My open letter on ticket prices to Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis and his response shows that the issue is one that interests the Gooner Nation. The two blogs I’ve written recently on the issue have generated seven to eight times the hits to which I’m accustomed. I didn’t get a chance to respond to the comments which many of you took the time to post to my last blog which concentrated on my conversation with our Dear Leader. This isn’t lack of interest on my part. Merely pressure of work. Thanks to all those who posted, even those like “BJ” who were less than complimentary to say the least.
“BJ” questions how much return on investment we’ve had from what I described as the “top flight” commercial team Gazidis has put in place. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect this investment to pay off for some time yet. I’d say we need to wait another two to three years to see. Just a tip mate, you’re entitled to express yourself in any way you like but doing so in such crude terms is unlikely to persuade anybody serious to listen. I’m not going to throw stones. I have a mouth like a matelot myself but there’s a time and place for everything.
I didn’t raise the performance of Arsčne Wenger and the team and not because I’m flattered by Gazidis’ personal response. I’m too long in the tooth for fall for that. It would have been pointless. Gazidis is well aware of the feelings of many Gooners on this issue, which I share to a certain extent. The problem is that teams taking a punt on success, whether that’s trophies, staying up or getting promoted is the problem, not the solution. Clubs are losing insane amounts of money “chasing the dream” at all levels. Whilst I desperately want us to win silverware my support of Arsenal has never been dependent on it.
This is my 45th season following Arsenal. We’ve won trophies in fourteen of them. We reached finals in a further twelve. A lot, lot better than most other clubs. I’ve attended every season through thick and thin since with the exception of large parts of the 1986/87 and 1987/88 seasons when I was working in South America for a year. I’ve held a season ticket since terrace season tickets were first issued for the old North Bank and Clock End in 1980/81, first on the old North Bank, then from 1988/89 in the East Stand Upper Tier at Highbury, now in Block 112 of the East Stand Upper Tier at the Grove.
There have been droughts along the way. The seven seasons between the Double in1971 and the unforgettable FA Cup win against Manchester United in 1979, during which time we flirted with relegation in 1974/75 and 1975/76, although we were FA Cup runners-up in 1972 and 1978. 1979-1987, another seven season drought with only one FA Cup runners-up appearances to show for it. Since then it’s been pretty much all gravy with a few blank seasons up to the current lean spell. Let’s keep things in perspective.
For what it’s worth I think Gazidis can be trusted to administer the club as effectively as possible. Whether the board is providing the kind of challenging leadership that’s needed to both him and the manager is a whole other question. “John in Norfolk” has frequently made the point in posts to my blogs that he thinks Gazidis is empire-building. I don’t agree. Yes, it’s surprising that he chose to give me nearly an hour of his time. I happen to think that he chose to do so because he wanted a conversation with a Gooner representative of those many, many supporters who are struggling financially to keep on following the club as regular match-attending fans. I don’t for a moment think I’m anybody special because I’m not. I’m just one of thousands of long-standing match-going supporters who wants the best for my club.
Anyway, on to ticket prices. Let me clear, post my conversation with Ivan Gazidis I’m still adamant that the price rises already imposed on Platinum Club members shouldn’t be applied to Gold general admission season tickets or match day tickets, at least for Silver and Red members.
We all know that the current structure of ticket price categories was pretty much what we brought over from Highbury. I don’t think it works at the Grove. With modern information technology it’s much, much easier to be more creative. Radically dropping ticket prices for home Carling Cup ties has been a major success for which the club is to be congratulated. We need to press the club to do far more to reward regular supporters at the expense of those who only want to plot up for the so-called “big games”.
One change that would please a lot of fans and could help with ticket prices at the lower end is to introduce safe standing areas. It would provide fans with an adult choice and could increase capacity by, say, five thousand within the current structure of internal and external concourses without representing a huge investment in retro-fitting. Yes there would be some cost but this would soon be recovered from additional revenue.
This would require a change in the current Government regulations which only permit the necessary licence to admit spectators to be issued for all-seated areas within Premier League and Football League Championship grounds. Liberal Democrat MP for Bath Don Foster recently convened a meeting to discuss his Private Member’s Bill on the subject currently before the House of Commons. The session was attended by the Sports Minister Hugh Robertson MP. Arsenal safety officer Sharon Cicco was also there. Cicco expressed herself against permitting standing.
She was at the meeting representing the Football Safety Officers’ Association rather than Arsenal. I know that many FSOA members personally favour permitting safe standing despite her stance. Arsenal has never made a public pronouncement on the issue. I think the club should and it should be in favour of clubs and their fans having the choice to sit or stand as they prefer. The Government’s sole concern in this area should be regulating safety. The argument that standing is inherently more dangerous than sitting to watch a game has long since been lost. The opponents of giving supporters an adult choice have long since ceased to seriously employ it.
They don’t use it anymore because it is nonsense. Nobody proposes a return to the old badly designed and maintained terraces of old but something new and forward-looking as they have in Germany and increasingly elsewhere including Sweden, Austria, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the USA. None of those countries could be described as neglectful of safety. The opposition is now principally based on disorder. Effectively it is a Victorian fear of the mob which now animates the opponents of progress.
The Football Supporters’ Federation which was represented at the Don Foster meeting is running an on-line petition on the issue at the moment.
Amongst the signatories already are a number of Liverpool supporters who are survivors of the Hillsborough disaster of which the 22nd anniversary will be commemorated on the 15th of this month. This is an idea whose time has more than come.
Now we turn our attention to the visit of Blackburn Rovers to the Grove at tea-time tomorrow. We need three points big, big style.
Keep the faith!
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