A Grade A rip-off
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mcdowell42
- Posts: 18121
- Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:19 pm
- Location: ireland
Re: A Grade A rip-off
You will be lucky to get a reply mm99 and if you do no doubt you will be abused and called some names
Re: A Grade A rip-off
Ignoring all of the playground spats on here and getting back to the point, there seem to be 3 main arguments from those that carry on going to games:
a) if I didn't go it would leave a 'hole' in my social life
b) if I stop going someone else will take up the tickets
c) I've been going to games for 'x' years, long before Gazidis/Kroenke/Wenger came along (and will be a Gooner long after they've gone) so why the fuck should I stop going
I don't think those points can be argued against on an individual basis because everyone feels differently. I can relate to all of those arguments but I stopped buying home tickets from the start of last season and I will not resume buying them until the club starts reinvesting my hard earned money into its core business i.e. the development of a football team and squad commensurate with the ticket prices charged. I respect everyone's own decisions but my own responses to the above arguments are as follows:
a) I still watch the games either at home with my family (who are all Gooners) or go to one of a number of decent Gooner pubs to watch the games with mates, so I don't particularly feel like the ritual of travelling back and forth to the ground and handing over my cash to the club has left a hole. I still get to watch virtually every match. Atmosphere has never mattered to me as much as it does to some, but even if it did I can honestly say that a proper Gooner pub generates a better atmosphere than the Grove these days - not to mention cheaper beer and the ability for people to nip outside for a fag to calm the nerves !
b) not forever. Why is the ST list getting shorter? Why are CL games only getting attended by 50k these days (no matter what the club's official 'sold out' line might be? What about when the inevitable austerity measures really cut in to the public sector and unemployment goes up further? Sorry but not everyone has the ability to stump up £65 for Chelsea on a Saturday, followed 4 days later with a CL game. Demand will drop - its already becoming apparent and hasn't reached peak. Everything has a boom and bust cycle. Some of us older miserable buggers can remember being at THOF when we've had less than 20,000. Don't think football is immune from ever going back there
c) Stan Kroenke is an incredibly wealthy guy and the majority controlling shareholder of the club. As such, he controls every penny that goes into the football club. If he wants to award Gazidis a bumper pay rise he can do. If he wants to make player profits every window he can do. If he wants to charge £65 for a piece of tatty merchandise he can do. Every penny I spend is increasing the wealth of an already high wealth individual who cares not for how I feel as a fan, nor who cares where Arsenal will be in 3 or 4 years time, just as long as he's flipped the club for a massive profit on his investment. That is the reality of life, so whilst I've been going to Arsenal for over 30 years, and health permitting will be doing it for another 30-50 years when he goes, I don't see why I should contribute to this guy's burgeoning wealth and sit back and watch him rip us off and slowly destroy the club I love. The way I look at it, is that it will be there when he fucks off and hopefully we can go back to an ownership structure we can place our faith in
a) if I didn't go it would leave a 'hole' in my social life
b) if I stop going someone else will take up the tickets
c) I've been going to games for 'x' years, long before Gazidis/Kroenke/Wenger came along (and will be a Gooner long after they've gone) so why the fuck should I stop going
I don't think those points can be argued against on an individual basis because everyone feels differently. I can relate to all of those arguments but I stopped buying home tickets from the start of last season and I will not resume buying them until the club starts reinvesting my hard earned money into its core business i.e. the development of a football team and squad commensurate with the ticket prices charged. I respect everyone's own decisions but my own responses to the above arguments are as follows:
a) I still watch the games either at home with my family (who are all Gooners) or go to one of a number of decent Gooner pubs to watch the games with mates, so I don't particularly feel like the ritual of travelling back and forth to the ground and handing over my cash to the club has left a hole. I still get to watch virtually every match. Atmosphere has never mattered to me as much as it does to some, but even if it did I can honestly say that a proper Gooner pub generates a better atmosphere than the Grove these days - not to mention cheaper beer and the ability for people to nip outside for a fag to calm the nerves !
b) not forever. Why is the ST list getting shorter? Why are CL games only getting attended by 50k these days (no matter what the club's official 'sold out' line might be? What about when the inevitable austerity measures really cut in to the public sector and unemployment goes up further? Sorry but not everyone has the ability to stump up £65 for Chelsea on a Saturday, followed 4 days later with a CL game. Demand will drop - its already becoming apparent and hasn't reached peak. Everything has a boom and bust cycle. Some of us older miserable buggers can remember being at THOF when we've had less than 20,000. Don't think football is immune from ever going back there
c) Stan Kroenke is an incredibly wealthy guy and the majority controlling shareholder of the club. As such, he controls every penny that goes into the football club. If he wants to award Gazidis a bumper pay rise he can do. If he wants to make player profits every window he can do. If he wants to charge £65 for a piece of tatty merchandise he can do. Every penny I spend is increasing the wealth of an already high wealth individual who cares not for how I feel as a fan, nor who cares where Arsenal will be in 3 or 4 years time, just as long as he's flipped the club for a massive profit on his investment. That is the reality of life, so whilst I've been going to Arsenal for over 30 years, and health permitting will be doing it for another 30-50 years when he goes, I don't see why I should contribute to this guy's burgeoning wealth and sit back and watch him rip us off and slowly destroy the club I love. The way I look at it, is that it will be there when he fucks off and hopefully we can go back to an ownership structure we can place our faith in
