%
Total 3,357,327 598,037 2,027,397 29%

 

As you can see from the table, the average for the league is 29%, well below Arsenal’s 52%.