Few subjects in the world of football set the pulse racing quite as much as stadium builds – and Arsenal fans could one day soon get a vision of the future of the Emirates Stadium 2.0.
In the grand sweep of history, the 60,704-seater ground is still relatively modern. And it is still phenomenally lucrative.
Arsenal generated £131m of matchday income in 2023-24, the last full financial year on record. In Premier League terms, that was behind only Manchester United. And with Champions League football again in 2025-26, the Gunners will likely snatch the crown for the very first time.
However, with established and aspirational clubs across the country targeting their own expansion or rebuild projects, Stan Kroenke and his team in North London know they need to reinforce their commercial advantage.
The topic was first broached in public last summer, when Josh Kroenke – who is vice-chairman alongside his father – suggested that preliminary discussions had taken place about the possibility of expanding the Emirates.
Later, it emerged that Arsenal had had several design concepts presented to them and were targeting a capacity of 75-80,000. TBR Football has previously been told that would cost in excess of £500m, potentially rising to £650m given the complexity of the build.
But after City AM reported this week that seven in 10 fans who attended a Premier League match last season feel priced out, how will Arsenal juggle the commercial needs of the club with the interests of their bedrock fanbase?
TBR Football spoke exclusively to University of Liverpool football finance lecturer and host of the Price of Football podcast host Kieran Maguire for his analysis.
“I went to Arsenal last week and saw them play against Villareal,” says Maguire.
“I saw what I thought was a brilliant piece of marketing by Arsenal in that the match kicked off at 6.00pm and the number of families there was incredible.
“The merchandise sales are the biggest beneficiary. You can get a family ticket and you are home before the kids’ bedtime. Everyone is getting to the ground early, buying a shirt. The Visit Rwanda sponsorship was very noticeable in the perimeter advertising as well as the shirt sleeve badges. So I expect that deal will be either announced under-the-radar or not at all.
“Arsenal will have seen what Spurs have done. At some clubs, you might have just six price points. But Spurs have got something like 20 price points. We sometimes refer to this as ‘price discrimination’ – by giving people a very small uplift in what you’re offering fans, you’re able to extract significantly more money from them.
“It’s the same as economy vs premium economy on an airplane. You get a slightly wider seat and a slightly warmer piece of chicken, and you’re paying £200 more for the privilege. It’s a textbook marketing ploy. You have to be able to offer something more to the fans, and they can do that at an expanded stadium.
“I would not anticipate at an expanded stadium that many of those additional seats would go to season ticket holders. It would definitely fit in with the Disneyland-style approach we have seen across the game.
“Many American owners think football is nothing to do with sport – they think it is a subset of the entertainment industry. People are shifting their consumption behaviour away from products towards experiences.
“The experience of live sport is unique and, as they think, they can charge a premium. As for the legacy fans at Arsenal, the owners don’t care.”
Arsenal are projected to have earned approximately £150m in ticketing income in 2024-25, with the big upswing on 2023-24 largely thanks to their run to the semi-finals of the Champions League.
At an 80,000-seater stadium, that sum would equate to £196m in matchday income, based on a pro-rata calculation.
But the truth is that the Gunners could perhaps expect matchday income of £250m over the course of an equivalent season.
Inevitably, as Maguire points out, the expansion would be geared towards premium seating, which is more lucrative proportionately.
With Man United having already released plans to build a 100,000-seater stadium and several other challenger clubs looking to this department for an advantage over their peers, Arsenal will be keen to retain the financial advantage their North London stadium delivers to them.
