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%.