Podcasts & meetings: a Highbury Harold view
21 February 2012
First things first...
Last night Kelvin from the BSM made a guest appearance on the excellent Footballistically Arsenal podcast to discuss recent goings on at the club, and to let their listeners know a bit about our group and what we do - and don't (!) - stand for. Is Arsene Wenger becoming the new Brian Clough? Quite possibly, but as also mentioned by the AST's Tim Payton earlier in the day on TalkSport, the management team of Wenger, Rice and Primorac could do with freshening up. Dan Baldwin and Boyd Hilton were there to talk about all this and to get Kelvin's view. Visit the iTunes App Store where you can download this as well as the previous podcasts from Footballistically Arsenal, or go here http://playbackmedia.co.uk/footballistically-arsenal/.
I'd suggest that those who still maintain we're a Wenger Out group listen to Kelvin's "wrong, wrong, wrong" comment. And listen to it again. And again. After that if you still think we're a Wenger Out protest group, then to quote an old Public Enemy song "I can't do nuttin' for ya, man".
Talking of the AST, last night they held the latest of their regular members' meetings. Kelvin was there too - dashing from the podcast recording to be there at the meeting. He's one committed fella!
I'm not going to go into detail about what was discussed, because many will have seen it repeated "over and over and over again" last night, as various people did battle to out-tweet each other. A lot of what was mentioned we already knew, had already heard or had already guessed. However there were a couple of things that stood out for me, both from the meeting and Tim's comments earlier on the radio:
1. ASTs view that failing to qualify for the Champions League could see Arsenal fall foul of FFP.
2. AST suggesting that they may be starting to question the management of the club and team.
The first one is a shocker. For the Board to consistently bang the self sustainability drum and deride others who stand to break FFP rules, this stinks of hypocrisy. To take our eye off the ball so badly because of (yes I know I've used this line before!) the short-sighted dash for cash while failing to consider the potential longer term damage to the club... well to me that's negligence of the highest order and it's nothing other than mis-mangement. But still, the Board have become very rich thanks to the miracles worked by Mr Wenger in achieving Champions League football with minimal outlay - even though that gravy train could crash off the tracks this season in a big way. Once we're out, it could be very very hard to get back in.
On Tim's comments earlier yesterday (the Wenger / Rice / Primorac management team is in need of freshening up) I have to agree. It's been there since 1996 and we know that Wenger convinced Pat Rice to stay on another year when he was due to retire last summer. Does Arsene not like change? It's not harmed Manchester United under Ferguson, has it? Kidd, Queiroz, Gibson... never afraid of change and they've been consistently challenging and winning titles since 1993. While at Arsenal, we're going stale with many comparing our situation now with the end of George Graham's reign.
I have to applaud the AST for questioning the management at the club. For a long time, certain supporters groups have been accused of cosying up to the club far too much and being too scared to speak up. From the start of our group we've always been of the view that if something needs to be said then we'll say it, and it's therefore refreshing to see the AST openly raising concerns. The club may not like criticism but it can be valuable and influence change for the better.
While last night's AST meeting was taking place, AISA sent round a communication to confirm their stance on ticketing and to announce that they (like AST) would also be meeting with the club later this week. Here's what they sent round...
AISA continues to work on its priority campaign. Following the publication of the AISA 10-point ticketing and loyalty plan, discussions have continued with the Club, and more recently AISA called for owner Stan Kroenke and chief executive, Ivan Gazidis to agree a price freeze for the 2012-13 season. Now a meeting with the Club has been arranged to take place at The Emirates Stadium later this week. The primary issues that AISA wants to discuss include 2012-13 ticket price freeze, discounts for season-ticket holders, improvements to the Family Enclosure and a staged payments scheme.
Price freeze? Agree with that, in fact we put out a press release in January calling for the very same. I believe the AST will be making that suggestion to the club as well, later this week.
Discounts for season ticket holders would be nice and while we'd all love a price reduction, personally I can't see it happening. I do agree though that the club needs to work much harder to reward loyalty. There's pretty much no incentives any more for being a season ticket holder, other than having the season ticket itself. Only thing is, the waiting list will be more invisible than Kroenke at an Arsenal match before long, so where's the status symbol of being a season ticket holder?
Staged payments for season tickets is one we've already put to the club, but AISA's version would see payments spread over a much longer period. Before we gave our suggestion to the club we did consider a longer repayment period but were of the view that the scheme stood more chance of being implemented if the club stood to rake in the cash as quickly as possible. Hence our 1 June, July and 1 August idea i.e. all tickets paid for before the new season begins.
I'd like the other groups to push Ivan Gazidis on this so-called ticketing review, as we've done. We were told that the Marketing team at the club are doing this review (not sure why Marketing, but there you go) and we await any kind of real update. The club told us the outcome would be published towards the end of this season, but pressure has to be suitably applied otherwise it could be brushed under the carpet in some way.
Whatever your view on the various supporter groups around, they all work for the benefit of Arsenal fans. And it's not as if the people running these groups never speak. We know people from AST, AISA and redAction and moving forward I can see more joint campaigns.
