Emirates Airline has been a strategic partner for Arsenal’s sponsorship revenues since 2004, when it signed a deal with Dubai based Airline Company. According to that contract, Emirates retained the right to name Arsenal’s home ground as Emirates Stadium until 2012 along with T-shirt sponsorship beginning from 2006. Now, the said deal has been extended for another period, i.e., the reds will now wear T-shirts bearing Emirates’ logo alongwith stadium’s extended naming rights until 2028. The stunning part of this extension is a whopping £150m amount which could be a cause of wariness for its arch rivals. This deal suppresses Liverpool’s record £80m four-year T-shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered too. Until now, Barcelona’s deal with Qatar Foundation, worth 30m euros per year, was the biggest. That included Barca’s kits featuring Qatar Foundation’s logo for the first time. Another similar agreement was entered earlier this year when ManU allowed bearing Chevrolet’s logo on its t-shirts for next seven years.
Arsenal’s deal is also important for its long term maintenance of stadiums, since wages and recurring costs are continuously rising. Not only Arsenal, but many other EPL clubs seem to be signing more than one sponsorship deals to counter rising prices and recession European market is facing since last few years. What Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis says about the deal is, “The original deal with Emirates was a key facilitator of our move from Highbury and this next phase of our relationship will be just as critical to keep us at the top of the game in England and Europe. The fact this partnership will continue for many years to come underlines how much both organisations value and benefit from the relationship”
Moreover, the significant £30m-a-year extension can also shrink Arsenal’s B/S debts considerably. Further, Gazidis maintained Gunners overall strategy to lead both England and European leagues. He also added, “The deal is all about football. It is all about giving us the resources in what we believe is a responsible and well managed way, to be able to invest in what we put onto the pitch for our fans.”
“We have been able to talk to Emirates about the payment terms and bring some of them forwards, so that we will have additional money in this financial year which will be able to invest in the summer.
“Those decisions on investment are made by our manager, and he has done an outstanding job of managing the resources of the club over time, and we expect that to continue, but he will have more resources available.”