Arsenal and KSE have already lost out on up to £100m ahead of Real Madrid Champions League clash

03/27/2025 02:15 PM

As a rule, Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke doesn’t like leaving money on the table. The Missouri-born billionaire has proven he can be ruthless when it comes to maximising the bottom line.

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), the firm via which Stan Kroenke owns Arsenal and a portfolio of the world’s most valuable sports franchises, has been involved in two of sport’s biggest recent scandals.

The first, the European Super League in April 2021, was masterminded primarily in the offices of Liverpool and Manchester United, but the Kroenkes were by no means passive in the breakaway project.

The second came directly from between the temples of the Kroenke patriarch himself. The decision to relocate the Rams NFL franchise from St. Lous to Los Angeles was his brainchild, his grand vision.

In the end, that scheme cost the sports and real estate titan what in today’s exchange rate would be around £450m in settlement fees to the city of St. Louis.

But it was all priced in as far as KSE’s moneymen were concerned – and even after privately financing the build of the Rams’ SoFi Stadium, the most expensive in history, the 77-year-old is up on the deal.

His track record, then, illustrates that he’s not averse to rattling cages to make a return on his investments.

At Arsenal, that return hasn’t materialised yet. In fact, he’s plunged well over £1bn into the Gunners with nothing – besides the odd modest management fee prior to his full takeover – in return.

The mechanics of football finance mean that it will likely be some time until he is in the green in North London. In fact, the only realistic route for him to get there is by selling the club.

In theory, he could make a huge markup on his investment if he put the club on the market tomorrow. Arsenal’s enterprise value is around £3bn, according to most analyses.

That’s not a bad compound growth rate. It’s far faster than most industries Kroenke invests in.

But he firmly believes, as do the new class of US billionaires and private equity funds that have flooded the Premier League recent years, that there is far more upside to be achieved before ‘exit value’.

So how does he plan to get there? And, more importantly, what will his masterplan mean for Arsenal fans desperate to see Mikel Arteta’s team winning the biggest trophies once more?

Well, Kroenke needs to prove that the business plan is viable and can be consistently profitable for whoever he eventually sells to.

Arsenal aren’t profitable, or at least they haven’t been since Kroenke took 100 per cent control in 2018. Even if they were, it’s unheard of for a Premier League club – besides Man United – to pay a dividend.

That either means turnover has to rise significantly, costs need to be reigned in, or a combination of the two. As far as Arsenal are concerned in the transfer market, that hardly inspires huge optimism.

The alternative is for something structural to change within football, something tectonic that unlocks huge new revenues practically overnight.

This, ultimately, was the idea with Super League. It would have been a revolution that brought Arsenal into the same class as Kroenke’s outposts in US franchise sports, who make big profit every single year.

Incidentally, the Super League is back, this time as the ‘Unify League’, though the Gunners surely wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. In any case, football’s new independent regulator would block them.

In lieu of that particular breakaway, football’s hyper capitalist engine room has been tinkering around the edges of existing competitions to increase their value to the biggest clubs.

The revamp of the Champions League, for example, which has seen Arsenal navigate the new league phase and progress to a quarter-final clash with Real Madrid, had Stan Kroenke’s full support.

But the biggest shakeup in years has come at FIFA level – and the North Londoners have missed the boat this time around.

• READ MORE: Stan Kroenke has eye on £2bn Arsenal profit as Downing Street steps in over takeover issue

Arsenal and Stan Kroenke miss out on £100m Club World Cup boom

Last season was Arsenal’s first in the Champions League since 2016-17.

They have missed out on hundreds of millions in UEFA revenue in the intervening seasons but, in their run to the quarter-finals, picked up around £75m in 2023-24.

This season, they have already surpassed the £100m mark thanks to the new format. However, if they had gone further last season, the indirect rewards could have been far higher.

When the Gunners were knocked out by Bayern Munich last April, it finalised the line-up for the inaugural version of the revamped Club World Cup in the United States this summer.

That result meant Red Bull Salzburg took the final European place in the 32-team tournament, which will now be held every four years rather than annually.

FIFA hope the new format can rival the Champions League for prestige, and they – or, rather, the Saudi Arabia-backed media deal for the event, are throwing serious money at it as a result.

Had Arsenal qualified ahead of Salzburg, which would have been a tall order given that they would have had to win the Champions League outright, they would be in line for a share of over £750m in rewards.

FIFA have this week confirmed the financial distribution mechanism, with the prize pot weighted towards European teams and increasing with progress through the rounds.

If either of England’s representatives at the tournament, Chelsea and Manchester City, lift the new trophy in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 13 July, they will take home just less than £100m.

That is astonishing money for seven matches in total. It’s not hard to see why, even though they knew they were not competing at the tournament, Arsenal have lobbied for the event behind the scenes.

If this summer’s knockout competition proves a hit and justifies its goliath TV deal with DAZN, it could be extraordinarily lucrative for the Gunners in future seasons.

If Arsenal can get past Real Madrid in the Champions League this season and win a first major European title, they will book a place at the next edition in 2029.

But for now, its £100m they’ve lost out on.

• READ MORE: Emirates Stadium expansion update as Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke reveals 64-acre plan costing £2bn in the US

Arsenal reject chance to play in US with Premier League Summer Series

Part of the commercial appeal of the Club World Cup is that is taking place in the biggest market of the lot.

Arsenal recognise the opportunities to grow the fanbase in the United States and have toured the country numerous times, taking advantage of Kroenke-owned sporting infrastructure in the country.

This summer, however, it looks as though they will be going in a different direction.

Mikel Arteta’s side were invited to play in the second version of the Premier League Summer Series, an officially-endorses pre-season tournament with the aim of growing the Premier League brand in the US.

However, with the line-up now officially confirmed – Manchester United, Bournemouth, Everton and West Ham – Arsenal have foregone that particular opportunity.

Instead, it appears that they will head to Asia. Reports suggest that they have exhibition matches lined up in Hong Kong, another lucrative commercial market where the Gunners have a big following.