New £15m deal kickstarts KSE’s plan to merge Arsenal with £16bn empire in the US

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Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke wants to integrate his investment in the Premier League more closely with his franchises in the NFL, NBA, NHL and beyond.

Besides the Gunners, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) owns the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, as well as many smaller assets in America’s various sports leagues.

Stan Kroenke also owns MLS side Colorado Rapids but so far has opted not to create a tight link between them and Arsenal in the manner of other multi-club networks, like Red Bull or City Football Group.

That is despite Mikel Arteta heavily implying that he would like to see a multi-club system set up for his North London side to benefit from its player recruitment, development and performance advantages.

Some multi-club networks are primarily sport-focused. The junior partner acts as a petri dish for players to hone their skills and accrue the necessary governing body endorsement points to join the mothership.

There are also significant upsides in terms of data, research and scouting. For most Premier League clubs in a multi-club network – and 15 clubs in the league now operate under this model – this is the main aim.

However, a growing number of big brains in football finance are now looking to reap commercial benefits of multi-club systems too – and this isn’t necessarily confined to one sport.

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Arsenal and LA Rams now sharing Visit Rwanda sponsorship

As reported by TBR Football, KSE launched a new department earlier this year called Kroenke Signature Properties.

The division was created to sell commercial partnerships across the KSE portfolio in order to extract maximum value. Think City Football Group, for whom several clubs share the Etihad sponsorship deal.

Kroenke Signature Properties is headed up by Olly Dale, who was previously a commercial director at Arsenal.

And the latest news suggests that the strategy is starting to bear fruit, with Kroenke’s LA Rams signing up with Visit Rwanda – Arsenal’s shirt sleeve sponsor – earlier this week.

The Visit Rwanda deal has been the subject of fan-led protests due to Rwanda’s alleged arming of insurgent militants in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The fact that Rwandan president Paul Kagame is a dedicated Arsenal fan occasionally spotted at the Emirates also didn’t help the optics.

But despite the backlash and the well-publicised ‘Visit Tottenham’ billboard organised by campaigners lambasting the partnership, it looks like the Gunners are set to renew the deal.

As reported by City AM, club chiefs are in advanced talks to renew the deal, which has been worth around £80m to Arsenal since it was first struck in 2018.

TBR Football understands the new iteration will be worth a basic £15m per season.

This will mark the first major shared sponsorship between Arsenal and the Rams, and perhaps the first of many across Kroenke’s £16bn sports empire.

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Arsenal board reshuffle points to KSE integration

Last month, Arsenal shocked fans by announcing that Tim Lewis was stepping down from his role as executive vice-chairman.

After Stan and Josh Kroenke, Lewis was the most powerful man at the club and has been one of the chief architects of the club’s sporting and commercial revival in recent years.

The reshuffle at the top of the club saw Richard Garlick step up to the CEO role, with three new board appointments in Kelly Blaha, Otto Maly, Dave Steiner and Ben Winston.

Blaha, Maly and Steiner are all close allies of Kroenke and have either been on the KSE payroll or held a prominent advisory role.

Like the Visit Rwanda renewal alongside the partnership with the LA Rams, the new board recruits signal that the Kroenkes want to bring Arsenal more into the fold.