Coming on the back of Arsenal‘s announcement of huge profits since their move to the Emirates stadium, chairman Peter Hill-Wood has dismissed Chelsea‘s plans to become Britain’s biggest club. Hill-Wood said “For Chelsea to think they are suddenly going to dominate United and Liverpool is fantasy. It is not going to happen.”
The Gunners chairman questioned how a club who had a crowd of less than 25,000 for a Champions League match could “turn the world Blue” as their chief executive Peter Kenyon had outlined in the summer.
I couldn’t agree with Hill-Wood more, after all, we are talking about a club who have just appointed a man seemingly not qualified to manage in the Premiership – the sort of thing clubs like Middlesbrough do!
New Stadium Influence
Yesterday Arsenal announced figures making them Britain’s richest club following their first season at their new Emirates stadium – generating an impressive £200m in their first year at the new home. It should certainly make Liverpool supporters look forward to our new stadium even more and hope we can also make full use of the facility to generate huge revenue, something owners Hicks and Gillett have previously spoke of – including encouraging fans to get to the stadium earlier and stay later with the introduction of restuarants, bars and other areas at the new Stanley Park stadium.
BBC Sport editor Mihir Bose believes Arsenal are now making £80m more than Liverpool per season – he says “Manchester United will have to put on another £32m from last year to match the Gunners – Chelsea will have to show an increase of nearly £50m; Liverpool £80m and Tottenham £127m to match Arsenal.”
Hill-Wood added “Money is irrelevant to history and how big your club is.” Indeed.