Arsenal nets £260m in loan goal

New home and new way of finance

Top English football club Arsenal has secured a £260m loan, using future sales of match tickets as a guarantee.

The money will help the Premiership side pay off the debts it has built up constructing its new 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium in north London.

Leeds United, Everton and Manchester City have previously raised money in a similar fashion.

The rock musician David Bowie once sold 10 years' worth of royalty rights to his music with his "Bowie bond".

Safe bet

The bonds are not fail-safe. Their value could be affected if Arsenal had a string of bad results and attendances dropped.

But the sale of the bond is a sign that financial institutions are still prepared to consider future earnings of football clubs as a guarantee on loans.

Arsenal's former home, Highbury, had a 100% sell-out rate for every match in the last five seasons, with the exception of some League Cup games.

However, the new stadium is more than one-third bigger.

Season tickets at the Emirates Stadium for 2006-7 range from £885 to £1,825.