"It's manic now," says Mosito Ramaili, co-founder of the Brooklyn Invincibles. Two years ago he was struggling to find a bar in Brooklyn willing to open early for Arsenal matches. This Saturday, as the Gunners face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest, 400 people will watch with him at a bar in Johannesburg.
That's the arc. That's the story.
Arsenal's rise from punchline to Premier League champions — and now European finalists — hasn't just changed the club's fortunes. It's turbocharged a global fanbase that was already building quietly for years. The league title win on May 19 produced viral street celebration videos from New York, Uganda, and Kenya. This wasn't manufactured reach. It was earned, over decades of Arsène Wenger's philosophy, a diverse squad that gave fans across the world someone to identify with, and yes, years of near-misses and heartbreak that somehow made people love this club more.
The American Machine
Since NBC picked up Premier League rights in 2013, U.S. viewership has climbed consistently, with Arsenal regularly pulling the biggest audiences. The five most-watched Premier League matches in American television history all featured Arsenal, all within the last four seasons. April's Arsenal-Manchester City title race showdown drew 2.6 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo — a record.
NBC Sports put on a fan event in Tampa Bay for that match. More than 15,000 showed up. "When you looked out on the crowd, it was all red," says NBC's Rebecca Lowe.
American ownership under Stan Kroenke — who also runs the LA Rams, Denver Nuggets, and Colorado Avalanche — has clearly brought a sharper commercial focus to the club's U.S. strategy. Supporters groups have been cultivated rather than ignored. The Brooklyn Invincibles, with 16,000 Instagram followers, got a cameo in an official Premier League title celebration video. O'Hanlon's Irish pub in Manhattan, an official Arsenal bar, had a Premier League trophy parked outside it this week. The club knows where its growth market is.
Why Africa Fell First
The American story is new. The African story runs deeper. Wenger's decision to sign African players at a time when very few top English clubs were doing so wasn't just progressive — it was transformative for Arsenal's global identity. In 2002, Arsenal became the first English top-flight side to start nine Black players. For fans in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa, that meant something that no marketing campaign could replicate.
"People have seen themselves in this club that has always been universal in its makeup," says Ramaili, originally from South Africa. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, born in Uganda, puts it plainly: "Many of us fell in love with a style of play and with an identity of the team."
That identity held even through the lean years. The "banter era" — consecutive 8th-place finishes, squandered leads in 2022-23 and 2023-24, a 22-year wait for the league title — didn't drive fans away. It calcified their loyalty. As Mamdani says: "People do not become Arsenal fans because it's easy."
Which makes what's happening now feel earned rather than lucky. A Champions League final against PSG in Budapest, a first league title in over two decades, bars at capacity hours before kickoff. Ramaili won't be at FancyFree in Brooklyn on Saturday. He'll be in Johannesburg, watching with 400 Gooners he collected along the way.
