The pluses and minuses of stadium rebuilds

Football stadiums remain unused for most of the year, so it makes sense for clubs to use them for other activities where possible, such as sporting events and music concerts, in order to boost match day income.

For example, Old Trafford is used for the annual Rugby Super League Grand Final, while Arsenal hosted Arctic Monkeys at the Emirates and Tottenham staged the World Heavyweight showdown between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.

In fact, Tottenham’s new stadium has been designed as a multi-use facility, leading to a 10-year deal with the NFL to stage American Football games, whereby Spurs apparently take all the catering and merchandising revenue.

Three key stadium expansions are:

• Liverpool – third tier added to the Anfield Main Stand, adding 8,500 seats, increasing capacity to 53,000. Opened at start of 2016/17 season.
• Manchester City – third tier added to the South Stand, adding 7,000 seats, increasing capacity to 55,000. Opened at start of 2015/16 season.
• Tottenham Hotspur – the new stadium added 31,000 seats, increasing capacity from old White Hart Lane’s 32,000 to 63,000. Opened in April 2019 with the first full season in 2019/20.

The stadium expansion has boosted match day revenue at all three clubs. There were steep increases at Liverpool, up from £62m to £84m, and Manchester City, up from £43m to £57m, while Tottenham’s income has more than doubled from £45m to £95m.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that a club still has to pay for an expanded stadium in a number of ways, which we can see by looking at the impact on Tottenham’s accounts.

First of all, the cost of the new stadium was funded by financial debt, which has shot up to £853m, the highest in the Premier League.

In itself that is not a major issue, but Spurs do have to find the money for higher interest payments. Even though they were very smart in refinancing their debt at a very low 2.7% interest rate (with repayment terms extended to 2051), they still had to pay a chunky £22m in 2021/22.

Finally, there are additional costs in running a larger stadium, which have been reflected in Spurs’ other expenses rising to a new high of £120m.

Despite their financial challenges, Everton are progressing with work on their new 52,888 capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, even though it will cost as much as £760m according to Farhad Moshiri. Former chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale said, “It will boost and safeguard our ability to compete financially alongside this country’s football elite.”

Their city neighbours Liverpool are in the process of extending the Anfield Road Stand, adding 7,606 seats to take the capacity to 61,000, though the £80m development may be delayed after the main contractor, the Buckingham Group, filed a notice to appoint administrators.

Manchester City have recently received planning permission to expand the North Stand, adding 6,000 seats to increase the Etihad’s capacity to 61,000.