Martinelli and Brazil teammate Gabriel Magalhães have been the Gunners’ representatives in the US-hosted Copa America this year.
Argentina were crowned champions for the 16th time, beating Colombia 1-0 in extra-time in Miami last night, with the occasion marred by crowd control issues.
Martinelli and Gabriel’s Brazil were dumped out at the quarter-final stage, with the former scoring his penalty in a 4-2 shootout defeat to Uruguay.
The Copa America is being seen as something of a warmup event for the US ahead of its hosting of the 2026 World Cup along with Canada and Mexico.
And football’s explosion in popularity in the Americas could prove lucrative for Arsenal, according to analysis from industry experts.
Arsenal can capitalise on US football boom
Arsenal are hugely popular in the US, with 75 official supporters groups.
They will also play a friendly against Man United at the SoFi Stadium this summer, the home of Stan Kroenke’s NFL franchise the LA Rams.
However, analysis from industry experts CLV Group suggests that Arsenal could better monetise their US fanbase and that there is an extra £80m of commercial income available in the market.
Connecting with US supporters through players like Martinelli starring at the Copa America and World Cup will be key here.
The report finds that digital and direct-to-consumer engagement is they key to unlocking this additional revenue.
TBR Analysis: How can Arsenal increase commercial income?
Arsenal’s commercial income for 2022-23, the last financial year on record, was £173m.
While this is an impressive figure in isolation, it is well behind all of their rivals in the so-called ‘Big Six’.
In fact, it is only slightly over half of Man City’s £341m income from sponsorship and merchandise sales.
Kroenke is a shrewd businessman and has a history of monetising sports teams’ brands, but the Gunners need to up their game if they are to keep within touching distance of their peer group.
Commercial income has suffered as a result of Arsenal’s absence from the Champions League in recent years, so their return under Mikel Arteta will yield improve results.
Their main sponsorship deals with Emirates and Adidas meanwhile are highly lucrative, while the new training ground naming rights deal with Sobha Realty will also help.
There is arguably some room for improvement with their sleeve sponsor deal with Visit Rwanda, which is worth £10m per year until 2025-26.
For context, Chelsea – the closest club to Arsenal in terms of commercial revenue of £210m – earned £20m last season from then sleeve sponsor WhaleFin.
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