Arsenal announce £107m losses after £244m spent on wages as ticket prices hiked

Arsenal have announced losses of £107m for the 2020-21 season, more than their losses from the previous two seasons combined.

The Gunners had recorded losses of £47.8m for the 2019-20 season and £27.1m for the 2018-19 campaign, but the club have cited the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic when detailing the results.

The news comes as Arsenal have announced an increase in season ticket prices for the 2022-23 campaign, with the cheapest season ticket expected to cost in the region of £927, and contains the revelation that the London club forked out £244.4m in wages last term - a rise of just under £10m year-on-year.

The latest ticketing announcement comes in a week when the full impact of a season with mostly empty stadiums has been put into sharp focus.

Arsenal's cheapest season ticket was already the most expensive in the Premier League at £891, and the increase comes just months after director Josh Kroenke praised the passion of the Gunners fans.

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Arsenal saw its matchday revenue fall from £75m to just £3.8m, with gate receipts and other matchday income disappearing for behind-closed-doors matches.

"The results for the financial year have been materially impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic, which caused the majority of matches for the 2020/21 season to be played behind closed doors," the club's financial statement read.

Income from player sales was also down, with the £60m+ from the 2019-20 - half of which came from the sale of Alex Iwobi to Everton - dropping to just £11.8m from sales and £3.1m from loans in the following year.

Emi Martinez was the only notable big-money departure in the 2020-21 campaign, with the goalkeeper moving to Aston Villa in deal worth an eventual £20m, with Arsenal letting the likes of Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi leave the club without receiving a transfer fee.

The 2021-22 season has seen more senior players leave for nothing, with Willian joining Cotinthians and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang moving to Barcelona, while there was more spending on new players over the close-season.

According to the financial report, Arsenal spent a net £54m on new players in the period covered by its latest financial statements, with the figure rising to £125.4m for the 2021-22 season.

Arsenal can expect more in terms of matchday receipts this term, of course, though the increase in TV money for the 2020-21 campaign came in part from European football - something they cannot rely upon this year.

Broadcasting revenues last season were up to £184.4m - an increase of more than £60m year-on-year - as the Gunners reached the semi-finals of the Europa League before losing to Villarreal.

Arsenal's statement also detailed the impact of European Super League negotiations, which prompted fan protests in opposition to Stan Kroenke's ownership.

"The related costs associated with this project have been fully recharged to [parent company] KSE UK Inc," the statement reads.

Later, in a section entitled "Commitments and contingent liabilities," it is explained that "The group is monitoring certain ongoing matters relating to the closure of the European Super League project; if any additional costs arise as a consequence, these additional costs would be fully recharged to the parent entity, KSE UK Inc."