Up The Gunners.
First things first...
Last night Kelvin from the BSM made a guest appearance on the excellent Footballistically Arsenal podcast to discuss recent goings on at the club, and to let their listeners know a bit about our group and what we do - and don't (!) - stand for. Is Arsene Wenger becoming the new Brian Clough? Quite possibly, but as also mentioned by the AST's Tim Payton earlier in the day on TalkSport, the management team of Wenger, Rice and Primorac could do with freshening up. Dan Baldwin and Boyd Hilton were there to talk about all this and to get Kelvin's view. Visit the iTunes App Store where you can download this as well as the previous podcasts from Footballistically Arsenal, or go here http://playbackmedia.co.uk/footballistically-arsenal/.
I'd suggest that those who still maintain we're a Wenger Out group listen to Kelvin's "wrong, wrong, wrong" comment. And listen to it again. And again. After that if you still think we're a Wenger Out protest group, then to quote an old Public Enemy song "I can't do nuttin' for ya, man".
Talking of the AST, last night they held the latest of their regular members' meetings. Kelvin was there too - dashing from the podcast recording to be there at the meeting. He's one committed fella!
I'm not going to go into detail about what was discussed, because many will have seen it repeated "over and over and over again" last night, as various people did battle to out-tweet each other. A lot of what was mentioned we already knew, had already heard or had already guessed. However there were a couple of things that stood out for me, both from the meeting and Tim's comments earlier on the radio:
1. ASTs view that failing to qualify for the Champions League could see Arsenal fall foul of FFP.
2. AST suggesting that they may be starting to question the management of the club and team.
The first one is a shocker. For the Board to consistently bang the self sustainability drum and deride others who stand to break FFP rules, this stinks of hypocrisy. To take our eye off the ball so badly because of (yes I know I've used this line before!) the short-sighted dash for cash while failing to consider the potential longer term damage to the club... well to me that's negligence of the highest order and it's nothing other than mis-mangement. But still, the Board have become very rich thanks to the miracles worked by Mr Wenger in achieving Champions League football with minimal outlay - even though that gravy train could crash off the tracks this season in a big way. Once we're out, it could be very very hard to get back in.
On Tim's comments earlier yesterday (the Wenger / Rice / Primorac management team is in need of freshening up) I have to agree. It's been there since 1996 and we know that Wenger convinced Pat Rice to stay on another year when he was due to retire last summer. Does Arsene not like change? It's not harmed Manchester United under Ferguson, has it? Kidd, Queiroz, Gibson... never afraid of change and they've been consistently challenging and winning titles since 1993. While at Arsenal, we're going stale with many comparing our situation now with the end of George Graham's reign.
I have to applaud the AST for questioning the management at the club. For a long time, certain supporters groups have been accused of cosying up to the club far too much and being too scared to speak up. From the start of our group we've always been of the view that if something needs to be said then we'll say it, and it's therefore refreshing to see the AST openly raising concerns. The club may not like criticism but it can be valuable and influence change for the better.
While last night's AST meeting was taking place, AISA sent round a communication to confirm their stance on ticketing and to announce that they (like AST) would also be meeting with the club later this week. Here's what they sent round...
AISA continues to work on its priority campaign. Following the publication of the AISA 10-point ticketing and loyalty plan, discussions have continued with the Club, and more recently AISA called for owner Stan Kroenke and chief executive, Ivan Gazidis to agree a price freeze for the 2012-13 season. Now a meeting with the Club has been arranged to take place at The Emirates Stadium later this week. The primary issues that AISA wants to discuss include 2012-13 ticket price freeze, discounts for season-ticket holders, improvements to the Family Enclosure and a staged payments scheme.
Price freeze? Agree with that, in fact we put out a press release in January calling for the very same. I believe the AST will be making that suggestion to the club as well, later this week.
Discounts for season ticket holders would be nice and while we'd all love a price reduction, personally I can't see it happening. I do agree though that the club needs to work much harder to reward loyalty. There's pretty much no incentives any more for being a season ticket holder, other than having the season ticket itself. Only thing is, the waiting list will be more invisible than Kroenke at an Arsenal match before long, so where's the status symbol of being a season ticket holder?
Staged payments for season tickets is one we've already put to the club, but AISA's version would see payments spread over a much longer period. Before we gave our suggestion to the club we did consider a longer repayment period but were of the view that the scheme stood more chance of being implemented if the club stood to rake in the cash as quickly as possible. Hence our 1 June, July and 1 August idea i.e. all tickets paid for before the new season begins.
I'd like the other groups to push Ivan Gazidis on this so-called ticketing review, as we've done. We were told that the Marketing team at the club are doing this review (not sure why Marketing, but there you go) and we await any kind of real update. The club told us the outcome would be published towards the end of this season, but pressure has to be suitably applied otherwise it could be brushed under the carpet in some way.
Whatever your view on the various supporter groups around, they all work for the benefit of Arsenal fans. And it's not as if the people running these groups never speak. We know people from AST, AISA and redAction and moving forward I can see more joint campaigns.
Up The Gunners.
