Arsenal’s matchday transport arrangements (18/4)

[gooner.ed]

usual thread starter... due to empty seats, i sat just above the exit in the upper tier for the second half last night. the boys were playing well, but the stream of people leaving was incredible. it's one thing to see it in the empty seats around the stadium, but even worse when your view is constantly disturbed by people on the stairs heading to the exit. would an improvement in the transport make these people stay a bit longer, or would they go early regardless?

[MK Gould]

What a brilliant article! Don't know how I missed it first time around, but it really did have some great ideas. I just hope that someone has an "in" to the club so that they see it as well. The best bit was that it was "win/win" all round. More money coming in to the club, London Transport, and the fans get what they want - an atmosphere and a quicker journey home. Seems funny that we had room for a band under the North Bank but, unless I'm missing something, no entertainment at the Grove at all. Another thing I'm always amazed by is why you can buy beer, but can't bring it back to your seat. Along with the TV screens under the stands, this discourages people from returning after half time. FA rule or just stupidity....? I sincerely hope that we aren't still having these types of discussion at the end of 2007/08!!

[Rilo II]

I would be in the ground for pre match drinking all the time if it wasn't for the smoking ban. I don't smoke, but my brother does and he wouldn't go that long drinking without being able to have a fag. I know smoking in pubs will be banned in July, but at least people will be able to go out for one, which you can't do at AG. I genuinely think the smoking ban keeps a lot of people from arriving at the ground early. The majority of people go to matches in groups of 2 or more. I would say the majority of each group will have at least one smoker, so the whole group will head to the pub instead.

[superlase]

Mark Vallis makes some innovate points in his original article. I especially like the idea of replacing drinking in the local pubs with drinking in the ground but I think that because there is less of a drinking culture in the US it's easier to do that there. I also really like the idea of a stadium station to go to Finsbury Park, H&I and maybe beyond but I think that TFL's position would be that Arsenal should build it and pay for it themselves.
On the subjeect of transport the original plan was to upgrade Holloway Road tube but after feasibility it proved not to be possible and so the police deemed it unsafe for the numbers expected on matchdays and closed it. Drayton Park was never going to handle the numbers and so the decision early on was to close that also. The club does not have a say in this - it's down to the police and the council. Remember that the club has to pay the police for their 'services' on a matchday and I would imagine that the cost is much higher than it was at Highbury.
The main problem is that there is no integration between the club, the council, the police and TFL. If Arsenal wanted all these things it could have them but it would have to foot the bill and manage the project across the other involved parties. And you would have to consider health & saftey regs also - it's not like when I first started going to Highbury and you could have sometimes 50,000 milling around the area without any crowd control.
Finally, remember that Islington council has already got a new waste plant and a load of free affordable housing out of the club for allowing it to build the stadium where it is. The cheaper alternative would have been a stadium out by the M25 with a big car park. Which would you rather have?