This article had appeared in the Christmas 2009 edition of the Gooner Magazine.
http://www.onlinegooner.com/covers/index.php?id=201
A quarter of a century ago this Christmas Michael Burke had made a news report with the honest intention of telling things as he saw it, but sadly for all his good intentions he was unable to foresee an unintended consequence of his actions, I myself have a similar feeling 25 years on. Many have accused the effect of Band Aid and Live Aid on the music scene in the late 80s as being good for Ethiopia but ultimately bad for music, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hnPsQX6qVM) but the one thing that surely eases anything that might be remotely troubling the conscience of Michael Burke toward poor up and coming wannabe musicians is that his piece was not proceeded by the introduction 'Michael Burke now reports on whatever happened to the that bloke from the Boomtown Rats?'.
It's rumoured that sometime in the early 90s David Dein had considered the Gooner Magazine such a potent thread he regularly sent people out from the office to purchase a copy in order to get some feeling of what the 'word on the street' was in order to be one step ahead of the game. Whether this practice is still followed is anyone's guess; however back in September I had wrote an article in the Gooner describing the phenomena over the last ten years of pubs in the areas surrounding the ground showing pirate coverage of Arsenal games via foreign satellite. The Gooner had misunderstood my reasons behind the article stating in the sub heading that I urged the club to act in the face of this competition; however nothing could be further from the truth.
The last thing I had wanted was a club sanctioned response to this phenomenon. The appeal of the pubs showing pirate coverage was always that whatever the condition of the bathwater at least we still had the baby intact, something that is more difficult to say about the E******* Stadium and least of all the club level. In all honesty my conscience may be at peace with the fact that in reality I would have more chance of getting a blow job from the pope than bringing something to the attention of the club's board via my article. Despite this I am pretty certain that the club’s move to show non UK televised away matches in the club level against Sunderland in November and Burnley in December to members is definitely a way of generating income in response to the very competition I wrote about back in September. At the very least it’s designed to deny such an income from the pirate bars. I had decided to attend to the showing of the Burnley match in the club level, open to members, in order to compare and contrast with the regular pirate experience enjoyed in the nearby establishments.
Very often with watching games on a plasma screen in a bar there is a feeling deep down that you really wish you were there at the game, however on a freezing cold snowy December night at the notoriously cold Turf Moor 'oop norf' I'm satisfied to be somewhere warm and dry in London. Entry had been £5 with a token for food and drink, which is very similar to the idea of drink tokens for entrance fee policy employed by some of the pub pirates. As the game kicked off though the bar had been woefully under staffed and had to watch the first quarter of an hour of the match (the only good bit from an Arsenal point of view) standing in a queue. Though I could still see a screen, it was still annoying nonetheless. At least I had the joy and undoubted kudos of standing behind the famous/infamous (deleted as appropriate) Highbury Spy of Gooner Magazine fame while he was queuing at the bar.
The price of alcohol at the bar had also been at the usual rip off match day prices of around £3.50 a pint. Oddly my experience of the pirate bars have been much less this year due to the ability to obtain match day tickets at the Grove, though on the rare times that I have I’ve noticed that the price of a pint has surpassed the £3.00 barrier. This may be an indication that even they know their time may be short-lived in the long run and are seeking to maximize their income while they still can.
Overall though, one reason for the success of the pirates over the past decade is the feeling of free expression long since lost to match day attendance. Granted some parts of the experience should have long expired, but again we’re back to the baby and the bathwater scenario. Some fans had tried to raise a singsong during the match in the same manner as what occurs in the pirate bars; however it felt like telling blue jokes at your grandma’s on Boxing Day. The activity is always a joy, it just happens to be wrong and inappropriate in the surroundings you happen to be in.
