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Arsenal Finances

akhil

Well-Known Member
Blaming the stadium? We've been mismanaged commercially and in terms of personnel since the Özil deal. Stadium pain pretty much ended in 2014 after the new TV deals kicked in. The new deals affect us as well, we get the increased revenue same as everyone else. If you look at the financial statement we do less than 9 million pounds yearly on the fixed rate bonds. The variable rate bonds aren't being paid back right now from the looks of it and we need about 30 million in the bank for debt servicing guarantees. The stadium generates over 100 million a year, it comfortably pays for itself.

We have a EL squad on UCL wages and too many assets past their prime or just plain not good enough. We've invested what we had poorly and not recouped any money from sales, that's about it. The bulk of these problems are from the previous regime. The new guys maybe f***ed up on the Ramsey contract. Whether that decision bites us remains to be seen.

Now as a reaction, we're too cautious to spend any money in year 3 of EL football. It's probably going to be another year until we see this lot can function properly with Edu coming in, but Emery's future is going to be up in the air.
 

A$AP Unai

Member
I wouldn't take everything Swiss Ramble says as gospel, the guy knows we don't understand finance like that so posts a whole bunch of numbers to convince us of whatever narrative he's pushing.

However, I don't even blame Kronke as much as Gazidis and Wenger. The people Stan delegated to are the ones who ****ed up the most.

You don't understand numbers? That explains alot!!!!!!
 

db10fan

Active Member
Interesting analyses on our finances. But, if we are really negotiating to buy all of Zaha, Tierney, and Saliba, then our transfer budget this summer must be around GBP 100 mln. If we spend that wisely, not necessarily on those three, IMO we could really improve the team with this priority : CM>LB>CB>RB>FW.
 

Iceman10

Established Member
Interesting analyses on our finances. But, if we are really negotiating to buy all of Zaha, Tierney, and Saliba, then our transfer budget this summer must be around GBP 100 mln. If we spend that wisely, not necessarily on those three, IMO we could really improve the team with this priority : CM>LB>CB>RB>FW.

The Saliba deal with loan-back will be paid in installments, an arrangement with St. Etienne, so it is not straightforward to take the transfer fee for that one and say it could easily be spent on something else.
 

krengon

One Arsène Wenger
Trusted ⭐
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They paid for their ground work so that the money from TV etc could go on transfers.

No different to oil club owners putting money in, only Liverpool’s owners money went on the stadium.


This isn't quite true. FSG lent Liverpool £100m to build the main stand, of which £10m has been repaid. They also paid £300m to buy the club. However, that money was paid to the banks rather than the existing owners (due to the whole Hick and Gillette situation), so it is being treated as an investment in the club, unlike the money Kronke spent to buys up the shares in Arsenal. Long story short, FSG has spent a total of £390m on Liverpool to date, and Kronke has spent £550m to buy the final 30% of Arsenal from Usmanov. Kronke's total investment in Arsenal in much larger than FSG's investment in Liverpool, neither have spent money on the squad.
 
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Iceman10

Established Member
This was actually a key part of the Swiss Ramble analysis, although it got a bit lost within an overall narrative. Extra £40m a year. Doesn't matter if other clubs are seeing an increase also, from prior windows and despite the loss last year I would estimate even £70m this summer for transfers was *easily* doable, not the £45m figure that had come from wherever.

Important to note at this juncture because some are asking questions about whether we have to sell a high value asset to make up for Pepe (Pepe paid for in installments, around 20m this summer, 52m spread over rest of contract). We are not forced into doing such at all. We can just offload a few peripheral players as we naturally would do based on assessments of being "deadwood".

 
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Dutch D

Well-Known Member & FPL Champion 19/20
So what did other clubs do that we neglected to do for these gaps in commercial deals to widen that much? Is it just that our shirt deal was poorely timed?

Can we close the gap again?
 

FinnGooner

Established Member
So what did other clubs do that we neglected to do for these gaps in commercial deals to widen that much? Is it just that our shirt deal was poorely timed?

Can we close the gap again?

I think the 7 year shirt deal done with emirates in conjunction with the stadium naming rights was poor. During that time other teams renewed their shirt sponsorships at least once, some even twice, and managed to hike up the deals past us. Those were the first years the PL broadcasting rights started hiking aggressively, inflating the kit deals as well. No data to support this claim, but that's how I see it. At least part of the reason.
 

Gooner Zig

AM's Resident Accountant
Trusted ⭐

Country: Canada
Kronke's total investment in Arsenal in much larger than FSG's investment in Liverpool, neither have spent money on the squad.

This is true however doesn't paint the full picture as you mentioned above. FSG gave Liverpool 100m loan at below market rate interest rates and has no fixed repayment date (it's like 1.1%) to increase the capacity of Anfield while at the same time freeing up cash flow to spend on purchases. Can you imagine Kroenke renegotiating our stadium debt or paying off the balloon payment for the debentures, which I think will be 50m in 2034 (not certain of the date)
 

Iceman10

Established Member
So what did other clubs do that we neglected to do for these gaps in commercial deals to widen that much? Is it just that our shirt deal was poorely timed?

Can we close the gap again?

In part that is where the Swiss Ramble narrative with the tables and charts has slightly hidden that we have an extra £40m a year from this summer based on the new Adidas deal and new Emirates deal. No doubt though that Gazidis was poor in looking at secondary commercial deals outside kit sponsorship and stadium naming rights. Manchester United for example have over 25 deals with commercial "partners". This is an area I think our executives should focus on.

Where we are after the new Adidas and Emirates deals is we are fine when it comes to Sp**s, Chelsea, and Liverpool. When it comes to United, our new Adidas deal gives us around £65m a season, whereas for United they already had a £750m deal over 10 seasons signed with Adidas starting 2015 (there were some CL football stipulations for max. payouts, iirc, not sure if all satisfied). Manchester City commercial deals are somewhat artificial, IMO (Middle East money).
 
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