Arsenal named England's 'richest' club

Sep 24, 2007 - 12:58 PM By Jim van Wijk and Rich Jones Special to PA SportsTicker

LONDON (Ticker) - Arsenal revealed its status as Britain's richest soccer club on Monday after new figures show the club's move to Emirates Stadium helped increase turnover to more than $400 million.

The report - for the year ending May 31, 2007 - also revealed group operating profits up by an astonishing 274 percent, to $103.7 million.

These well exceed the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea - whose respective turnover for the same period was $339.8 million and $309.4 million.

Monday's announcement also rockets Arsenal into the same financial league as Real Madrid, whose turnover was $409 million for the 2005-06 season.

"The best way that Arsenal can continue to deliver success is by maintaining a business that pays its own way," Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood said. "This philosophy helped establish our objectives for the club's move away from Highbury and Emirates Stadium now provides Arsenal with the increased income, profitability, cash generation and firm financial foundations from which we will continue to build trophy winning Arsenal teams for many years to come."

Arsenal's move to its new 60,000-seat home at Ashburton Grove from Highbury has proved more than a financially sound decision, with the long-term debt related to the move having also been refinanced into bonds which provide "a significant reduction" in annual service costs.

The club generated match day revenues of $183.5 million in their first season, representing some $6.3 million per game - more than double that of Highbury. Meanwhile, some 91 percent of the units at "The Stadium - Highbury Square" redevelopment are already pre-sold, with final completion sales expected to comfortably exceed $600 million.

Arsenal - currently in first place in the Barclays Premier League - saw its cash balances up to $149.6 million, from $72.1 million in 2006.

The figures are "before player trading and depreciation," and as such do not take into account the $32 million sale of Thierry Henry to Barcelona during the summer or other recent transfer dealings as manager Arsene Wenger reshaped his squad.

They would also more than backup the stance of the current board that the club does not need a wealthy backer to compete with the best.

Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov increased his shareholding in the club last week via Red and White Holdings Limited to around 21 percent, which makes the investment company Arsenal's second-largest shareholder behind director Danny Fiszman. American billionaire Stan Kroenke remains another significant investor, with a stake of just over 12 percent.

"We have always pursued, and intend to continue with, a policy of re-investing profits and surplus cash into team development," Hill-Wood said. "Emirates Stadium now provides the club with the firm financial foundations from which we will continue to build trophy winning Arsenal teams for many years to come."

The news means that Arsenal now has the "financial firepower" to compete with any club in the transfer market, according to managing director Keith Edelman.

"We have got plenty of financial firepower to make the transfers Arsene wants to make," Edelman declared. "We had over ($140 million) of cash at the end of the year and if Arsene wants to spend that money we will make it available."

"I think we are in a very good position," said Edelman on Arsenal TV Online. "Clearly Arsene's performance and the team's performance on the pitch has been outstanding, obviously backed up by our very strong financial position."

The results posted have been achieved despite the lack of a mega-rich foreign owner, the source to which most rivals have turned to increase their clout. Although Usmanov and Kroenke have significant holdings, Edelman insists the results show there is no reason to change the way in which the club is run.

"We think it's very important as a board that the club develops revenues it generates itself and is not dependent on people putting money in every year, because that's not a very stable basis on which to run a club," Edelman said. "We regard ourselves as custodians of the club and fans as well. It's important that the club does have a stable financial base."

Edelman believes that the club's success is a direct correlation to the passion the shareholders and the board share for Arsenal soccer.

"If you look at the shareholders and the look at the board, we are all here because we love the club," Edelman said. "Yes we want to run it well as a business, but only because we want to be a great club. That could be contrasted with what could be called financial owners, who come to purchase clubs to make money out of them and they don't have that affinity to be a rabid fan - to live, breathe and eat Arsenal Football Club."