Next : Arsenal Away

[Beefymcfc]

The bonus for any of the top clubs regarding pricing is that once they reach a certain amount of success there will always be someone waiting in the wings to takeover a seat. I think we've kept our ticketing costs to a reasonable level (taking into account the local economy) but we don't know where we'll be in 10 years from now.

For me, Arsenal, and many other clubs, have priced out the 'local' supporter and that happened long ago. It could be said that it has happened with us in respect to those lower wage earners who cannot pay to see a game. Remember, this was a working mans sport where near enough every worker could afford a game and a few pints. Arsenal, however, epitomise where things have turned from looking after your supporters to looking after your clubs bank balance and dividends paid.

What makes this a funny business is that the working man is now the person who has to subscribe to Sky Sports because it's the only way to see at least a few games of top quality football. Whether this be by design or contrived, I'm not sure but Sky have increased their market through clubs upping their prices. The best of both worlds for club and media. They coin it in.

[Risby]

The bonus for any of the top clubs regarding pricing is that once they reach a certain amount of success there will always be someone waiting in the wings to takeover a seat. I think we've kept our ticketing costs to a reasonable level (taking into account the local economy) but we don't know where we'll be in 10 years from now.

For me, Arsenal, and many other clubs, have priced out the 'local' supporter and that happened long ago. It could be said that it has happened with us in respect to those lower wage earners who cannot pay to see a game. Remember, this was a working mans sport where near enough every worker could afford a game and a few pints. Arsenal, however, epitomise where things have turned from looking after your supporters to looking after your clubs bank balance and dividends paid.

What makes this a funny business is that the working man is now the person who has to subscribe to Sky Sports because it's the only way to see at least a few games of top quality football. Whether this be by design or contrived, I'm not sure but Sky have increased their market through clubs upping their prices. The best of both worlds for club and media. They coin it in.

Very true, but even sky will eventually price out the working man. The average sky bill is £79 a month. It won't be long until £100 a month.
I'm glad that we sent the tickets back and I hope it isn't forgotten about by Monday like someone has said. However, I don't think anything will come from us sending them back either.

[zuricity]

Very true, but even sky will eventually price out the working man. The average sky bill is £79 a month. It won't be long until £100 a month.
I'm glad that we sent the tickets back and I hope it isn't forgotten about by Monday like someone has said. However, I don't think anything will come from us sending them back either.

Beefy , the very idea that billionaires are waiting in the wings is a joke! nobody has bought united from those bloodsuckers from Florida.

[Mase]

Very true, but even sky will eventually price out the working man. The average sky bill is £79 a month. It won't be long until £100 a month.
I'm glad that we sent the tickets back and I hope it isn't forgotten about by Monday like someone has said. However, I don't think anything will come from us sending them back either.

Beefy has already cancelled his Sky

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

I think it's good that someone made a stand about the ticket prices. If Arsenal fans aren't going to do it, then it's better City fans (or any set of away fans, for that matter) do. It should get the fat cats in that smoke-filled boardroom thinking about writing cheques their arse can't cash

I agree with that bit.

To change things though it needs Arsenal fans to not buy the returned tickets. A big swath of unsold seats is the only way to get the message across.

To be honest with you chief - and please don't take this personally because you have been a really good contributor here - a lot of Arsenal fans are too busy bitching about us to see what the people running their club are doing to them. Your manager has been as instrumental as anyone in making it all our fault rather than his bosses'. It is an odd thing to do and I fail to see just what Monsieur Bean gets out of it. A share of the profits perhaps? It does nothing other than turning your fans against ours and that does no-one any favours.

It is a shame because football fans are football fans and Arsenal are still an entertaining team to watch, if not always in the way you used to be or in the way you'd like to be.

Definitely Lescott needs to play and not Nastasic. Clichy too and not Kolarov.

I think there were rumblings, whispering of such a boycott when we lost to Swansea. The fact remains, strange as it may seem, that there ARE Arsenal fans waiting in the wings to take up any unpurchased tickets, even if this is in a staggering abundance.

This is when we're playing our worst football since 1995.

We can't even boycott properly :(

Wenger said in yesterday's press conference that he knew he was handing the title to man u when he sold them van persy. Leaving aside that this is not a fait accompli, this means that your manager has sold your best player to the rags to help them win the league. How does that make arsenal fans feel? It certainly tells us a lot about the ambitions of your club and your manager....

[BobbyJ1956]

In case anyone wants to talk about City and Arsenal playing a football match on Sunday instead of the stuff in this thread so far, City need to go there and show some balls and conviction. The only time they've done that at Arsenal in many years was the 1-0 win in the League Cup. Without Aguero and YaYa I don't know if Mancini will send out the kind of team that will take it to them, so my wish is that he starts Balotelli who, whatever his faults, has never played like a wuss.

