- Arsenal left Highbury and moved to the 60,000-seat, £390million arena in 2006 yet now have been left behind and need an upgrade …but it won’t be easy
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Josh Kroenke’s words were brief, but a sign of where Arsenal and the Emirates Stadium are headed.
Despite only opening in 2006 and with the memories of Highbury still fresh, the 60,000-seat, £390million arena has already started to lag behind the Gunners’ rivals and is in need of renovation.
‘The internal conversations are starting to occur about (the stadium),’ Kroenke, son of the club’s owner Stan and his point man in the UK, told ESPN in July. ‘It is not an easy renovation, but we see the possibilities of what’s there.’
It’s understood that talks are at an early stage and the Islington Council and Transport for London (TfL) have yet to be approached by Arsenal. But behind the scenes, Mail Sport can reveal that council diktat, safety concerns and choosing the best way to expand the Emirates are just some of the hurdles that the club must overcome.
But it’s necessary. At 60,704 seats, Arsenal currently have the fifth-biggest stadium in the league – they were second when the Emirates opened. Manchester United (74,197) remain ahead, while Tottenham (62,850), West Ham (62,500) and Liverpool (61,276) have all shot past them.
And Manchester City could soon also be usurping the Gunners — they are expanding their North Stand which could push the Etihad past 60,000.
At the same time, other teams are looking to expand even further or move elsewhere for more room. Man United are looking at building a 100,000-seat ‘Wembley of the North’, while West Ham plan to increase the capacity of their London Stadium to 68,000.
Reports emerged last week that Arsenal have set a target of 80,000 seats, which would make the Emirates the fifth-biggest stadium in Europe behind the Nou Camp, Wembley, Twickenham and the Stade de France.
Under the ownership of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE), Arsenal have often kept on the front foot. Pride is at stake. They are again in the mix for the title, yes, yet there’s a hunger to regain the edge their rivals off the field.
Firstly, there’s the necessity. Adding capacity is a logical step, particularly when it comes to increasing revenue and reducing a season-ticket waiting list that stretches over 10 years.
In the latest Deloitte financial figures, for the 2022-23 season, Arsenal made £464.6million in total revenue. That was significantly less than Manchester City (£712.8m), Manchester United (£648m), Liverpool (£593.8m), Tottenham (£549.6m) and Chelsea (£512.5m).
For that same season, Arsenal’s wage bill (£235m) was also smaller than all of their Big Six rivals. So there is room for improvement.
Neighbours Spurs, for example, trump the Gunners for catering and hospitality. They earn close to £6million a match at their venue, and while Arsenal’s total annual figure (£102.6m) is impressive, it still trails Man United (£163.4m) and Spurs (£117.6m).
In the summer Arsenal increased the price of their season tickets by up to six per cent. That has left fans paying at least £100 more, with prices ranging from £461.50 to £2,050.50.
So what can they do? Here are a few options, based on conversations with expert construction developers.
One option is to get creative with the existing seats, ripping them out in certain areas and replacing them with slightly smaller ones. Even making them smaller by an inch, for example, would increase capacity by a few thousand.
Another avenue is to lower the pitch. The playing surface at the 70,240-seat SoFi Stadium, home to the Kroenke-owned LA Rams of the NFL, is 100ft below ground level, allowing expansion vertically rather than outwards.
This is important as the Emirates is penned in a little by its surroundings, with railway lines running close to the West and East stands. However, it is unlikely that Arsenal could pull this off due to the design of the stadium and the restrictions that lowering the pitch would place on sightlines.
A further alternative is to renovate individual stands, which would require closing parts of them for a period of time and briefly reduce matchday revenue. The West Stand in particular would be tricky to work on, as that houses the team dugouts and changing rooms, but the others each have gaps between the back row of seats and the roof that could conceivably be filled.
The next option is the roof. There is understood to be scope for it to be replaced so more rows can be built in the upper tier or as a new fifth tier, though this would be expensive and the view from the top of the extended stand would be limited.
