Arsenal on schedule as they post £10m profit

Arsenal today said work on their new stadium is progressing ahead of schedule as they announced a profit of £10.6million for last season.

The club claimed their future is bright, with the move to Ashburton Grove due to bring increased revenue from 2006 onwards and Arsene Wenger's side seemingly invincible in the Premiership.

Building a new home away from Highbury has meant borrowing huge amounts and accounts published today showed Arsenal had bank loans totalling £142.7m at the end of May.

But managing director Keith Edelman said: "Clearly there are large loans to build the new stadium but that will not in any way impact on the club or the team.

"There are different loans for different activities and the stadium will be an asset which will generate increased revenue. We are very pleased with a record set of results."

Arsenal's borrowing was mainly related to property development and they spent £88m on the new stadium, but there was also the cost of securing finance for the ground of £15.3m.

In last season's figures, before Ashburton Grove had the go-ahead, Arsenal's bank loans were less than a third of the figure in the latest results at £39m.

But the club's business, providing the stadium generates the return they expect once it is open in two years, is looking good on last season's figures. Pre-tax profits more than doubled from £4.5m to £10.6m and turnover was up by a third at £156.9m.

Non-executive chairman Peter Hill-Wood said: "Both of our business segments - football and property development - made a significant contribution to our turnover growth and were strongly cash generative at an operations level.

"Our strategic objective is to deliver the sustained revenue growth and profitability which will allow Arsenal to build on its leading position in domestic and European football.

"Securing the new stadium, with the increased revenues it will generate, is a huge step towards achieving this objective."