The who's giving up their season ticket thread?

[SteveO 35]

Me for definite.
I sounded out the guys who sit either side of me before the Moan U game to see if either of them wanted my ST next season.......both said they'd think about it. I'm hoping one of them have it, if they don't I'm going to try to drop down to Silver, courtesy of my 'A' bond and get rid of the ST. I've really torn myself up trying to decide what to do for the best. I'm being made redundant in November, so that tied with the fact that I hate Wenger and his bullshit so much means the ST has to go. As I've said before, I've had the ST for 31 years so it's not an easy decision but it shows just how angry and disappointed I am with Wenger and the board. I've just had enough.

you really do not make any sense.

give up your season ticket of 31 years please, someone else will have it but, please dont pretend that this last few years have been the most frustrating.

do you remember Chris White, Gus Ceaser, Andy Linnigan, Colin Pates, before that Jeff Blockley, Terry mancini.

no long term gooner can pretend that we have been anything but spoilt silly under Wenger. those that call for his head can only be very recent in our ranks!!!

Why would you feel the need to make a statement like that to a guy that has spoken out about how he feels having held a season ticket for 31 years. Don't apply your form of 'logic' to everyone else's decision making process. It's clear you remember the players that you mention very well as it seems you're able to spell the names of about half of them correctly.

I had a season ticket when a number of those players were playing and don't have one now. I first went to Arsenal in the late 70s. I think the last few years have been the most frustrating (coupled with the last 2 years of Graham's reign). There you go - that must make me some form of liar under your own curious logic.

It's all about managing expectations. When I first started watching Arsenal the football was mostly shit and we weren't expected to win the League. An occasional FA Cup and a run in the UEFA Cup / Cup Winners Cup at best. We didn't sign the best players in Europe and when we did produce a top quality player like Brady we reluctantly sold. But guess what ? We didn't market ourselves as being anything other than that as a club. We didn't pretend we were going to stuff Real Madrid and Juventus every year, and that we were "1-2% away from Liverpool" who were winning everything domestically at the time. So when we finished 6th and reached a Cup final we were delighted and grateful

In 2006 we decided to rip up the previous 93 years and move to a soulless concrete bowl and introduced £4k club level memberships and a Diamond Club, and the most expensive season tickets in the country. All this in the name of "competing with Europe's elite".....and many fans believed the club and pump thousands of pounds a year into it, in the hope that our 'trusted leadership' will deliver what was promised. And we've won nothing since we moved, and sat back and watched the "club" transform itself into a property company first, and a "leisure franchise" second.

So if after 6 years the penny has dropped and people are fed up with being sold a pack of lies in return for the thousands of pounds they have spent wouldn't you call that 'frustrating'. Won't you be the slightest bit 'frustrated' that as you sit here in April / May again listen to the same soundbites as for the past 3 years, that your money will not be reinvested into the team.

Nobody is saying that the Wenger era hasn't been successful. Nobody is saying that the football at times has been a pleasure to watch. What I hear from most people giving up, or thinking of giving up, season tickets is that they have decisions to make. They've lost their jobs / bonuses / overtime, have families, have cars that cost £70 to fill up with fuel, have increasing utility costs etc.......and in that era the club they love are about to stiff them for a 6% cost increase in order to just maintain the status quo.

And if someone can't understand that point of view then I'm afraid I find you...err....'frustrating'

[Simon]

What happens to those who choose not to renew their season tickets yet have money owed to them through sales on the ticket exchange?

I assume the club would reimburse you the total owed? however I have never actually seen that in writing.

Be great if someone could confirm what happens.

The club will send a cheque for any money outstanding.

[Simon]

I've got two of the buggers and absolutely love this time of the year.....NOT

Remind me, if you give up your ST and you're not on any other list or membership, do you go back to the lowest of the low i.e. Red Waiting List or Red Membership?

Fairly sure if you give up your ST the only option is to become a Red.

I think Debenture holders have the luxury of being able to give up a season ticket and take a Silver membership. I think they also have the option of taking another season ticket up in subsequent seasons.

[Eboue-Why?]

Top class post Steve and beautifully sums up how I feel too. I was only saying to my mate this morning how after 40 years I too am having to face monetary decisions and it's a huge huge wrench to think about giving up Season Tickets. But when you combine the cost with the feeling that you're having the piss taken out of you with top prices combined with too many overpaid average players, well it just makes you think about spending the money elsewhere.
It's not the losing of cups or fading away in the league that makes you think like this because football has and always will kick you in the knackers but there's so much to dislike about the set up nowadays. Like you said, 25-30 years ago, you knew what you were getting but religiously went because, well because it was your bond with the club. These days........

[tel]

Great posts from SteveO and Eboue Why. I guess that blows the bollocks theory about JCL's wanting change right into the water.