[Beefymcfc]

Very true, but even sky will eventually price out the working man. The average sky bill is £79 a month. It won't be long until £100 a month.
I'm glad that we sent the tickets back and I hope it isn't forgotten about by Monday like someone has said. However, I don't think anything will come from us sending them back either.

Beefy has already cancelled his Sky

Fucking right! To be fair it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do with regard to City. It kills me to miss the game, such as this season, but to miss the game, the highlights package and everything else is like losing the world. I just love to watch the game from a different angle.

I cancelled out of principle and am still sticking by it.

Although I did mention to to the Mrs today that we could watch the Sergio goal again ;-)

[Beefymcfc]

Very true, but even sky will eventually price out the working man. The average sky bill is £79 a month. It won't be long until £100 a month.
I'm glad that we sent the tickets back and I hope it isn't forgotten about by Monday like someone has said. However, I don't think anything will come from us sending them back either.

Beefy , the very idea that billionaires are waiting in the wings is a joke! nobody has bought united from those bloodsuckers from Florida.

Fucktard, I was talking about supporters ;-)

You have a point though. There's no value in the current market, that's why they're hanging out.

[Mase]

Fucking right! To be fair it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do with regard to City. It kills me to miss the game, such as this season, but to miss the game, the highlights package and everything else is like losing the world. I just love to watch the game from a different angle.

I cancelled out of principle and am still sticking by it.

Although I did mention to to the Mrs today that we could watch the Sergio goal again ;-)

Don't bother mate. The commentators are still as bad.

Plus they're really scraping the barrel with the new movies every week!!

[Beefymcfc]

Fucking right! To be fair it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do with regard to City. It kills me to miss the game, such as this season, but to miss the game, the highlights package and everything else is like losing the world. I just love to watch the game from a different angle.

I cancelled out of principle and am still sticking by it.

Although I did mention to to the Mrs today that we could watch the Sergio goal again ;-)

Don't bother mate. The commentators are still as bad.

Plus they're really scraping the barrel with the new movies every week!!

Cheers pal, the Mrs can feck right off then ;-)

[zuricity]

Fucktard, I was talking about supporters ;-)

You have a point though. There's no value in the current market, that's why they're hanging out.

Aaahhh, Thank you !

[AG7]

Very true, but even sky will eventually price out the working man. The average sky bill is £79 a month. It won't be long until £100 a month.
I'm glad that we sent the tickets back and I hope it isn't forgotten about by Monday like someone has said. However, I don't think anything will come from us sending them back either.

That 'it won't be long' is next season as FA Cup remains with ESPN but they lose their PL games to BT who'll start a new channel and which will be available to Sky as an extra channel, just like ESPN so if you want to have all football (and just UK top tier football that is) you have to take Sky Sports for which you need Sky Basic then add on ESPN for FA Cup and a new BT channel for some of the PL games which won't be on Sky ... It already won't be far off that £100 mark.

[IanWright]

Wenger said in yesterday's press conference that he knew he was handing the title to man u when he sold them van persy. Leaving aside that this is not a fait accompli, this means that your manager has sold your best player to the rags to help them win the league. How does that make arsenal fans feel? It certainly tells us a lot about the ambitions of your club and your manager....

It's been enough, in the past, to lead to the chain of events culminating in the dismissal/voluntary resignation of a manager. See O'Leary's strong stance when Rio Ferdinand was sold to Manchester United from Leeds, or Mourinho's evident displeasure at the acquisition of Shevchenko while at Chelsea.

I'm under the impression that AW must be being paid a heck of a lot of money just to keep quiet, do his job to secure Arsenal in the top 4, keep us in the cash cow that is the Champions League and to try and fill out the stadium by playing something that remotely resembles atractive football. He's said himself that he could "write a book" about the goings-on at Arsenal.

It's absurd to sell your best performing player to the team who finished just above you in the previous season. You want to compete with them, not fall further behind them. The suggestion is that RvC wanted only to move to the Swamp, and not anywhere else, and therefore it becomes difficult to sell him to a club he doesn't want to move to. Well, it isn't. Heinze, for all the world, looked like he was going to Liverpool from Manchester United a few years back, but F***uson made sure such a move didn't materialise. If Juventus were offering a cut-price £8mil for RvC, I say take it. So what if another club are offering £22.5mil? As a fan, I'm not going to see any of that money.

It's another suggestion that we'd done all our business before selling him. Podolski and Giroud were bought with the £22.5mil the club had received from Manchester United. I think that's rubbish, personally.

