The Goon Thread

[Baleforce]

results are the be all and end all, the more money you make, the better the players on the pitch, the better the players the better the results

I think £'s have more influence on performance than atmosphere

 

[Baleforce]

and...

this is arsenal, there could be quarter of a million people there and the atmosphere would be ****, 80% attendance and 99% sales at those prices are worth more to the club long term than 99% attendance with cheap tickets

 

[7percent]

The reality of attendances at Arsenal can be revealed today, after the club conceded 120,000 seats were left unoccupied during last season.

Official figures released by the Gunners have recently been based on the number of tickets sold, rather than the number of supporters physically entering through the turnstiles on matchdays.

Consequently, attendances announced during matches have often caused consternation, given the total is almost always very close to the stadium’s capacity of 60,338 despite readily identifiable empty seats.

The club confirmed an average attendance of 59,786 last season but the figure according to the Metropolitan Police was 53,788 — nearly 6,000 lower, totalling 173,945 more empty seats at Emirates Stadium over the course of the year than officially claimed.

This information was obtained by an Arsenal supporter and blogger named ‘John B’, who applied for the accurate figures under the Freedom of Information Act. The Met Police responded to his request with a full spreadsheet claiming that, on average, 6,550 seats were left empty during each of Arsenal’s 29 home games last season.

However, Arsenal categorically state the Met Police figures are inaccurate. They insist those numbers include only supporters going through the turnstiles and not those entering through the stadium car parks into VIP areas, executive boxes and other hospitality areas.

They conduct their own internal attendance counts and believe the total figure is closer to 120,000, which equates to more than 4,000 unused seats at every game or two matches per season played in an empty stadium.

A club spokesman told Standard Sport: “The vast majority of matches are sold out but, of course, we want to see the stadium full for every match. We are working hard to make sure people who buy tickets actually attend the matches and are developing a number of systems to help fans unable to attend matches sell their tickets in advance.”

Not in dispute, however, is the existence of a disparity between tickets sold and actual attendances. This is, of course, not a problem exclusive to Arsenal with many clubs increasing the levels of corporate hospitality and executive areas which generates revenue but does not guarantee the same loyalty as a regular supporter.

Arsenal are one such club believed to have thousands of season ticket holders who attend only a handful of times a season.

To combat the problem, they have introduced a Ticket Exchange service where unwanted tickets can be resold. The club believe 40,500 tickets were reassigned through this method last season but one ongoing criticism of the system is that sellers cannot set the price of their tickets and instead must be resold at face value.

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust believe it may be necessary for the club to revoke season tickets from members who only sporadically attend games.

“The AST have been raising this issue with Arsenal for a long time and progress is now being made,” an AST spokesman told Standard Sport. “We have urged them to make real investment into improving their ticket exchange arrangements and to incentivise the use of tickets by allocating Cup Final tickets to those who go to most games and they say this is something they’d like to do when technology allows.

“It may even be time to consider removing season tickets from those who rarely attend

The quotes in this (source?) suggests that Arsenal are wilfully lying to the emergency services.

It's far fetched I know, but if there is a major disaster at Arsenal and 59,000 escape unharmed then it's risking the lives of emergency services entering the stadium to rescue a 'phantom' 1,000 people who may not even be there. The figures given to the met police should be wholy accurate and if they're not then someone is a massive c*** and should get the sack.

EDIT: there are no quotes, I misread it, it's this paragraph that I find worrying;

However, Arsenal categorically state the Met Police figures are inaccurate. They insist those numbers include only supporters going through the turnstiles and not those entering through the stadium car parks into VIP areas, executive boxes and other hospitality areas.

If the police genuinely don't know how many people are in the stadium then what are they going to do in a disaster situation?

 

[Baleforce]

it doesn't work like that, they don't count people out, they clear zones

 

[7percent]

it doesn't work like that, they don't count people out, they clear zones

I know they won't count everyone out but up to date numbers would still be useful to the police in terms of crowd control, staffing, etc etc.

In a worst case scenario if there was a bomb or a partial stadium collapse and nobody knew for certain if they were going in to find 10 people buried in the rubble or 200..

my point is it's actually really irresponsible to not provide the police with exact number of people in the stadium on a match day and it should be part of their events/stadium licence/conditions to provide the police with such numbers.

 

[Rorschach]

I know they won't count everyone out but up to date numbers would still be useful to the police in terms of crowd control, staffing, etc etc.

