Aston Villa could unlock major FFP dream scenario after Guns N' Roses announcement

Legendary rockers Guns N’ Roses are to play one night of their 24-date Europe and Middle East tour next summer to Aston Villa’s Villa Park.

Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, Slash, Dizzy Reed, Richard Fortus, Frank Ferrer and Melissa Reese will be bringing their catalogue of hits to the hallowed turf of Villa Park on Monday, June 23, the first of two UK dates, with the other being three days later at London’s Wembley Stadium.

A sell-out crowd is anticipated for the concert with the popularity of the Paradise City and Sweet Child O’ Mine hitmakers ensuring that demand will be extraordinarily high.

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But what might it mean for Villa and their own finances, given that it will fall in the 2025/26 financial year for the club?

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Finding new ways to generate revenue has been a key goal of club owners NSWE and the club’s commercial team, with the possibility of expanding Villa Park still on the agenda. With a capacity of 42,640 it is the biggest arena in the second-biggest city in the UK, and leverage both the location and the size of the arena to host such events can bring with it financial rewards for a club that has been seeking ways to create as much spending headroom as possible to be able to reinvest in what truly matters, the product on the pitch.

Hosting concerts during the closed season can be valuable to Villa, worth millions to the club when all is said and done. They aren't easy to put a price on, however, as the nature of concerts means the actual value of what the club can receive can even change on the night, as ticket and commercial sales are all considered and the numbers run by promoters and Villa staff during the event itself. At the end a figure is reached and then divided up as agreed.

For one night, Villa could stand to make up to £2m, based on data from sold-out concerts held at sporting arena this past summer.

Hosting top-level artists like Guns N’ Roses can also be a huge pull for commercial partners, some of who may pay extra to be able to access hospitality for the event to entertain their own clients in executive suites.

The money will tot up through various elements, with the promoters of the event paying the football club a hire fee for the use of the stadium, with the club likely to get a cut of merchandise and food sales, adding up throughout the evening. In the case of Tottenham Hotspur last year, they were able to also take a cut of the sale of premium seats when Beyonce performed her five-night stint.

But kicking open the door to hosting a number of major live events, local authority permission dependent, could eventually be a way for Villa to use their home stadium to rack up potentially in excess of £10m throughout the summer period, allowing them to realise some cash for working capital there and then and go someway to alleviating some of the pressures that have existed when it comes to remaining PSR compliant.

The more the club can do to maximise the bricks and mortar around them, allied with increased value from commercial partnerships and extra money from competitive success, helps the club, and NSWE, in the quest to try and close the enormous financial gap that exists between them and the so-called ‘big six’, although they will have their own ideas about how to ensure that doesn’t happen.