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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Simon Collings

Arsenal exploring potential Emirates Stadium expansion to rival Tottenham

Arsenal are exploring the possibility of upgrading and expanding the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners have been at their current ground since 2006 and renovations have already taken place in recent years.

Most recently, the roof was repaired, giant screens inside the ground for supporters were replaced and new artwork was installed on the stadium’s exterior.

Arsenal co-chair Josh Kroenke revealed during an interview with ESPN over the summer that “internal conversations” were taking place about further work being done.

Standard Sport understands that such talks are at an exploratory stage, with Arsenal currently assessing what is feasible when it comes to expanding or upgrading the Emirates.

“It is not an easy renovation, but we see the possibilities of what’s there,” Kroenke said.

Arsenal earned £102.6million from matchday income last season, which was an increase from the £79.4m they made the previous year.

Tottenham, however, beat that total by taking in £117.6m, with Spurs’ new stadium key to maximising their revenue.

Arsenal would be better placed to compete with their rivals by upgrading their stadium and some work has already taken place on that front.

Populous, the firm that designed the Emirates Stadium, have been appointed to improve the catering potential and upgrade some of the ground’s kitchen facilities.

Arsenal have also been working to upgrade their beer supply, with the stadium’s venue director, Tom McCann, informing supporters of plans at a fans’ forum meeting back in January.

“The club is in the middle of a project spending about £2million upgrading our beer supply,” minutes from the meeting state.

“Everything from investing in the pythons, in the sellers, in the technology, in the number of kiosks.”

McCann also confirmed how the Emirates Stadium would be modernised further by improving phone signal at the ground.

“I can confirm that full stadium Wi-Fi is not currently on the roadmap,” minutes from the meeting state.

“Our primary connectivity strategy for the stadium and our supporters is via 5G. Our new DAS (Digital Distributed Antenna system) solution to deliver 5G is already in-delivery and the intention is that this will be in place for the start of next season.

“DAS is like having many small antennas throughout a building that work together to improve wireless signal strength and coverage.

“This solution is due for go-live in late 2024 and its deployment will be delivering a first-of-a-kind solution to provide the very best solution, and the ease of connectivity by simply using their existing phones and data plans; no registrations needed, no marketing opt-ins, etc.”

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