Famous fan playing key role as Arsenal poised to sign £40m deal
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Arsenal have no shortage of famous supporters and one their most influential fans has now helped them sign a lucrative new deal.
Arsenal are one of the biggest brands in football and are expected to surpass the £200m mark for commercial revenue when they release their accounts for 2023-24.
Given that Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke wants the club to generate any revenue that it spends, cash from sponsorship and other commercial streams is paramount.
And while Arsenal currently have ample headroom in terms of PSR (Profit and Sustainability Rules), imminent changes to spending rules mean revenue generation is about to get even more significant.
Currently, Premier League teams are allowed to lose a maximum of £105m over a rolling three-year period, with UEFA phasing in a new system that will cap squad spending at 70 per cent of turnover.
News that they are on track to renew one of their most lucrative deals therefore will be welcomed by supporters at the Emirates.
Arsenal ready to renew Visit Rwanda deal
Arsenal’s two most lucrative deals in a commercial sense are their kit deal with Adidas and front-of-shirt and stadium naming rights partnership with Emirates.
These two strands are almost universally the biggest earners in a club’s sponsorship inventory, although the sleeve deal is now fast increasing in value.
Arsenal signed with Visit Rwanda, the tourist board to the East African country, back in 2018 and renewed the deal for four years in 2021 for £40m.
Rwandan president Paul Kagame was one of the driving forces behind the deal, which Rwanda says is part of a wider initiative that boosted tourism income by 33 per cent to £467m last year.
Kagame is an Arsenal supporter and has regularly been spotted at the Emirates, as well as posting regularly about the Gunners on X.
Now, in the clearest signal yet that Arsenal are poised to renew the partnership, Rwanda are increasing their investment in sports marketing, as per The Times.
As well as recent deals with Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, Rwanda are campaigning to bring Formula One to Africa for the first time since 1993.
Arsenal’s commercial picture compared to the rest of the Big Six
While £173m in commercial income is impressive in isolation, it is comfortably the lowest of the so-called ‘Big Six’ sides.
The club on the next rung on the commercial ladder, Chelsea, earned £210m over the same period, while the two Manchester clubs earn almost twice as much.
The Gunners have suffered as a result of their seven-year absence from the Champions League, which ended with a run to the quarter-finals last season.
New deals, such as the training ground naming rights arrangement with Sobha Realty, will help in this regard, as will the club’s co-branded range of products with Adidas.
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