So How Much Is Arsenal Worth?

Of late, the English Premier League has been facing a lot of criticism from the likes of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, with accusations ranging from poaching players, too many foreign nationals, too much money which attracts all the big players in the world, hampering the development of youth players etc etc. (Arsenal has the least number of English players in the first team amongst the big 4 clubs)Sepp Blatter has announced a 6+5 formula and the FIFA has approved it as well. What remains to be seen is how the European Union responds to this.Blatter is not off the mark when he talks about the amount of money being pumped into the premier league.The combined wage bills of the premier league crossed the £1.5 billion mark in 2006/07 season. With the new TV rights and takeover of clubs by billionaires, the clubs in the league are getting more funds to spend on players. There are reports in the media that Chelsea, who have already signed Bosingwa for £16.2 million, are planning to spend big this time as well. ManU are also supposedly looking to splash £50 million this summer.But not everything is as rosy as it seems to be. Only 8 teams reported an operating profit, as the collective wages to turnover ratio reached 63% in 2006/07 season as compared to 62% in 2005/06.Also, an amazing £492 million was spent on transfers by the clubs in 2006/07 season.

Our revenues have seen a tremendous increase after we moved to the new stadium. We reported an increase of 37% and our revenue touched £177.6 million. However, it doesn’t include the revenue from property development, which was £23.8 million. The total match-day revenue was £90.6 million (£3.1 million per match-day approx), which is a growth of 111% and was 51% of the total revenues. We also received £42.7 million from the shirt sponsorship deal and the stadium naming rights. Broadcasting got us £44.3 millions. With the increase in revenues, our wage bill has increased too. We paid £89.7millions in wages in 2006/07, which puts us in the third spot after Chelsea (£132.8m) and ManU (£92.3m). What the figures tell us is that the decision to move to the Grove has paid off immediately. The very first season in the new stadium has given us a growth of more than 100% in match day revenues as we had the most utilised stadium of all clubs in the league. We stand third in terms of wages paid and second in terms of revenue generated. However, we have a debt of £268m, which puts us at third after Chelsea and ManU at £620m and £605m respectively. But the difference between us and them is that we have our real estate projects at Highbury Square and Queensland Road which will be paying off the debt very easily. We have 25 years to pay off the debt at a fixed interest rate, irrespective of what the financial market goes through. Whereas, ManU have Glazer’s debt passed onto them, and they have to pay off interests to the tune of £50 million per year. Which means they have to consistently perform at home and in Europe so that they get the revenue to pay off the debts.Chelsea on the other hand have interest free loan from Abramovich. Although it is interest free, they’ll be in deep trouble once the Russian decides he has had enough and decided to buy another toy for himself.

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