Josh Kroenke's words were brief, but a sign of where Arsenal and the Emirates Stadium are heading.
Despite only opening in 2006 and with memories of Highbury still fresh, the £390m, 60,000-seat stadium has already begun to fall behind the Gunners' rivals and is in need of a revamp.
“Internal conversations are starting to happen about (the stadium),” Kroenke, son of club owner Stan and their point man in the UK, told ESPN in July. “It's not an easy renovation, but we see the possibilities of what's there.”
Talks are understood to be at an early stage and Arsenal are yet to contact Islington Council and Transport for London (TfL). But behind the scenes, Mail Sport can reveal that council orders, security concerns and choosing the best way to expand the Emirates are just some of the hurdles the club must overcome.
But it is necessary. With 60,704 seats, Arsenal currently have the fifth largest stadium in the league; It was in second place when the Emirates opened. Manchester United (74,197) are still ahead, while Tottenham (62,850), West Ham (62,500) and Liverpool (61,276) have surpassed them.
And Manchester City could soon be usurping the Gunners too: they are expanding their North Stand, which could take the Etihad to over 60,000.
The £390m Emirates Stadium opened in 2006, but the stadium has already started to fall behind the Gunners' rivals.
At the same time, other teams are looking to expand further or move elsewhere for more space. Man United are considering building a 'Wembley of the North' with a capacity of 100,000, while West Ham plan to increase the capacity of their London stadium to 68,000.
Reports emerged in November that Arsenal had set a target of 80,000 seats, which would make the Emirates the fifth-largest stadium in Europe behind Camp Nou, Wembley, Twickenham and the Stade de France.
Under the ownership of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE), Arsenal have often been in the lead. Pride is at stake. They are back in contention for the title, yes, but there is a hunger to regain the advantage over their rivals off the field.
First of all, there is the need. Adding capacity is a logical step, particularly when it comes to increasing revenue and reducing a subscription waiting list that stretches over 10 years.
In the latest financial figures from Deloitte, for the 2022-23 season, Arsenal made £464.6 million in total revenue. That was significantly less than Manchester City (£712.8m), Manchester United (£648m), Liverpool (£593.8m), Tottenham (£549.6m) and Chelsea (£512.5 million).
For that same season, Arsenal's wage bill (£235m) was also lower than all of its Big Six rivals. So there is room for improvement.
Neighbors Spurs, for example, outperform the Gunners in catering and hospitality. They earn around £6m per game at their home, and while Arsenal's total annual figure (£102.6m) is impressive, it is still behind Man United (£163.4m) and Spurs (£117.6m). million).
In the summer, Arsenal increased the price of its season tickets by up to six percent. That has seen fans pay at least £100 more, with prices ranging from £461.50 to £2,050.50.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has seen Spurs surpass Arsenal in catering and hospitality.
The Kroenkes have ambitious plans on and off the field for the Gunners, including the stadium
Arsenal hopes to increase the capacity of the Emirates due to the high demand for tickets
So what can they do? Here are some options, based on conversations with expert construction developers.
One option is to get creative with existing seats, removing them in certain areas and replacing them with slightly smaller ones. Even making them smaller by an inch, for example, would increase capacity by a few thousand.
Another way is to tone it down. The playing surface at the 70,240-seat SoFi Stadium, home of the Kroenke-owned NFL's LA Rams, is 100 feet below grade, allowing for vertical rather than outward expansion.
This is important as the Emirates are somewhat enclosed by their surroundings, with railway lines passing close to the west and east stands. However, it is unlikely that Arsenal will be able to achieve this due to the layout of the stadium and the restrictions that reducing the pitch would impose on sight lines.
Another alternative is to renovate individual stands, which would require closing some of them for a period of time and briefly reducing matchday revenue. The west stand in particular would be difficult to work on, as it houses the team's dugouts and locker rooms, but the others have spaces between the last row of seats and the roof that could possibly be filled.
The next option is the roof. It is understood that there is scope to replace it so that more rows can be built on the upper tier or as a new fifth tier, although this would be expensive and the view from the top of the expanded stand would be limited.
