Hey guys, I posted last season on /r/gunners about the various sponsorship contracts due for renewals at Arsenal and how they may impact our finances. Since then, a lot has changed - not just at our club but with new deals (or lack thereof) at our rivals as well.

So I thought I’d give a summary of where we stand going into the 2023/24 season. If you’re not bothered with the analysis, here are the cliff notes: -

Our new Chief Commercial Officer Juliet Slot did an amazing job with the Adidas renewal, bringing our sponsorship revenue “on par” with the top clubs in England for the first time. The big renewal though, is coming up which is the Emirates Airlines deal. She will need to do one of two deals - either get a lot more money out of Emirates Airlines for this all-in package they have with us (shirt sponsorship, training & pre-match kit, women’s kit, training ground exclusivity, etc) or break up the sponsorship deal into several smaller pieces and sell it for its individual parts like our competitors have successfully done. Right now, Liverpool is making DOUBLE what we make by splitting this contract up into several pieces.

We can also make more from sleeve sponsorship, etc but that’s something we’re going to have to wait for the renewal period to work on.

Below is a quick comparison of sponsorships. Skip to the bottom for a breakdown of individual club data.

Commentary:

Kit Manufacturing

Highest: Arsenal & Man Utd

Lowest: Liverpool & Spurs

The gap between Arsenal & Highest: Nil

Comments: Liverpool could argue they make as much as Arsenal and

Man Utd due to the 20% merchandising deal, but of course, that’s potential value vs guaranteed value.

Shirt Sponsorship

Highest: Liverpool

Lowest: Arsenal & Spurs

Gap between Arsenal & Highest: Between £10mil to £40mil (depending on type of deal)

Comments:

• Arsenal’s Emirates deal includes shirt sponsorship, training & prematch kits, women’s kits, stadium naming rights, and exclusivity on training ground branding (preventing us from selling rights there). To adequately assess the loss of revenue, we have to compare it to the revenue our competitors are receiving from this space.
• Chelsea is not included as their non-performance is an abnormality

Sleeve Sponsorship

Highest: Man Utd

Lowest: Arsenal & Spurs

The gap between Arsenal & Highest: £10mil

Comments: Chelsea is not included as their non-performance is an abnormality

Training & Pre-Match Kit Sponsorship

Highest: Liverpool, then Man Utd and Man City

Lowest: Arsenal

The gap between Arsenal & Highest: £20mil

Comments:

• As mentioned previously, completely hamstrung by the Emirates deal
• Liverpool’s AXA deal includes training ground naming rights so I’ve split it into a 20+10 deal

Stadium Naming Rights

Highest: Arsenal

Lowest: -

The gap between Arsenal & Highest: Nil

Comments:

• Other clubs don’t have stadium naming rights because they want an offer that matches the exposure they give the brands. Liverpool, Spurs, and Chelsea are all looking for around £20-25m per season.

• City’s naming rights are tied to their confidential Etihad deal so very hard to quantify.

Training Ground Naming Rights

Highest: Liverpool

Lowest: -

The gap between Arsenal & Highest: Between £5mil and £10mil

Comments:

• Liverpool’s AXA deal got a roughly £10mil bump when it went from just a training kit deal to a training kit plus naming rights to the training center. So I’m basing the value on that.

• City’s naming rights are tied to their confidential Etihad deal so very hard to quantify.

Women’s Team Shirt Sponsorships

Highest: -

Lowest: -

The gap between Arsenal & Highest: -

Comments: All teams currently tie their deals to the men’s deals but both Arsenal and Chelsea have the potential to negotiate better shared deals or completely separate deals in the future due to the superstar names in their teams.

Women’s Team Additional Sponsorships

Highest: -

Lowest: -

The gap between Arsenal & highest: -

Comments: Again, both Arsenal and Chelsea have the potential to strike more individual deals not tied to the men’s teams that we’re not seeing right now

Individual Club Data:-

Key conclusions:

We’re in pretty good shape and with Champions League football, we’re in a good position to negotiate some key upcoming deals. I believe we have a lot of potential to grow our revenue in the areas locked behind the current Emirates deal such as training kit and ground, as well as women’s football. At the end of this coming season, we’ll also probably be looking for a new sleeve sponsor which would probably double what we make from the current deal.

Besides that, there are also secondary sponsorship deals in which Man Utd and Man City excel and make the most of their money. This is something that we have been improving in since Juliet came on board but should improve further in.

Let me know if you guys have any questions or want the links to the sources. I could PDF it but I’m trying to avoid doxxing myself lol.