This weekend Arsenal take on West Brom in the penultimate game of the season as the race for fourth place is still on but it could be a bittersweet day for the club as a huge amount of fans are planning to protest against the 3% ticket price increase before the game.
@Arsenal_Anon on Twitter are organising a protest walk from Bear roundabout to the Directors entrance. Their full statement says this:
“Next Sunday (4th May), we will be taking action outside the Directors Entrance before the West Brom game to let the custodians know our feelings on the upcoming ticket price rise. We’ll be meeting at 12.30pm by Bear Roundabout (opposite the Armoury) & ask all like minded Arsenal fans to join us in this protest which is related solely to 3% increase and against Stan Kroenke.
We are not protesting against Arsenal, because we the fans are Arsenal. We are protesting against a greedy billionaire owner who has done nothing but take advantage of the supporters. To quote a better American by the name of Thomas Jeffrerson – ‘the truest form patriotism is dissent’
Despite Premier League clubs receiving extra TV revenue of up to 70%, Stan Kroenke has decided to continue to hit the fans with the highest ticket prices in world football. It’s believed that Arsenal have a cash surplus of £100million. If anything, prices should be going down – not up. Maintaining the status quo on ticket pricing would be bad enough – as it’s already too high for too many hard up Arsenal supporters. In recent years the traditional fan base has been priced out and cast aside to be replaced by the affluent. Those diehard fans which have stayed on are making a sacrifice to their finances, that is now close to breaking point.
So to increase the prices by a further 3% is an abomination and must be met with visible resistance at the stadium.
If we don’t tell the club they are wrong to increase prices, then why shouldn’t they feel justified in making us pay more?
Succeed or fail, it’s time to take action and make a stand. Whether it’s 1000 of us or 10 of us, we go out on our shield. Whether we win or lose, we can say that we made a stand for our club whilst others sided with apathy.
Our protest is unrelated to how good or bad the team is doing. Even if we were the European Champions we would take this action because Arsenal fans are being priced out by billionaires, of whose bellies are more than full.
Up the Arsenal”
As Arsenal fans we have had to endure a lot over the last few years, not winning a trophy, selling all our best players to our rival clubs and not re-investing the money wisely, the board and management continuously maintaining a ‘silent’ reputation towards issues raised by fans and then we come to money.
For years we have invested our hard earned cash into the club, through many avenues-tickets, merchandise, memberships, food and beverages inside the ground on match days and it all adds up, we pay that money week in and week out because we love and support our club so time and investment comes with that support but the Arsenal board have got far too greedy over the past few years.
The board and Wenger say we are a different type of club because they play the game right by not spending £200m every summer on players like Chelsea and Man City and they look their nose down at clubs like that all the time and back FFP, but let’s just have a look at how both of those teams treat their fans.
Chelsea’s seasons tickets were always right near the top in terms of prices but when Abramovich bought the club he reduced the season tickets to a flat rate of £500 and they have only increased in price by £95 in 11 years.
Man City’s seasons tickets are even cheaper at £300-£600 mark and haven’t increased a huge amount since they won the league a few years back or since Sheikh Mansour bought out the club.
In fact both clubs reward loyalty amongst their fans and not too mentioned they have both won trophies in the last 8 years.
The Arsenal board have no right to rise ticket prices so high, they are not in line with inflation and even if they were why on earth should we be expected to pay over the odds for a team that are rarely competing at a high enough level and where our investment is never seen. The board don’t utilise our money well, we might look like we have a great financial stability but the fact is we are a football club and not a bank or a corporation and they are not showing us where our money is going.
We spend our money and we expect the board to do the same and not continuously overcharge us prices and disrespect the love we have for our club. They are taking full advantage of us and they should be confronted on it until something is changed.
Whether you agree with protesting or you don’t it’s time to take a stand, even if you can afford the ticket price rise, even if you don’t care whether others can’t go, no matter what your opinion on any other Arsenal issues are you have to join together and unite with all fans against the ticket price rise, it is our club and we should not be paying an extra 3% next year, make it affordable for ALL fans to attend and bring back the community atmosphere we once had.
We have the highest prices in the league but yet we’re 4th every year, when we win the league or buy some world class players then the rise is justified until then it’s not.
Time for us to forget our woes and concentrate on not letting our club slip in the corporate hands that are currently holding it and get our club back. Herbert Chapman must be turning in his grave looking at these tickets prices.