Curving left field would be relocating elsewhere. The club has not made any suggestion that this is on the cards, and given that 2006 is not that far away, it would be a seismic decision.
It would also cause problems for Islington Council and Transport for London (TfL). Mail Sport understands that the council is well aware of the benefits the Emirates have brought to the local area.
SoFi Stadium, home of the LA Rams, is the inspiration for other new stadium construction.
Arsenal played at the impressive Los Angeles stadium during their pre-season tour of the United States
Unlike other areas of the London boroughs, the local community of Highbury and Islington has continued to have a thriving pub and restaurant scene, boosted by match days, despite the impacts of Covid, which has seen many venues In other places they have had to close.
This season, the club has chosen to hold more non-football related events to further increase its income. The Emirates hosted the XTX Markets London Chess Classic 2024 from November 29 to December 7, with December 4 being a rest day, when Arsenal faced United. Talks about the deal began in June.
The tournament, which is in its 14th edition, usually takes place at the Kensington Olympia. Arsenal also announced that the stadium will host a Robbie Williams concert on June 6, as part of his European tour.
Mail Sport understands the club is considering other accommodation opportunities, particularly of international appeal.
So the possibility of Kroenke's ownership being uprooted to build a new, larger stadium somewhere else is not something they want, even if it's unlikely. That said, it is understood the council has long had reservations about an increase in capacity due to crowd safety concerns and allegedly inadequate public transport close to the ground.
The board's and TfL's relationship with Arsenal is complicated and predates the Kroenkes' purchase of shares in the club in 2007.
Arsenal submitted a planning application for a new stadium in November 2000, but it took until December 2001 for the council to approve their planning application and several local groups opposed the move from Highbury.
Getting planning approval was a long and tempestuous process. It is understood that Arsenal had to provide an undisclosed amount of money to TfL to upgrade Holloway Road tube station, the closest tube stop to the Emirates, as there were council concerns about match day safety at terms of overcrowding.
Manchester United is considering building a 'Wembley of the North' to replace Old Trafford
But it is believed the money Arsenal provided was used to work on Highbury and Islington station, which is a 15-minute walk from the Emirates.
As a result, Holloway Road and Drayton Park stations, the two closest to the ground, are closed on match days due to the risk of overcrowding, while Highbury and Islington and Arsenal tube stops have long queues after matches. .
If the north London club applies for planning permission and gets the council's green light for expansion, Mail Sport understands money will be needed to at least work on Holloway Road tube station to increase its capacity. It remains to be seen whether the Kroenkes would want to put up money for this.
Owner Stan's experience is in real estate. This is how he began to earn his multimillion-dollar fortune, building shopping centers and apartment buildings. It has developed many plazas near Walmart stores.
In recent times, works related to its sports teams have exploded. In August, his Rams team moved to a new training and headquarters facility in Woodland Hills, where Stan spent around $650 million (£507 million) on a development incorporating practice fields, offices and hotels.
In October of this year, the Denver City Council approved Stan's plan to convert 64 acres of parking lots home to his Denver Nuggets basketball and Colorado Avalanche ice hockey teams into an expanded downtown area with 6,000 housing units, a for 5,000 seats and a new hotel. .
And then there's SoFi, the jewel in its crown. Opened in 2020, the state-of-the-art 3.1m square venue features a double-sided oval video board (the first stadium to have one) and has been the inspiration for Real Madrid's revamped Bernabéu and the upcoming 'new Old'. Trafford'.
When Mail Sport visited SoFi on the Gunners' summer pre-season tour of the United States, they showed us around the various stylish suites and told us how the venue will be temporarily transformed into a swimming pool for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. It's a very Eye-catching and unique, and a symbol of the owners' ambitions.
And even with talks at an early stage, it appears the Emirates are next on Kroenke's list.
Anything they do to increase capacity will come at a high price. But in the ever-competitive Premier League, standing still means falling behind, and Arsenal certainly cannot afford to do so.