The left-field curveball move would be to relocate elsewhere. The club have made no suggestion at all of this being contemplated, and given that 2006 really isn’t all that long ago, it would be a seismic decision.
It would also cause issues for Islington Council and Transport for London (TfL). Mail Sport understands the council is acutely aware of the benefits the Emirates has brought to the local area.
Unlike other areas in London boroughs, the local Highbury and Islington community has continued to have a thriving pub and restaurant scene — driven by matchdays — despite the impacts of Covid which has seen many venues elsewhere have to close down.
This season the club have moved towards holding more non-footballing events to further boost their revenue. The Emirates hosts the 2024 XTX Markets London Chess Classic from November 29 to December 7, with December 4 a rest day which is when Arsenal play United. Conversations on the deal began in June.
The tournament, which is in its 14th edition, usually takes place at Kensington Olympia. Arsenal also announced this week that the stadium will be hosting a Robbie Williams concert on June 6, as part of his European tour.
Mail Sport understands the club are eyeing further hosting opportunities, particularly of an international appeal.
So the possibility of the Kroenke ownership uprooting to build a new, bigger stadium elsewhere is not one they want, however unlikely. That said, it is understood that the council have long had reservations around an increase in capacity because of crowd safety concerns and the supposedly inadequate public transport close to the ground.
The council and TfL’s relationship with Arsenal is a complicated one and predates the Kroenkes buying shares in the club in 2007.
Arsenal submitted a planning application for a new stadium in November 2000 but it took until December 2001 for the council to approve their planning application with a number of local groups opposing the move from Highbury.
To get planning approval was a long, tempestuous process. It’s understood that Arsenal had to provide an undisclosed amount of money to TfL to improve Holloway Road underground station, the closest Tube stop to the Emirates, as there were council concerns about matchday safety in terms of overcrowding.
But it’s believed that the money Arsenal provided was instead used for work on Highbury and Islington station, which is a 15-minute walk from the Emirates.
As a result, Holloway Road and Drayton Park stations – the two closest to the ground – are shut on matchdays because of the risk of overcrowding, while Highbury and Islington and the Arsenal Tube stop have lengthy queues after matches.
If the north London club are to apply for planning permission and get the council green light for expansion, Mail Sport understands money will be needed for work on at least Holloway Road underground station to increase its capacity. Whether the Kroenkes would want to stump up the cash for this remains to be seen.
Owner Stan’s background is in real estate. It’s how he began to earn his multi-billion dollar fortune, building shopping centres and apartment buildings. He has developed many plazas near Walmart stores.
In recent times, building work in relation to his sports teams has spiked. In August, his Rams team moved to a new team training facility and headquarters in Woodland Hills where Stan has spent around $650m (£507m) on a development which incorporates practice fields, offices and hotels.
In October this year, Denver City Council approved Stan’s plan to turn 64 acres of parking lots at the home of his Denver Nuggets basketball and Colorado Avalanche ice hockey teams into an expanded downtown area with 6,000 housing units, a 5,000 seat venue and a new hotel.
And then there’s SoFi, the jewel in their crown. Having opened in 2020, the 3.1m square foot state-of-the-art venue boasts a double-sided oval video board — the first stadium to have one – and has been the inspiration for Real Madrid’s renovated Bernabeu and the forthcoming ‘new Old Trafford’.
When Mail Sport visited SoFi on the Gunners’ summer US pre-season tour, we were shown the various swanky suites and told how the venue will be temporarily transformed into a swimming pool for the 2028 LA Olympics. It’s a very striking and unique arena, and a symbol of the owners’ ambitions.
And even with talks at an early stage, it appears the Emirates is next on the Kroenke’s list.
Whatever they do to increase capacity will come at a hefty price. But in the ever-competitive Premier League, standing still means falling behind – and Arsenal certainly cannot afford to do that.
