Arsenal’s majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, has taken a payment of £3m out of the club according to the latest company accounts.

Having never taken dividends from his American sports franchises, which include NBA basketball’s Denver Nuggets and the NFL side St Louis Rams, this is a move that has gone down badly with Arsenal supporters. Coincidentally, the £3m figure tallies with the amount the club raised from a 3% rise on season-ticket prices for this season.

The money has been paid to Kroenke’s company, KSE LLC, for strategic and advisory services which relate to Arsenal’s broadband division, the media department which raises funds by selling a three-hour block of weekly content to the lucrative international market.

Kroenke has been asked repeatedly at the club’s annual meeting whether he would take dividends from Arsenal but has always dodged the issue. He has, though, outlined his admiration for the model the Glazer family have at Manchester United, which was a leveraged buyout that loaded debt on to the club.

In a rare interview in November 2011, Kroenke expanded on how he feels this American system works. “Since they took over they have won and they have increased revenues by a huge amount. If I was a fan of that club, I would go there and go ‘Wow!’ because how could you do it any better?

“We have a whole different philosophy I think in the States, maybe, but I think it’s time for everybody to think a little bit. I think they ought to think about who invests in these clubs. ‘He [Glazer] took money out of the club. So what? [LA Lakers owner] Jerry Buss takes money out of his club. A lot of owners in the US do. No one ever says anything about it.”

News of the £3m payment felt all the more of a touchy subject on a night when Arsenal tickets were capped at £10 for the Capital One Cup tie against Southampton, a gesture of goodwill at a club with notoriously expensive tickets in the Premier League.

No doubt the Kroenke payment will be a subject on the agenda at Arsenal’s AGM on 16 October.