Anyway, sorry for the digression, but it's clear that I could talk about this situation 'til the cows come home!

[Beefymcfc]

Wenger said in yesterday's press conference that he knew he was handing the title to man u when he sold them van persy. Leaving aside that this is not a fait accompli, this means that your manager has sold your best player to the rags to help them win the league. How does that make arsenal fans feel? It certainly tells us a lot about the ambitions of your club and your manager....

It's been enough, in the past, to lead to the chain of events culminating in the dismissal/voluntary resignation of a manager. See O'Leary's strong stance when Rio Ferdinand was sold to Manchester United from Leeds, or Mourinho's evident displeasure at the acquisition of Shevchenko while at Chelsea.

I'm under the impression that AW must be being paid a heck of a lot of money just to keep quiet, do his job to secure Arsenal in the top 4, keep us in the cash cow that is the Champions League and to try and fill out the stadium by playing something that remotely resembles atractive football. He's said himself that he could "write a book" about the goings-on at Arsenal.

It's absurd to sell your best performing player to the team who finished just above you in the previous season. You want to compete with them, not fall further behind them. The suggestion is that RvC wanted only to move to the Swamp, and not anywhere else, and therefore it becomes difficult to sell him to a club he doesn't want to move to. Well, it isn't. Heinze, for all the world, looked like he was going to Liverpool from Manchester United a few years back, but F***uson made sure such a move didn't materialise. If Juventus were offering a cut-price £8mil for RvC, I say take it. So what if another club are offering £22.5mil? As a fan, I'm not going to see any of that money.

It's another suggestion that we'd done all our business before selling him. Podolski and Giroud were bought with the £22.5mil the club had received from Manchester United. I think that's rubbish, personally.

Anyway, sorry for the digression, but it's clear that I could talk about this situation 'til the cows come home!

You're thinking just as every fan does. It's not about the money, you just get on with supporting your club. The biggest part in this whole event was when Taggart got on the phone to Arsenal to iron the deal out. Now, I can understand that managers talk to each other but in this instance I wonder what was said in the conversation. If Wenger knew he was handing his arse on a plate then what broke the deal?

Look at it from a monetary point of view. Arsenal get 24 mil for their best player but by doing so weaken the side as their game is made for the ball to go to one man. This means that the whole shape of the team has to change to accommodate the new players and also give them time to bed in. Furthermore, there is little or no chance of catching, or even competing against the team you have just come behind in the league as they have only got better; 19 points is a hell of an ask to turn over. In reality it means that where Arsenal were competing for a CL place and were relatively assured one, they are now having to fight it out against much improved and probably far more superior teams this time around. The effect of that is that you may lose the CL place, effectively losing a minimum of 30 mil a season. If RVP had stayed for his last season Arsenal would not have strengthened their rivals and would most probably secured the 30 mil for the following CL therefore making a profit of 6 million.

And that's why I wonder what went on in the conversation between Arsene and Taggart. Was it the aristocracy pulling together to keep their slice of the pie, furthering their resolve for CL and PL FFP? There had to be something, more than money (more than 6 million anyway) that drove Wenger to sell his MVP to their arch rivals. In my opinion anway.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Wenger said in yesterday's press conference that he knew he was handing the title to man u when he sold them van persy. Leaving aside that this is not a fait accompli, this means that your manager has sold your best player to the rags to help them win the league. How does that make arsenal fans feel? It certainly tells us a lot about the ambitions of your club and your manager....

It's been enough, in the past, to lead to the chain of events culminating in the dismissal/voluntary resignation of a manager. See O'Leary's strong stance when Rio Ferdinand was sold to Manchester United from Leeds, or Mourinho's evident displeasure at the acquisition of Shevchenko while at Chelsea.

I'm under the impression that AW must be being paid a heck of a lot of money just to keep quiet, do his job to secure Arsenal in the top 4, keep us in the cash cow that is the Champions League and to try and fill out the stadium by playing something that remotely resembles atractive football. He's said himself that he could "write a book" about the goings-on at Arsenal.

It's absurd to sell your best performing player to the team who finished just above you in the previous season. You want to compete with them, not fall further behind them. The suggestion is that RvC wanted only to move to the Swamp, and not anywhere else, and therefore it becomes difficult to sell him to a club he doesn't want to move to. Well, it isn't. Heinze, for all the world, looked like he was going to Liverpool from Manchester United a few years back, but F***uson made sure such a move didn't materialise. If Juventus were offering a cut-price £8mil for RvC, I say take it. So what if another club are offering £22.5mil? As a fan, I'm not going to see any of that money.

