Ivan Gazidis speaks to the BSM
1 February 2012
Many will be aware that at the end of November we met with the club, giving them an update on the issues we were concerned with as a group and to put forward a number of suggestions where we felt improvements could be made. These ranged from ticketing and seating proposals to the matchday experience for Arsenal fans.
Discussions have been going back and forth with the club since then, as we’ve pressed for an update on the proposals we submitted. With time ticking on and season ticket renewal time visible on the horizon once more, we feel it’s vitally important that the club is pressed as hard as possible when it comes to making improvements for our fans. That’s why we issued a press release a couple of weeks back asking that the club freeze ticket prices for next season and beyond – because the silence from the club to date has been somewhat worrying.
Yesterday we heard from Ivan Gazidis who gave us an update.
Referring to the requests from fans about the matchday experience e.g. dumping ‘The Wonder Of You’ in favour of ‘Good Old Arsenal’ and stopping the cringeworthy ‘shout the names back’ he commented “a couple of your suggestions were adopted around the 125th anniversary game with Everton and since”. Good stuff. We’ve noticed that the ‘shout the names back’ has thankfully gone, although we’ve been informed that Elvis has re-entered the building. Seems someone at the club doesn’t want to let him go.
On to the more important issue of ticketing and seating, he said that these had been passed to a team at Arsenal which is looking into this as a wider project. One thing that has more or less been confirmed however is that the club won’t look at moving away fans to the upper tier because it causes too much hassle for other fans. Seems that the club doesn't want the short term pain, even though it would bring long term gain to our fans.
Regarding ticketing Ivan said “With regard to the ticket review this is still work in progress. It is a hugely complex exercise which is ultimately aimed at making more tickets available at affordable prices. I fully recognise the rising costs faced by our supporters and our challenge is to ensure we balance this with the never-ending (and escalating) pressure we face at the top of the game in terms of rising player fees and wages”. It’s safe to assume that some will say “heard it all before” in response to those comments.
So at the moment it appears that the club aren’t too willing to let us know the progress on any of the ticketing and seating proposals. All we can do is keep pressing them to ensure nothing slips, and we’ve already responded to Ivan reminding him that while ticketing is indeed a complex issue, some of our proposals definitely easier to implement than others. We feel there are quick wins to be had, which would be beneficial to the club and to fans. We’ve said we’re more than happy to discuss these in further detail, to ensure momentum is kept up.
Let’s not forget that while we’ve been the mouthpiece for this dialogue, the ideas and proposals have come through discussions with our followers. It’s your opinions that have been taken on board to form these proposals, and we’ll keep working to ensure the club realises that it needs to be more respectful to its loyal support.
Up the Gunners.
Many will be aware that at the end of November we met with the club, giving them an update on the issues we were concerned with as a group and to put forward a number of suggestions where we felt improvements could be made. These ranged from ticketing and seating proposals to the matchday experience for Arsenal fans.
Discussions have been going back and forth with the club since then, as we’ve pressed for an update on the proposals we submitted. With time ticking on and season ticket renewal time visible on the horizon once more, we feel it’s vitally important that the club is pressed as hard as possible when it comes to making improvements for our fans. That’s why we issued a press release a couple of weeks back asking that the club freeze ticket prices for next season and beyond – because the silence from the club to date has been somewhat worrying.
Yesterday we heard from Ivan Gazidis who gave us an update.
Referring to the requests from fans about the matchday experience e.g. dumping ‘The Wonder Of You’ in favour of ‘Good Old Arsenal’ and stopping the cringeworthy ‘shout the names back’ he commented “a couple of your suggestions were adopted around the 125th anniversary game with Everton and since”. Good stuff. We’ve noticed that the ‘shout the names back’ has thankfully gone, although we’ve been informed that Elvis has re-entered the building. Seems someone at the club doesn’t want to let him go.
On to the more important issue of ticketing and seating, he said that these had been passed to a team at Arsenal which is looking into this as a wider project. One thing that has more or less been confirmed however is that the club won’t look at moving away fans to the upper tier because it causes too much hassle for other fans. Seems that the club doesn't want the short term pain, even though it would bring long term gain to our fans.
Regarding ticketing Ivan said “With regard to the ticket review this is still work in progress. It is a hugely complex exercise which is ultimately aimed at making more tickets available at affordable prices. I fully recognise the rising costs faced by our supporters and our challenge is to ensure we balance this with the never-ending (and escalating) pressure we face at the top of the game in terms of rising player fees and wages”. It’s safe to assume that some will say “heard it all before” in response to those comments.
So at the moment it appears that the club aren’t too willing to let us know the progress on any of the ticketing and seating proposals. All we can do is keep pressing them to ensure nothing slips, and we’ve already responded to Ivan reminding him that while ticketing is indeed a complex issue, some of our proposals definitely easier to implement than others. We feel there are quick wins to be had, which would be beneficial to the club and to fans. We’ve said we’re more than happy to discuss these in further detail, to ensure momentum is kept up.
Let’s not forget that while we’ve been the mouthpiece for this dialogue, the ideas and proposals have come through discussions with our followers. It’s your opinions that have been taken on board to form these proposals, and we’ll keep working to ensure the club realises that it needs to be more respectful to its loyal support.
Up the Gunners.