[bunch]

What SteveO said! When we were watching Hawley, Rankin, Talbot, Vasson, Whyte, Meade, Georgie Wood I was paying £1.60 a game. About 2 and half pints of beer at the prices then.

[littlefire]

This really is one of the most heartbreaking threads to read.
I actually get a lump in my throat when seeing lifelong, hardcore, passionate Arsenal fans (whether I always agree with them or not) having to consider relinquishing their only remaining stake in the club they evidently love. It's an emotional "share" if you like (albeit one you gotta dig deeper and deeper for financially) an almost spiritual commitment to support the team no matter what. Fuck knows how I'm going to pay for the thing this time but really, is it beyond this lot to make some kind of gesture to us which would not actually ultimately cost them anything? An instalment scheme? A deadline extension?

Jesus.

Edit. From the other thread. "Zebra Finance" eh?

Christ

[Jumpers For Goalposts]

That's probably the best post I've ever read on here SteveO!!

Like you (and many, many others) I am at the stage where I can't afford to go to as many matches as I want, simply because the players on the pitch have lost all touch with reality and they demand wages that are totally obscene. And to make it worse, we're force fed the constant PR spin, lies and bullshit by the manager, players and directors.

I fell in love with Arsenal in the 1970's and from then up until the late 90's, going to home and away matches was so easily affordable and expectations were realistic.

Back then nobody talked about a "matchday experience" and supporters like me felt part of the Club. Now - all they want is our money and they just don't give a shit about the togetherness that allowed Arsenal to develop from a works football team into a First Division outfit.

And you know what I hate most about Arsenal in 2011??? Ignorant "fans" telling lifelong fans to "fuck off and support someone else" or "give up your season ticket then, you won't be missed".

[MK Gould]

TITD - Silver isn't necessarily that different from a season ticket to be honest! With allocations to finals being so small these days because of the corporates, you're nowhere near guaranteed a ticket, even with a ST, so maybe you're better off being silver, picking and choosing your games, then trying for a final ticket off a tout? You may have to do the same as a ST holder.

I gave up a ST at Highbury at a time when you could still easily get tickets on general sale.....never again. Took me until the move to the Grove to get one back. Missed out on no end of cup finals inc Paris v barca.

I'll whinge like the rest of you, but at the end of the day the club know that they've got people like me by the balls!

What I would like is to have the option to drop down to silver for a season or two, but with the option of upgrading back to Gold without having to go back on the waiting list. Never going to happen though as too many takers!

[Peeman]

After the latest debacle have any of the undecided made up their mind

[1886]

Me for definite.
I sounded out the guys who sit either side of me before the Moan U game to see if either of them wanted my ST next season.......both said they'd think about it. I'm hoping one of them have it, if they don't I'm going to try to drop down to Silver, courtesy of my 'A' bond and get rid of the ST. I've really torn myself up trying to decide what to do for the best. I'm being made redundant in November, so that tied with the fact that I hate Wenger and his bullshit so much means the ST has to go. As I've said before, I've had the ST for 31 years so it's not an easy decision but it shows just how angry and disappointed I am with Wenger and the board. I've just had enough.

you really do not make any sense.

give up your season ticket of 31 years please, someone else will have it but, please dont pretend that this last few years have been the most frustrating.

do you remember Chris White, Gus Ceaser, Andy Linnigan, Colin Pates, before that Jeff Blockley, Terry mancini.

no long term gooner can pretend that we have been anything but spoilt silly under Wenger. those that call for his head can only be very recent in our ranks!!!

Why would you feel the need to make a statement like that to a guy that has spoken out about how he feels having held a season ticket for 31 years. Don't apply your form of 'logic' to everyone else's decision making process. It's clear you remember the players that you mention very well as it seems you're able to spell the names of about half of them correctly.

I had a season ticket when a number of those players were playing and don't have one now. I first went to Arsenal in the late 70s. I think the last few years have been the most frustrating (coupled with the last 2 years of Graham's reign). There you go - that must make me some form of liar under your own curious logic.

It's all about managing expectations. When I first started watching Arsenal the football was mostly shit and we weren't expected to win the League. An occasional FA Cup and a run in the UEFA Cup / Cup Winners Cup at best. We didn't sign the best players in Europe and when we did produce a top quality player like Brady we reluctantly sold. But guess what ? We didn't market ourselves as being anything other than that as a club. We didn't pretend we were going to stuff Real Madrid and Juventus every year, and that we were "1-2% away from Liverpool" who were winning everything domestically at the time. So when we finished 6th and reached a Cup final we were delighted and grateful

In 2006 we decided to rip up the previous 93 years and move to a soulless concrete bowl and introduced £4k club level memberships and a Diamond Club, and the most expensive season tickets in the country. All this in the name of "competing with Europe's elite".....and many fans believed the club and pump thousands of pounds a year into it, in the hope that our 'trusted leadership' will deliver what was promised. And we've won nothing since we moved, and sat back and watched the "club" transform itself into a property company first, and a "leisure franchise" second.

