Arsenal are set to make an imminent appointment to their commercial team after securing a £60million-a-year Adidas kit deal, according to the Times.
The newspaper claim the Premier League giants are head hunting a commercial to figure to “manage” their new £300million agreement, which comes into effect next summer.
The Times report the behind-the-scenes appointment is to come after the club agreed the mega deal with the German sportswear company, worth double the existing kit deal with Puma.
OPINION
Arsenal are making significant progress on and off the pitch. The new Adidas deal has taken the London club into the top bracket of the world’s clubs when it comes to commercial deals, even though they lag some way behind industry leaders Manchester United. Arsenal’s revenue has grown an impressive £198million during the nine years between Ivan Gazidis’ arrival as chief executive in 2009 and his exit this year. Most of that has come through broadcasting revenue, although commercial turnover in the most recent set of financial results was £117million out of a total of £423million. Only the lucrative television deal – £199million last year – brings in more money to the Arsenal coffers. The club is sustainable and well run, if rather conservative in outlook, and the rising transfer prices, couple with weak pound, mean the Londoners have not really benefited from keeping so much cash stowed away earlier in the decade.