Arsenal Football Club Economic and Social Impact Report 2022-23...

Long read: but hopefully worth it! 😂

 

So I was lucky enough to be invited (as a stand-in) to the Arsenal breakfast event Tuesday morning at the Emirates Stadium where Arsenal were publishing and promoting their Arsenal Football Club Economic and Social Impact Report 2022-23. All the Arsenal big-wigs were there as was the mainstream press.

 

The Ernst & Young study details the extent of the club's value (in every sense) to Islington, the capital, and beyond. And it’s big. Huge.

 

Economically, the Gunners contributed over half a billion pounds to the UK economy during the 2022/23 season. £616m to be exact. £425m was contributed in the club’s home borough of Islington alone.

 

In addition to the money generated by the club, more than 4,400 jobs in the UK and 1,600 local jobs were supported in that one season alone.

 

In my eyes the social impact is even bigger though. Everything from education, football groups, supporters groups like ours, mental health work, cooking groups, coaching lessons, food distribution, you name it!

 

Through the work of Arsenal in the Community 14,000 people participated in initiatives, which delivered over 140,000 hours of community-based activity.

 

"Arsenal brings so much to our community beyond the football we play," said managing director, Richard Garlick. "Creating a sense of belonging and driving progress in our communities has been central to who we are since we were established in 1886. We cherish that heritage and the positive impact we continue to make.

 

"We hope the report, along with the stories shared by people in our local community, will bring to life the contribution Arsenal makes to the prosperity of the local communities we serve and the impact we have beyond Islington too."

 

In fact the report mentions the gaygooners 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ quite a lot too. Lyla & Darce were in the video that they showed in the room. Our photos also appear in the report. 

 

Before the event started yesterday there was a bit of mingling so I found myself talking to said Arsenal MD Richard Garlick. I was giving him my take on the team(!), the way Arsenal football club is run(!), and also the relationship the club has with the gaygooners. I think I bent his ear for about half an hour. Haha.

 

Actually, he was quite interesting to talk to - he was saying what his vision for Arsenal as an organisation is and detailed his six pillars the whole of the Arsenal management team have to live by. I joked and said I hope one of those pillars was winning silverware. He said “having a winning mentality is pillar number one!”

 

He must’ve been listening to what I was saying about the GGs though (and remembering Carl J talking to him last week) because when he gave his main speech later on to the room he mentioned a few things that I had told him. Nothing radical, but you know how big we are, our reach, and what we do. And he did say to everybody in the room how proud they are of the gaygooners and the work we do. 👍

 

After the whole thing was over and everybody was leaving, he actually came up and shook my hand and said “really nice to meet you and thanks for the chat”.

 

The reason I'm telling you all this is really is just to say that there are quite a few ways we as GGs get to talk the club - often informally, somethimes formally. They seem to listen. 

As this report shows.