EPL club Arsenal yesterday announced half-year profits of $27M (all figures U.S.) and cash reserves of $186.8M "on top of the new stadium naming rights and kit deal that come in later this year," according to Sam Wallace of the London INDEPENDENT. Arsenal's financial results for the six-month period ending in November revealed that the club "made book profits" of $64.4M on the transfers of F Robin van Persie and MF Alex Song. That was "balanced" by $62M worth of expenditure on Fs Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, although it "did not include" the $12.1M fee to La Liga club Malaga for D Nacho Monreal in January. Arsenal did not reveal its wage bill for the period, instead "wrapping it up in operating expenses" of $207.8M. Arsenal's stadium naming-rights deal with Emirates is worth $227.3M, and they are "in a position to negotiate a new, more lucrative kit deal when their current contract with Nike expires at the end of the season." But commercial and ticket revenues "are not rising which could be a result of the team's lack of success on the pitch" (London INDEPENDENT, 2/26). The GUARDIAN's Owen Gibson notes most of Arsenal's revenue growth over the past five years "has been driven by the centrally negotiated TV contract, which is due for another major rise next season." But Arsenal Chair Peter Hill-Wood argued that new commercial deals with Emirates and other new contracts "will boost that figure as the original long-term deals that helped bankroll the Emirates are being renewed" (GUARDIAN, 2/26). In London, James Olley noted Arsenal's turnover fell by $11.2M to $160.9M due to "four fewer home fixtures than the same period last year and the importance of turning a profit on transfers is underlined by the club's operating profit falling" to $7.6M (London EVENING STANDARD, 2/25).
