For several seasons, there have been consistent rumours suggesting that Arsenal are considering expanding the capacity of the Emirates Stadium. Although the club already possesses one of the largest grounds in the Premier League, with a capacity of 60,704, new developments indicate that they are preparing to make the venue even larger.
Ambitious Expansion Plans
The Emirates Stadium, which has served as Arsenal’s home since 2006, stands as a modern landmark and a vital source of matchday revenue. Hosting more than sixty thousand fans per game generates significant income, helping sustain the Gunners’ financial and sporting ambitions. However, despite its impressive size, the Emirates does not rank among the very largest stadiums in the country, and the club reportedly aims to change that.
According to Mirror Football, Arsenal have decided to begin work to increase the ground’s capacity to around 70,000 seats. This expansion would once again make the Emirates the largest stadium among London clubs and further strengthen the club’s commercial and competitive position. The initiative reflects Arsenal’s long-term vision of combining elite football performance with world-class facilities.
Temporary Relocation and Strategic Vision
The same report notes that preparations for the project have intensified behind the scenes, with the first team expected to play at Wembley Stadium while the redevelopment takes place. This temporary move would allow work to progress without disruption to the construction schedule and ensure that the project meets its projected completion targets.
Arsenal have consistently been one of London’s leading sides across all competitions, and their pursuit of stadium expansion demonstrates a desire to align infrastructure with ambition. The club believes that a larger capacity will not only generate greater revenue but also enhance the overall supporter experience.
By expanding the Emirates, Arsenal seek to reaffirm their status as one of the foremost clubs in English football. The project embodies their aspiration to match sporting excellence with facilities that befit a club of their history, prestige, and ambition.
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My understanding is the new Stadium will expand in a similar fashion as the cemetery of talents.
Lowering the the football pitch and making the stands steeper as Barcelona is not ideal in my opinion, but building massive and comfortable stadiums is right up the Kroenke’s street.
Difference is cemmentery of talents have more then FA Cups in their stadium trophy cabinet
It’s a shame Arsenal haven’t win anything since we have move into the Emirates, but thank goodness all that is about to change.
Have you noticed the dramatic improvements in the gaffer’s man management skills ?
Gunsmoke, pretty sure we’ve won 4 FA Cups since moving to the new stadium.
But I keep arguing with people that are stuck on this non-evidential notion that The Kroenke’s don’t care about Arsenal success, don’t invest and have not only care about Top 4.
1) The Kroenke’s have spent about £1 billion in strengthening the team.
2) They keep renewing contracts for our big players offering massive wages.
3) They are now willing to spend between £400-£500 million in expanding the Emirates Stadium to add another 10,000-20,000 seats.
Etc.
To me this level of investment / engagement idoes not suggest that the owners just care about Top 4 for the club.
Right? 🤞
They’ll have to get it past LBI first, and there’s very little chance of that!
Jax, why so? Could wish to be enlightened!
Kenya001
The stadium is in a very congested area of North London and crucially, in a densely populated residential neighbourhood. The infrastructure is there – to a point – trains both overground and underground as well as buses, but getting out of the ground at the end of a game is a slow process.
By adding the prospect of a further 10000+ people each home game it is unlikely to be a popular decision for the locals and the local authority would likely challenge the proposal.
My view is a degree of sympathy but I’d relish the chance to get to games more regularly
Kenya001, London Borough of Islington made it very difficult to get construction permission for The Emirates due to (as Sue states) local concerns. and another 10000 isn’t going to be welcome. Different council leaders now and I’m not sure how London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has to rubber-stamp the deal would react, him being a AFC Wimbledon supporter.
Thanks suep, now I understand why I see some people leave a game earlier! Beating traffic is in there mind. Is it possible then to improve infrastructure around the Emirates?
Apart from extra seating, major improvements are needed to toilets, bars and food outlets for half time as it’s presently less than good and with extra capacity brings extra need to improve these facilities even more. There won’t be any planning concerns as the expansion has already been approved in principle by the local authorities.
Has it? Wow!
Yup, the catering queues are diabolical
GB, Delaware North contract for the food outlets runs out at the end of this season, hopefully the club gets a new company to takeover.
