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Stan Kroenke deputy says £218m Arsenal fund can bankroll Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta’s summer signings

Adam Williams

Tue 22 April 2025 12:15, UK

Last summer, Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke arguably committed the cardinal sin for any football club owner: failing to strengthen substantially in the transfer market after another season of progress.

In 2024-25, with the Premier League title surrendered to Liverpool, the success of Arsenal’s season depends on the Champions League.

Win it and this campaign will be remembered as probably the most historic in Arsenal history. Fail to get past Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals and it will be yet another what-could-have-been season.

If it’s the latter, then fingers will likely be pointed at Stan Kroenke more than they will at Mikel Arteta. The owner had the chance to invest in January but chose a more conservative approach.

Arteta has promised a “big summer” in the transfer market and the arrival of Andrea Berta as Edu Gaspar’s successor in the sporting director role will light a fire under their recruitment.

But the reality is that all of their Premier League rivals will strengthen this summer too.

This season, Arsenal had the chance to exploit relatively weak competition.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	33	24	7	2	75	31	44	79
2	ArsenalArsenal	33	18	12	3	61	27	34	66
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	33	18	6	9	53	39	14	60
4	NewcastleNewcastle	33	18	5	10	62	44	18	59
5	Man CityManchester City	33	17	7	9	64	42	22	58
6	ChelseaChelsea	33	16	9	8	58	40	18	57
7	Aston VillaAston Villa	33	16	9	8	53	47	6	57

Manchester City will be better next season. It would be impossible for Manchester United and Spurs to be any worse. Liverpool have spent almost nothing this season and will probably go big in the summer.

Even Chelsea, whose spending has been scattergun, have a young squad that click at any moment. And in Newcastle, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, Arsenal have even more uber-smart, uber-ambitious rivals.

Unlike Kroenke, those challenger clubs’ owners appear willing to stretch Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) to breaking point. Their participation in European competition gives them more headroom too.

However, Arsenal do have one advantage that the best-of-the-rest don’t.

• READ MORE: Arsenal chief reveals two things Gunners want to do at Emirates Stadium expansion as £4.1bn plan cited

Arsenal’s commercial income soars

In football finance terms, 2023-24 was a breakthrough year for Arsenal.

Their return to the Champions League for the first time since 2016-17 was the catalyst for rejuvenation in several different revenue streams.

Media income, thanks to distributions from UEFA and the Premier League’s world-beating TV deal, was a record £262m, while matchday income also reached a new high at £132m.

However, the real leap forward cam in the commercial department.

Arsenal have lagged behind their peers in the so-called Big Six for several years now as far as sponsorship, retail and events are concerned.

But a new-look commercial team and the Gunners’ revival on the pitch have sparked a revival. Arsenal’s commercial income leapt up from £173m in 2022-23 to £222m in 2023-24.

As Kieran Maguire told TBR Football in exclusive conversation last week, that likely means £700m in annual revenue is in sight this season, especially factoring in the extra Champions League income.

“The pathway to increased revenues is very much open for them and I think £700m in total annual revenue is within their grasp,” said the University of Liverpool football finance lecturer.

“It’s a stretch target. All of their revenue items would have to come into alignment. There would also need to be some fairly decent commercial bonuses from sponsors for reaching the final, but it’s doable.”

New department set up by Stan Kroenke feeds into Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta’s budget

One new innovation at Kroenke Sports & Entertainment headquarters is a new department dedicated to shared sponsorship opportunities throughout the network of Kroenke-owned teams.

As well as Arsenal, the 77-year-old owns the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, NBA franchise Denver Nuggets, NHL side Colorado Avalanche, the MLS’s Colorado Rapids, and several other teams in the US.

The new department is called Kroenke Signature Properties and is being led by Olly Dale, who was formerly Arsenal’s commercial director. The aim is to extract more value from sponsorships by offering a global network and more value to potential partners.

In a new interview with The , senior KSE executive Kevin Demoff spoke about the significance of the new initiative and how it will directly impact Arsenal’s budget.

“While in North America it is obviously important to grow your brands and to grow your teams, certainly in the Premier League, the more revenue you can drive does affect the product that you can put on the pitch,” he said.

“So any way we can leverage the entire power of KSE to drive revenue for Arsenal is going to be better for the team that, ultimately, Andrea (Berta) and Mikel (Arteta) can field.”

Speaking about the challenges of operating across time zones and continents with the new department, Demoff continued: “It’s really hard to do”

“I talked to all of my counterparts at multi-club teams as I took on this role, to learn, and I’m like, ‘What works?’ They’re like, ‘Probably less works than you would think.’”

“The holy grail,” said Demoff, “is a menu of teams and opportunities and moments and you can pull those strings to make it easier.”

“We haven’t changed any of the structure of the way the local teams operate, so Arsenal still has Arsenal’s commercial structure, the Rams still have the Rams’ commercial structure, the Denver teams still have their commercial structure. That hasn’t changed.

“What we have done is taken pieces of that, from Hollywood Park and other places and say, ‘Hey, let’s make sure, if we’re going to go collectively sell across all these teams, we can leverage the power of five teams, two of them in the biggest cities in the world, and that we can approach partners with a more global offering.’”

• READ MORE: Stan Kroenke sitting on £88m stash, Arsenal chief not happy with what Gunners are spending big on

How much can Arsenal spend on a new striker this summer?

Alexander Isak, Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres are Europe’s hottest centre-forward properties, and Arsenal have been interested in all three.

Isak in particular would command an eye-watering fee. With Newcastle in the driving seat for Champions League football, they won’t be held to ransom by any suitors this summer.

In terms of PSR, Arsenal have no issues. Their losses were reduced to £18m last season, which reduces to better than zero with PSR-deductible expenses such as academy and infrastructure investment.

In 2024-25, they will post a profit – and probably quite a chunky one at that.

Yes, amortisation – which is how club account for transfer fees over a period of time – and the wage bill are rising, but so is revenue. The sales of academy graduates Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah last summer meanwhile count as ‘pure profit’ for the purposes of PSR.

So, the Premier League and UEFA’s spending rules are no obstacle to big investment this summer.

The real issue is how hard Kroenke wants to go in the transfer market.

Ultimately, he wants the club to self-fund and isn’t keen on underwriting losses in the long term. His aim is to sell the club for a profit and he can’t do that if he can’t demonstrate long-term profitability.

That said, he will be well aware of the risks of inertia. Whatever happens, it will be a seismic summer in North London.