At half time I went down to the window over looking the pitch, observing the how the club retains its magic carpet all years round with the quite possibly non-environmentally sound ultra violet lamps. While conversing with two middle-aged gents on observation of what an incredibly great view of the pitch you enjoy in club level, we had then proceeded to talk about the club level itself. One despite claiming he first came to Arsenal at a Fairs Cup game in 1969 didn’t exactly fit the archetypal proletarian old skool footie fan and also admitted that he was a ‘business’ man. He did though say something that was right on the money – that Gazidis’s ‘Arsenalization’ project had yet to reach here and you do not see much to do with Arsenal inside the club level. Yes it can be said that this is the corporate part of the ground not the Arsenal part, however surely its ‘Arsenal-ness’ and the stature of the club is what sells the club level, otherwise these people would all be at Selhurst Park or Loftus Road instead. A few pictures of Tony Adams or Frank McLintock holding a trophy surely wouldn’t go a miss?
Poor result and poor atmosphere, were there any positives to this evening? Well there was one - the ability to get on a train at the nearest station to the ground. Ivan Gazidis had said in a Q&A with the Supporters Trust that Arsenal had two undeniable assets – Arsene Wenger and the ground. I’d like to add a third to Ivan’s list from leftfield – how about a national rail station almost on top of the stadium that heads right out to Hertfordshire on one side and down to Moorgate on the other, in close proximity to connecting station out to Essex like Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street? Drayton Park (below) was always used on match days in the mid 80s, yet rightfully is too dangerous to use in this safety conscious post-Hillsborough age due to the puny space on the platform. Quite why no-one has decided to upgrade this station after three years of the new stadium is anyone’s guess, especially as either side of the track seems to be just shrubbery and that an extended platform can be easily achieved.
Overall though, one reason for the success of the pirates over the past decade is the feeling of free expression long since lost to match day attendance. Granted some parts of the experience should have long expired, but again we’re back to the baby and the bathwater scenario. Some fans had tried to raise a singsong during the match in the same manner as what occurs in the pirate bars; however it felt like telling blue jokes at your grandma’s on Boxing Day. The activity is always a joy, it just happens to be wrong and inappropriate in the surroundings you happen to be in.
At half time I went down to the window over looking the pitch, observing the how the club retains its magic carpet all years round with the quite possibly non-environmentally sound ultra violet lamps. While conversing with two middle-aged gents on observation of what an incredibly great view of the pitch you enjoy in club level, we had then proceeded to talk about the club level itself. One despite claiming he first came to Arsenal at a Fairs Cup game in 1969 didn’t exactly fit the archetypal proletarian old skool footie fan and also admitted that he was a ‘business’ man. He did though say something that was right on the money – that Gazidis’s ‘Arsenalization’ project had yet to reach here and you do not see much to do with Arsenal inside the club level. Yes it can be said that this is the corporate part of the ground not the Arsenal part, however surely its ‘Arsenal-ness’ and the stature of the club is what sells the club level, otherwise these people would all be at Selhurst Park or Loftus Road instead. A few pictures of Tony Adams or Frank McLintock holding a trophy surely wouldn’t go a miss?
Poor result and poor atmosphere, were there any positives to this evening? Well there was one - the ability to get on a train at the nearest station to the ground. Ivan Gazidis had said in a Q&A with the Supporters Trust that Arsenal had two undeniable assets – Arsene Wenger and the ground. I’d like to add a third to Ivan’s list from leftfield – how about a national rail station almost on top of the stadium that heads right out to Hertfordshire on one side and down to Moorgate on the other, in close proximity to connecting station out to Essex like Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street? Drayton Park (below) was always used on match days in the mid 80s, yet rightfully is too dangerous to use in this safety conscious post-Hillsborough age due to the puny space on the platform. Quite why no-one has decided to upgrade this station after three years of the new stadium is anyone’s guess, especially as either side of the track seems to be just shrubbery and that an extended platform can be easily achieved.
The upgrade to Drayton Park is something the club needs both practically and image wise. We are continually embarrassed on a weekly basis as the crowd empties out long before full time. However, as someone who stays until the end and needs to travel in excess of 30 miles home to the Essex sticks the journey can take as long as 3 hours to get back, which is not good on a work night. Maybe in this era of tight spending both the club and the top people from TFL might not care much for people from the Home Counties stuck in a queue to get into Highbury & Islington in the pouring rain of a cold winter’s night? They could do much to help us in our plight but I fear their attitude may be to keep one eye on their profit margins and bloated salaries and simply say ‘tonight thank god it’s them instead of us’.
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