Regarding planning permission being approved in principle, hopefully that’s true. I wonder how much TFL is going to charge the club, as when the Emirates Stadium was built the club had to pay them £50m to upgrade Holloway Road tube station and look what happened there.
What did happen there HD? I have never been a frequent user, but did anything happen?
SueP, nothing happened. TFL were supposed to use the money to upgrade Holloway tube station, but they didn’t. It can be used before a match, but not afterwards. Apparently they used some of the money on Finsbury Park tube station.
I read on a different forum, where a fan was happy that the capacity was being extended and then said that it would hopefully mean that ticket prices would go down.
At this I nearly fell off my chair laughing. There’s no way that will happen. But I suppose we all need to have our dreams don’t we.🤦♂️😂
Not sure about the cost of tickets to the Emirates going down, what will improve is the likelihood of some us getting a chance to purchase tickets 🙂
These are still only discussions, it is very possible that none of these plans would be feasible and that is not a disaster. When it was built, the Emirates was the second biggest stadium in the league, now it is the fifth but the three that have jumped ahead have only done so a few thousand seats.
Another possibility would be to park the problem for a few years, see how ticket demand develops and possibly go for a huge new development of the type that the Kroenkes are known for in the USA. There is always the option of keeping the Emirates for the women’s side who have already sold it out on occasions and average about 30 000, again see how that develops.
I remember the last time we played at Wembley in our European Cup games it was a complete disaster, the other teams kept raising their game because they were playing at Wembley.
I hated those two years. When the club first announced that the games were being played at Wembley they said it was because there wasn’t enough parking at Highbury for the UEFA officials and the sponsors. Well nothing had changed when we reverted back to Highbury, so imo, the move was all to do with making money.
No it was the advertising boards
Different to what they said in a match day programme.
The club said in a statement: “If the matches were to be played at Highbury, more than 6,000 season ticketholders, junior Gunners and concessionary groups would have been relocated to other parts of the ground ( because of UEFA advertising regulations)
“Many thousands of Arsenal supporters would have been excluded from the games completely.”
That was another excuse the club used. If that really was a problem then they would have carried on playing at Wembley instead of returning to Highbury after just two years, as the UEFA advertising regulations were still in place.
Your knowledge is shocking ( my theory continues lol )
How could they return to Wembley ?
Your just making things up.
My mistake. Yet as I posted, the UEFA sponsor regulations didn’t stop us playing at Highbury.
See Still, I’ve got the minerals to admit my mistakes, you should try it.
No one said they did
Arsenal chose , hence their statement
“If the matches were to be played at Highbury, more than 6,000 season ticketholders, junior Gunners and concessionary groups would have been relocated to other parts of the ground ( because of UEFA advertising regulations)
“Many thousands of Arsenal supporters would have been excluded from the games completely.”
So they still could have played at Highbury instead of Wembley then. Proves my point that it was all about money.
Of course its all about money
By the advertising board rule they would have even smaller attendance so went to Wembley to double match day revenue
Which is what I’ve said all along 🙄
For younger fans
Arsenal couldn’t go back to Wembley after the 1999 -2000 season because Wembley closed in October 2000
So not an excuse , simply impossible lol
No, you said it was to do with parking mate lol
And then when I said about advertising board you said that was an excuse as why didn’t we stay at Wembley .
Surely you noticed in the 2000-2001 season FA Final was in Cardiff
Weird thing for a Gooner to just forget lol
I’ll never forget that Cup Final against the Scousers and how we were robbed.
It was in a match day programme about the car parking issue, and the club said that’s why we were going to play the CL games at Wembley Still.
Marty, while I agree that the opposition players raised their game because of playing at Wembley, I would say the size of the pitch didn’t help our players, as the Highbury pitch was a lot smaller. In fact the club had to get permission from UEFA at the start of every season we were in European competitions to be allowed to play there.
Why not use the Tottenham stadium instead,what are neighbours for if we can’t assist each other in times of need?
I take it you don’t know about the hatred between the two sets of fans.
Matthew,
You are being sarcastic right?. 😂🤦♂️