North London club wants to take capacity at McAlpine-built ground to more than 70,000
Arsenal is reportedly looking at moving to Wembley stadium while work to expand its home of the past 20 years is carried out.
According to the Telegraph, the Premier League leaders want to expand their ground to beyond 70,000 from the current capacity of 60,700.
The ground, which was completed by Sir Robert McAlpine, opened in 2006 and at the time was the biggest club ground in the capital.
But it has been overtaken by the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, built by Mace, and West Ham’s ground at the former Olympic stadium – built by McAlpine but later reconfigured by Balfour Beatty.
No details of who has been enlisted to look at the job have been released but the Emirates was designed by Populous – when it was called HOK Sport – who also designed the Tottenham stadium and the Olympic stadium.
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The practice is considered to be the go-to firm for stadia in this country and overseas and in 2023 the firm’s global vice chair told Building the Emirates was in need of a revamp.
Chris Lee said: “We could revisit it. The general admission is a bit tight. The turnstiles are old-school turnstiles. Some of the club levels have been changed, but very little in general admission.”
Plans for the expansion are set to include changing the gradient of the stands, adapting the seating plan to fit more fans and potentially raising the roof.
Tottenham played at Wembley for nearly two seasons while work to build the club’s new ground was carried out.
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