Arsenal to smash £76m record thanks to new off-pitch reveal

Arsenal have lagged behind their rivals in the so-called Big Six financially in recent years, but they are set to arrest that slide.

At £467m in 2022-23, the last season for which data is available, Arsenal’s revenue was the lowest of any of Man City, Man United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea.

However, their return to the Champions League after a seven-year absences will likely see eat up the ground – and likely surpass – Chelsea and Spurs.

While Champions League prize money alone will be worth in the region of £65m, there are also outsized commercial benefits to playing on the elite European stage.

The intricacies of Arsenal’s three biggest sponsorship deals with Adidas, Emirates and Visit Rwanda are commercially sensitive and so kept secret, but they are likely to include performance-related bonuses.

At least four extra matchday at the Emirates will, as well as generating more matchday income, boost merchandise sales too.

Arsenal’s new home kit and away shirt have been well received by supporters, and the Gunners have also just released their third strip to a similarly warm reception.

And the new Adidas shirt’s reintroduction of the iconic trefoil logo is emblematic of one commercial avenue that Arsenal have exploited with great success.

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Arsenal merchandise sales to soar past £76m

The new away shirt blurs the lines between sportswear and streetwear – and this is an entirely conscious move from Adidas and Arsenal.

Arsenal’s away shirt for 2024-25 is in a similar mould. It uses pan-African colours and was co-designed by menswear fashion house Labrum London.

In this, Arsenal are echoing Paris Saint-Germain’s approach in recent years.

PSG’s collaboration with Nike’s Air Jordan brand has seen the club become the biggest football club merchandise seller in the United States, while sales are also high in East Asia.

According to a report from UEFA, Arsenal’s merchandise sales accounted for £76m of their total commercial income in 2022-23.

That is a club record that the Gunners will surpass when the figures for 2023-24 are available and again in 2024-25 thanks in part to the new third strip and the streetwear-oriented direction the club are taking.

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How much do Arsenal really make from shirt sales?

Again, we aren’t privy to the finer details of Arsenal’s deal with Adidas.

But we do know that the partnership is worth a reported £60m per year.

Headline figures can be misleading, however, and the fee will be structured based on sales and other factors as opposed to a straight upfront fee.

Premier League clubs typically get somewhere between a five and 10 per cent cut of shirt sales.

Although, we have seen the likes of Liverpool deviate from the traditional structure in recent years and accept a lower base rate in exchange for a bigger commission.

In any case, Arsenal are exceedingly happy with their relationship with Adidas, which is due to continue until at least 2030.

That is another trend we are seeing from the biggest Premier League clubs – locking themselves into ultra-long partnerships with kit and front-of-shirt partners.