NickF wrote: ↑Sun Dec 15, 2019 11:28 pm
Gunner Rob wrote: ↑Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:51 pm
If Kroenke sees the supporters sitting there every week then why should he bother to do anything ?
Do you honestly think he cares?
His investment is worth less simply because we are not in the champions league, if that is not motivation enough, why should he care whether people turn up every week.
Long gone are the days when bums on seats actually meant something,
you earn far more from TV rights nowadays.
Good point Nick and I agree with your other responses.
I see the let’s blame the ST holders thing is back again
In all seriousness, I do understand the argument – but the point often missed is that there are many reasons people have season tickets at Arsenal and some wig wearing parasite owner who doesn’t give a f-ck about football isn’t reason enough on its own to give up something that’s been part of your life long before he was even heard of.
My dad reached his 60 years attendance mark at Arsenal a few weeks ago. For the first time he is hinting at calling it a day but that’s more to do with inconvenient kick off times and the increasing hassle of getting to the ground than what’s happening on the pitch.
And the pain in the arse kick off times thing brings me to another point. A lot of people have a pop at ST holders for lining Stan’s pockets. I understand why but in a different way, many of these people are just as guilty (for want of a better word) of maintaining the status quo.
GunnerRob for example wants an answer to why we still go to games …. but he watched the game in the pub! A fair chunk of the revenue generated by that pub pays for the Sky Sports subscription they have … and the subscription money that goes to Sky / BT eventually lines the pockets of Stan. So even if it feels like you’re paying someone else … and even if it is a less direct manner than paying the club for a ST … every penny counts.
Similarly, there are people who gave up ST’s … but still buy the new shirts every summer. Whose pockets do they think the revenue from shirt sales fills somewhere down the line? You might buy the shirt in a sport shop rather than the club shop but eventually a percentage of the money you parted with goes to Stan. Again it all adds up and every penny counts.
The point I am making, in a long-winded way, is that the evils of modern day football - and all the greed and riches that feed the likes of Kroenke and attracted him to the club in the first place - is being sustained by all of us who follow the club in some way or other. It is NOT just ST holders!
Also, the other point that regularly comes up is why people in the ground do not protest more. It is frustrating and there does seem an air of resignation in the ground at times. But maybe if the more of the long-standing fans had stuck around, there would have been greater numbers inside the ground that were prepared to protest and not prepared to tolerate the all the other nonsense we’ve suffered? Instead have a lot have gone and been replaced by a different sort of fan who sees things differently?
Looking at the state of the club now, was it the right decision to pack it in? Maybe for your own sanity and personal bank balance it was …. but if more people were in the ground to hound Wenger, Kroenke and Gazidis out back in say 2012 instead of ranting online about it, then we might be better off right now? Who knows!
And finally, as much as the protests in Feb/Mar 2017 by the guys on here were a fantastic and much appreciated effort … Wenger won the FA Cup and got a new contract a couple of months later. It probably set the tone but it was actually the much maligned ST holders that finished Wenger off by not attending games and leaving their seats empty. And you can only control what happens to your seat if you’ve bought one in the first place.
Admittedly this is a lot of waffle repeating what NickF managed to say in 3 lines. I am as frustrated as everyone else and just like everyone else, I do not have any answers or solutions.