Arsenal told they would have to 'add another small stadium on top' to complete ambitious Emirates Stadium project – with expansion to 80,000 seats set to cost of 'hundreds of millions'

Co-chairman Josh Kroenke has revealed that the Premier League giants are exploring ways to bring more supporters to north London, with the plan being to overtake arch-rivals Tottenham in the capacity stakes – having slipped behind Spurs, West Ham and Liverpool, as well as Manchester United. Newcastle, Chelsea and Manchester City are also looking to raise their respective capacities.

Building work at Arsenal will, however, be complicated – especially with the club looking to add 20,000 new seats. Nick Tyrer, an associate director at architects BDP Pattern and the lead designer on Everton’s new ground, has told The i Paper that the Gunners are "essentially adding another small stadium on top" of what is already there.

Tyrer added on the challenges that Arsenal face when working on a ground that has already been slotted into a congested area of N5: "It’s efficient, everything fits together like a nice puzzle. It’s impressive what they were able to do on that tight site, but the problem with a puzzle that fits nicely together is as soon as you want to make big changes to it, it’s difficult.

"One of the big challenges is there’s an elegant roof that is supported in I think eight places. The whole roof sits on those eight points and if you want to do any kind of expansion you need to remove the structure that’s blocking you, but the only way you can do that is taking the roof off and putting a new wider roof on. If it does involve removing and replacing that, say it’s a new roof, you’re building a new roof of an 80,000-capacity stadium. You’re talking about the realm of a new project, a new stadium from that perspective."

Jon-Scott Kohli, BDP architect director, admits that the costs to Arsenal of working towards an 80,000-seater home will likely run into "hundreds of millions". He went on to say: "You’re almost building another stadium, but you’re building it in the air, so you’ve got all the structure and accommodation that’s going to get you there, plus whatever the council requires for transport."

Arsenal have been in their current surroundings since 2006, when an emotional farewell was bid to Highbury. If they are able to complete an ambitious project, then the Emirates would only sit behind Wembley Stadium and Twickenham when it comes to the biggest venues in England.