Meeting with Arsenal FC
3 May 2011
Today we met with representatives of Arsenal Football Club at Highbury House.
The meeting was in essence a 'meet and greet' where the club could get some background to our group, find out who runs the group, and discover the kind of things we'd like to address with the club.
Overall the discussions were very positive and good news, as it seems the club are keen to have further talks with us and look at our suggestions and thoughts as to how they can ensure that loyal, long-term fans don't continue to be priced out of watching their beloved Arsenal. They recognise the type of supporter we're trying to look after and seem concerned that the link to long-term support is in danger of being lost... thereby running a huge risk of our future generations not following this club.
Of course this afternoon the announcement was made that the club is pressing ahead with increases of 6.5% on the price of our season tickets for the 2011/12 season. Naturally that's very disappointing and while we feel that these rises aren't necessary and will only serve to force out more loyal fans, we want to make sure that measures are put in place in the future which limit this as much as possible.
We'll therefore push on with our suggestions and aims for the club to introduce measures which will help fans continue to come and watch Arsenal matches; be it through instalments to pay for season tickets, the chance to downgrade to a cheaper season ticket, the chance to downgrade from Gold to Silver membership etc.
In summary, a very good meeting and a positive start to our relationship with the club. We look forward to future meetings and discussions to ensure we protect our core support.
Today we met with representatives of Arsenal Football Club at Highbury House.
The meeting was in essence a 'meet and greet' where the club could get some background to our group, find out who runs the group, and discover the kind of things we'd like to address with the club.
Overall the discussions were very positive and good news, as it seems the club are keen to have further talks with us and look at our suggestions and thoughts as to how they can ensure that loyal, long-term fans don't continue to be priced out of watching their beloved Arsenal. They recognise the type of supporter we're trying to look after and seem concerned that the link to long-term support is in danger of being lost... thereby running a huge risk of our future generations not following this club.
Of course this afternoon the announcement was made that the club is pressing ahead with increases of 6.5% on the price of our season tickets for the 2011/12 season. Naturally that's very disappointing and while we feel that these rises aren't necessary and will only serve to force out more loyal fans, we want to make sure that measures are put in place in the future which limit this as much as possible.
We'll therefore push on with our suggestions and aims for the club to introduce measures which will help fans continue to come and watch Arsenal matches; be it through instalments to pay for season tickets, the chance to downgrade to a cheaper season ticket, the chance to downgrade from Gold to Silver membership etc.
In summary, a very good meeting and a positive start to our relationship with the club. We look forward to future meetings and discussions to ensure we protect our core support.