It's another suggestion that we'd done all our business before selling him. Podolski and Giroud were bought with the £22.5mil the club had received from Manchester United. I think that's rubbish, personally.

Anyway, sorry for the digression, but it's clear that I could talk about this situation 'til the cows come home!

You're thinking just as every fan does. It's not about the money, you just get on with supporting your club. The biggest part in this whole event was when Taggart got on the phone to Arsenal to iron the deal out. Now, I can understand that managers talk to each other but in this instance I wonder what was said in the conversation. If Wenger knew he was handing his arse on a plate then what broke the deal?

Look at it from a monetary point of view. Arsenal get 24 mil for their best player but by doing so weaken the side as their game is made for the ball to go to one man. This means that the whole shape of the team has to change to accommodate the new players and also give them time to bed in. Furthermore, there is little or no chance of catching, or even competing against the team you have just come behind in the league as they have only got better; 19 points is a hell of an ask to turn over. In reality it means that where Arsenal were competing for a CL place and were relatively assured one, they are now having to fight it out against much improved and probably far more superior teams this time around. The effect of that is that you may lose the CL place, effectively losing a minimum of 30 mil a season. If RVP had stayed for his last season Arsenal would not have strengthened their rivals and would most probably secured the 30 mil for the following CL therefore making a profit of 6 million.

And that's why I wonder what went on in the conversation between Arsene and Taggart. Was it the aristocracy pulling together to keep their slice of the pie, furthering their resolve for CL and PL FFP? There had to be something, more than money (more than 6 million anyway) that drove Wenger to sell his MVP to their arch rivals. In my opinion anway.

IanWright, glad to see your eyes are wide open to the situation. Beefy sums it up for me - very, very fishy as under no circumstances does this look good for Arsenal.

[Blue Since 76]

For me, Arsenal, and many other clubs, have priced out the 'local' supporter and that happened long ago. It could be said that it has happened with us in respect to those lower wage earners who cannot pay to see a game.

Beefy, can't accept that criticism of City of all clubs. Our season tickets are capped at about 38,000 plus away fans means there's always about 5000 tickets available for each game. Yes, if you want to go to the derby or against one of the bigger clubs it'll cost more but there will be heap games available. Add into that I went with two kids to the Watford game for £17 total, something I don't think we got credit for, or the fact it was a sell out.

On top of that, there are the basic, can't pick your seat season tickets for £250. A kids season ticket is £115 - I got an adult, child & senior citizen plus a parking pass for about £900 for this season, less than the cheapest adult ticket at Arsenal to watch the current champions every week. Not saying £900 is an insignificant amount for many, but I bet it's not far off the equivalent if 50 years ago if you just look at the adult + kid ticket.

Football can be expensive and many clubs have taken the piss out of fans, especially of their traditional fan base, but City aren't one. So far, anyway

[Beefymcfc]

For me, Arsenal, and many other clubs, have priced out the 'local' supporter and that happened long ago. It could be said that it has happened with us in respect to those lower wage earners who cannot pay to see a game.

Beefy, can't accept that criticism of City of all clubs. Our season tickets are capped at about 38,000 plus away fans means there's always about 5000 tickets available for each game. Yes, if you want to go to the derby or against one of the bigger clubs it'll cost more but there will be heap games available. Add into that I went with two kids to the Watford game for £17 total, something I don't think we got credit for, or the fact it was a sell out.

On top of that, there are the basic, can't pick your seat season tickets for £250. A kids season ticket is £115 - I got an adult, child & senior citizen plus a parking pass for about £900 for this season, less than the cheapest adult ticket at Arsenal to watch the current champions every week. Not saying £900 is an insignificant amount for many, but I bet it's not far off the equivalent if 50 years ago if you just look at the adult + kid ticket.

Football can be expensive and many clubs have taken the piss out of fans, especially of their traditional fan base, but City aren't one. So far, anyway

I totally agree and believe our club are doing a gleaming job in relation to prices but if you read my full post I'm not just talking about the modern game. I mention that it used to be a working mans game where everybody could go and see their team, regardless of whether they were well off or not.

[Ted Hughes]

Leeds sell Cantona to Utd. Newcastle sell Cole to Utd. Arsenal sell RVP to Utd.

Same shit.

[DoomMerchant]

Leeds sell Cantona to Utd. Newcastle sell Cole to Utd. Arsenal sell RVP to Utd.

Same shit.

Thankfully tho it's their youth policy that has built their legacy. They grow them from saplings.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Leeds sell Cantona to Utd. Newcastle sell Cole to Utd. Arsenal sell RVP to Utd.

Same shit.

Newcastle improved as a result. But I get your point.