The Arsenal Stadium Mystery

http://www.coverbrowser.com/slideshow/richie-rich

“If Arsenal's relocation from Woolwich to Highbury gave the Club a chance to climb the football ladder, the move to Emirates Stadium will help to keep it at the top.”-Arsenal.com August 21 2007 Since Arsenal were last Champions in 2004 Wenger has spent £111.3m and recouped £124.4m therefore making a profit on players of £13.1m Gross. In the same period the other members of the ‘top four’ have spent the following on players; Manchester United £201.75m (£41.2m Net) Chelsea £300.65m (£187.75m Net) Liverpool £254.19m (£145.58m Net) In this period trophies won are; Manchester United, Champions League, Premier League x 3, FA Cup, Carling Cup Chelsea, Premier League x 2, FA Cup x 2, Carling Cup x 2 Liverpool, Champions League, FA Cup Arsenal, FA Cup (This puts Arsenal on a footing with the only other premier clubs to win trophies in this period; Portsmouth, FA Cup and Spurs, Carling Cup) Obviously each club has different financial set ups, however it is evident that expenditure has a direct correlation to success. One of the reasons given for the move to the Emirates came from Managing Director Keith Edelman; “As explained before the move, the financial benefits of the Club's historic move will allow Arsenal to sustain their competitiveness at the highest level.” "Our aim is to be a leading European club and, once we get into the new stadium, we will be in that position. It is very income-generous to us," he said. "When we move to Emirates Stadium we will have higher percentage of our income from gates. Very close to 50 per cent of our revenue will be gate income at Emirates Stadium, compared to around 30 per cent at Highbury. "The revenue from executive boxes and Club Level alone will be almost equivalent to the [whole] income at Highbury. So we'll be getting that and the revenue from 51,000 extra people [in the stadium]." I would therefore suggest that measures would have been put in place to ensure that money was available for investment in players; the £13.1m profit is more than enough to purchase a decent Goalkeeper and pay his wages for a number of years. So if the revenue is not going to pay back the debt and if there is money available it is clear that success comes at a cost, a cost that Wenger and the board seemingly don’t want to pay.The reason why? well, that remains the real mystery!