Highbury & Emirates Stadium

The Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster, finalised in January 1990, recommended replacing terraces with seating, and the top two divisions had to be all-seated by 1994–95. Arsenal turned to a 150-year bond scheme, of which only a third sold. The rebuilt North Bank reopened in August 1993 at a cost of £20 million, with capacity down from 57,000 at the start of the decade to under 40,000.

High ticket prices servicing the club's debts and low attendances forced Arsenal to look for a bigger ground in 1997. Rebuilding Highbury required demolishing 25 neighbouring houses, and the East Stand was listed Grade II that July; the club abandoned the plan, deciding 48,000 seats were not enough. Its March 1998 bid to buy Wembley was opposed by the Football Association, which claimed it harmed England's bid for the 2006 World Cup — FIFA denied that — and Arsenal withdrew in April. It was allowed to play its Champions League home ties at Wembley instead, where a crowd of 73,707 against Lens set a club record home attendance. It went out at the group stage there in 1998–99 and 1999–2000.

In November 1999 Arsenal examined the feasibility of building at Ashburton Grove, a rubbish processing plant and industrial estate 450 metres from Highbury. Property adviser Anthony Spencer had recommended the site to director Danny Fiszman and vice-chairman David Dein, and in November 2000 the club applied to build a 60,000-seat ground, promising 2,300 homes and 1,800 jobs.

The Islington Stadium Communities Alliance, sixteen residents' and business groups, opposed the scheme, its spokeswoman Alison Carmichael saying that "in its detail the plan is awful". Islington Council approved the application on 10 December 2001 and Mayor Ken Livingstone a month later; permission was granted in May 2002, and a High Court challenge by residents and the alliance was dismissed by Duncan Ouseley that July. Arsène Wenger called the council's approval the biggest decision in Arsenal's history since the board appointed Herbert Chapman in the 1920s.

Arsenal received no public subsidy and had to buy the site outright in one of London's most expensive areas. The club recouped over £50 million on the transfers of Nicolas Anelka, Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit, and in September 2000 sold a 5 per cent stake to Granada Media Group for £47 million. A syndicate led by the Royal Bank of Scotland lent £260 million, but the club suspended work in April 2003, saying delays had ruled out a 2005–06 opening; the forecast cost had risen by £100 million to £400 million.

Funding was secured in February 2004, and Emirates bought the naming rights later that year in a 15-year deal estimated at £100 million. In July 2006 the debt was refinanced through a £260 million bond issue, the first publicly marketed asset-backed bond issue by a European football club, cutting annual debt service to about £20 million.

Sir Robert McAlpine was appointed in January 2002 to build the stadium, to a design by Populous. Demolition was finished by March 2004, the stadium topped out in August 2005, and Abou Diaby installed the first seat on 13 March 2006. The whole project cost £390 million.

Dennis Bergkamp's testimonial against Ajax on 22 July 2006 was the last of three below-capacity events staged to obtain the licences to open. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, opened the stadium on 26 October 2006 in place of Queen Elizabeth II, who had injured her back, telling the crowd, "Well, you may not have my wife, but you've got the second-most experienced plaque unveiler in the world." The Queen invited the chairman, manager and first team to tea at Buckingham Palace on 15 February 2007, the first such invitation to a football club.

In August 2009 the club began a programme of "Arsenalisation", led by chief executive Ivan Gazidis. "The Spirit of Highbury", naming every player of the club's 93 years at the old ground, was erected outside the south end late in 2009, and statues of Tony Adams, Thierry Henry and Herbert Chapman went up in December 2011 for the club's 125th anniversary.

The ground is owned by Arsenal Holdings, seats 60,704 and became the home of Arsenal's women's team in 2024; the club museum opened in October 2006. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the first concert there on 30 May 2008. Renovation plans were announced in February 2022, in October 2025 the club said it was examining a rise in capacity to 70,000, and on 6 August 2026 it renewed its long-term partnership with Emirates.