In a worst case scenario if there was a bomb or a partial stadium collapse and nobody knew for certain if they were going in to find 10 people buried in the rubble or 200..

my point is it's actually really irresponsible to not provide the police with exact number of people in the stadium on a match day and it should be part of their events/stadium licence/conditions to provide the police with such numbers.

Worst case? :-k


(sorry - that's bad of me)

 

[Baleforce]

I know they won't count everyone out but up to date numbers would still be useful to the police in terms of crowd control, staffing, etc etc.

In a worst case scenario if there was a bomb or a partial stadium collapse and nobody knew for certain if they were going in to find 10 people buried in the rubble or 200..

my point is it's actually really irresponsible to not provide the police with exact number of people in the stadium on a match day and it should be part of their events/stadium licence/conditions to provide the police with such numbers.

agreed, although they probably do give the police a different number to the ones they put out for PR

 

[billyiddo]

clubs have to know exactly how many people are in the ground i would imagine, so they wouldn't need to do any extra work to announce the correct number.


it only bothers me because attendance = how many people at the game, not how many tickets sold

 

[Baleforce]

i'm sure they know, its like when Samsung say how many galaxy tab's they shipped to shops rather than how many they actually sold to customers

its not info, its advertising

 

[Mr_B]

Winning the FA cup may have seen the woolwich breathe a big sigh of relief but I think its going to cost them, it kept wenger in a job and while he's kept them in the CL every year, there's no progression under him, he played Ozil out of position a lot last year, the german sulked and was anonymous in a few games, fabregas very quickly decided not to rejoin his supposed "mentor", you dont see that many 65 year olds in coaching jobs anymore unless their trophy haul is recent and very impressive, how many years since they won the league now ?

 

[glorygloryeze]

Winning the FA cup may have seen the woolwich breathe a big sigh of relief but I think its going to cost them, it kept wenger in a job and while he's kept them in the CL every year, there's no progression under him, he played Ozil out of position a lot last year, the german sulked and was anonymous in a few games, fabregas very quickly decided not to rejoin his supposed "mentor", you dont see that many 65 year olds in coaching jobs anymore unless their trophy haul is recent and very impressive, how many years since they won the league now ?

That's an interesting view; can you elaborate please?
In your opinion where/what is Ozil's best position, and where did Wenger play him last season? I'd also be very interested on how this differed to the position that Ozil plays for Germany.

Very interesting...

 

[Superted]

He didn't play Ozil out of position. He's just not that good.

 

[Spursalot]

He didn't play Ozil out of position. He's just not that good.

I'd have to side with this. He wasn't particularly consistent last season, and his flashes of brilliance were rare.

In addition he looked poor at the World Cup, out of place in a spectacular German side.


Could be a case of an average player looking good in a team of brilliant players? Time will tell.

 

[Roy1983]

I know we got one today but **** ME do these pricks get a lot of late goals.

 

[ShelfLife]

I know we got one today but **** ME do these pricks get a lot of late goals.

I think its is something you have to (begrudgingly) give them credit for. It happens far too often to be able to put it down to luck. The things strikes me is that the Arsenal players so often seem to have energy to spare in the last 10 or 15 minutes of the game. Indeed, bizarrely, they seem to be able to finish a game at a much quicker tempo than when they begin. It means they are able to turn the screw on their often exhausted opponents in the latter stages of the game, hence their happy knack of scoring late winners/equalizers.

 

[Superted]

In spite of all the ****erry over Sanchez and Errrrrrrzil, Ramsey is clearly their best player and probably top 2 or 3 in the league. Just wish Real Madrid could recognise that and get him out if there ASAP.

 

[Roy1983]

In spite of all the ****erry over Sanchez and Errrrrrrzil, Ramsey is clearly their best player and probably top 2 or 3 in the league. Just wish Real Madrid could recognise that and get him out if there ASAP.

I can't agree. He's ok but not out of this world IMO just like Wheelchair.

 

[Superted]

Just look at what they're like with him compared to without him. He completes them. Just need Real to show them the money.

 

[markysimmo]

Just seen the big flags behind the goals a la Chelsea, MEGA LOLZ !!!!!!

 

[milo]

I can't agree. He's ok but not out of this world IMO just like Wheelchair.

I think that Ramsey is leagues ahead of Wheelchair. With everyone fit, I don't think that Wheelchair starts for them, Ramsey would be one of the first names on the team sheet.