So if after 6 years the penny has dropped and people are fed up with being sold a pack of lies in return for the thousands of pounds they have spent wouldn't you call that 'frustrating'. Won't you be the slightest bit 'frustrated' that as you sit here in April / May again listen to the same soundbites as for the past 3 years, that your money will not be reinvested into the team.

Nobody is saying that the Wenger era hasn't been successful. Nobody is saying that the football at times has been a pleasure to watch. What I hear from most people giving up, or thinking of giving up, season tickets is that they have decisions to make. They've lost their jobs / bonuses / overtime, have families, have cars that cost £70 to fill up with fuel, have increasing utility costs etc.......and in that era the club they love are about to stiff them for a 6% cost increase in order to just maintain the status quo.

And if someone can't understand that point of view then I'm afraid I find you...err....'frustrating'

Top post.

[franksav63]

Me for definite.
I sounded out the guys who sit either side of me before the Moan U game to see if either of them wanted my ST next season.......both said they'd think about it. I'm hoping one of them have it, if they don't I'm going to try to drop down to Silver, courtesy of my 'A' bond and get rid of the ST. I've really torn myself up trying to decide what to do for the best. I'm being made redundant in November, so that tied with the fact that I hate Wenger and his bullshit so much means the ST has to go. As I've said before, I've had the ST for 31 years so it's not an easy decision but it shows just how angry and disappointed I am with Wenger and the board. I've just had enough.

you really do not make any sense.

give up your season ticket of 31 years please, someone else will have it but, please dont pretend that this last few years have been the most frustrating.

do you remember Chris White, Gus Ceaser, Andy Linnigan, Colin Pates, before that Jeff Blockley, Terry mancini.

no long term gooner can pretend that we have been anything but spoilt silly under Wenger. those that call for his head can only be very recent in our ranks!!!

Why would you feel the need to make a statement like that to a guy that has spoken out about how he feels having held a season ticket for 31 years. Don't apply your form of 'logic' to everyone else's decision making process. It's clear you remember the players that you mention very well as it seems you're able to spell the names of about half of them correctly.

I had a season ticket when a number of those players were playing and don't have one now. I first went to Arsenal in the late 70s. I think the last few years have been the most frustrating (coupled with the last 2 years of Graham's reign). There you go - that must make me some form of liar under your own curious logic.

It's all about managing expectations. When I first started watching Arsenal the football was mostly shit and we weren't expected to win the League. An occasional FA Cup and a run in the UEFA Cup / Cup Winners Cup at best. We didn't sign the best players in Europe and when we did produce a top quality player like Brady we reluctantly sold. But guess what ? We didn't market ourselves as being anything other than that as a club. We didn't pretend we were going to stuff Real Madrid and Juventus every year, and that we were "1-2% away from Liverpool" who were winning everything domestically at the time. So when we finished 6th and reached a Cup final we were delighted and grateful

In 2006 we decided to rip up the previous 93 years and move to a soulless concrete bowl and introduced £4k club level memberships and a Diamond Club, and the most expensive season tickets in the country. All this in the name of "competing with Europe's elite".....and many fans believed the club and pump thousands of pounds a year into it, in the hope that our 'trusted leadership' will deliver what was promised. And we've won nothing since we moved, and sat back and watched the "club" transform itself into a property company first, and a "leisure franchise" second.

So if after 6 years the penny has dropped and people are fed up with being sold a pack of lies in return for the thousands of pounds they have spent wouldn't you call that 'frustrating'. Won't you be the slightest bit 'frustrated' that as you sit here in April / May again listen to the same soundbites as for the past 3 years, that your money will not be reinvested into the team.

Nobody is saying that the Wenger era hasn't been successful. Nobody is saying that the football at times has been a pleasure to watch. What I hear from most people giving up, or thinking of giving up, season tickets is that they have decisions to make. They've lost their jobs / bonuses / overtime, have families, have cars that cost £70 to fill up with fuel, have increasing utility costs etc.......and in that era the club they love are about to stiff them for a 6% cost increase in order to just maintain the status quo.

And if someone can't understand that point of view then I'm afraid I find you...err....'frustrating'

Only just read your post SteveO, and it's superb... Top Top Post sir...

[mrgnu1958]

UNFORTUNATELY..im with zebra finance.

[GWC]

Top post SteveO speaks for most of us older ones.
In the last 2 months or so I have been offered numerous amounts of ST's for next season on a rental basis. I am currently a silver and way down the list for my own ST. Never been offered them for rent in such large numbers in my 30 odd years of following the Arsenal. Not like this.

[selsdon]

and as usual piresistible disappears when check-mated

great post agreed by SteveO