Issues covered at the most recent Supporters’ Forum (January 2023)

ATMOSPHERE

The club is once again concerned about atmosphere in the stadium during matches. We at AISA will be sending out a survey/questionnaire to you all in the next few days for you views and ideas on improving the atmosphere. We will submit these to the club.

DRINKS AT HALF TIME

The club’s responded to complaints that service at half-time is too slow by saying they are adding more mobile carts (at a cost of £20thousand each) and overall, £2million on upgrading beer supplies.

STADIUM MOBILE PHONE CONNECTIVITY

There will be better phone connections next season, with new systems being added. But general wifi is not on the immediate priority list.

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

At the last meeting, supporter groups were invited to suggest local community activities that the club could apply for, from a fund being run by the Premier League. AISA suggested a few (we think we’re the only group that did!) and as a result, the club has asked for funding for Gillespie Park’s Ecology Centre (between the stadium and Arsenal tube), fans’ football tournaments and a programme on women’s health.

More on these if the money is forthcoming. We also hope to feature more of the work of the Arsenal in the Community on these pages.

BOX OFFICE CLOSED FOR LIVERPOOL MATCH

It appears that there was a technical issue that meant people couldn’t get through to the Box Office. Hopefully, it was a one-off. But the club acknowledges that Ticketmaster is closed on a Saturday, which is a bit crucial for a football match. We were told that the cub is very aware and reviewing the website and current arrangements for ticketing issues.

TICKET-BUYING WINDOW

Complaints from supporters about missing ticket-buying windows have been taken on board. Finding out about tickets on the website is currently clunky because Ticketmaster operates the part of the site that members’ pages that one might normally expect to have details for when tickets are on sale. Instead, you have to go via the arsenal.com ‘Tickets and Memberships’ tab to find out when you can buy your seat. Again, we have been banging on about this for a while and the club is aware and reviewing it (with an aim to improve it and make it more logical).

We have stressed how important it is to send out emails to remind people of ticket purchase windows in advance, at the start and near the end of the time allotted.

If you do miss a window, we are told that supporters should contact Fans Services and a solution will be sought, although it may not be ‘your’ seat if it’s already gone.

SEAT UTILISATION

The season, seat utilisation across matches is 98% – compared with 95% last season and 90% the year before. It’s the highest in the Premier League. So far, 83% of season ticket holders have used their ticket every game. The club puts this down to the digital ticketing arrangements.

There are fewer than one hundred at risk of losing their tickets through lack of use, and cross-checking is taking place in case those not using their tickets have extenuating circumstances.

4,500 tickets are exchanged per match, while 12,000 are used to transfer (thought largely to be people who have previously informally shared tickets). The club is tracking these to ensure none are sold on.

TICKET BALLOTS

Work to improve the ballot continues. There have been issues as technical changes have been made. Supporters need to be checking emails and junk boxes for messages. If you’re not getting emails, contact the club to find out why. Apparently, some mailers (Hotmail for one) are rejecting the club’s emails.

So far, 25,000 accounts have been blocked through suspicious activity. It remains a challenge to differentiate Red members from bots.

Overall, apparently almost everyone who has applied for a ticket in ballots has been successful at least once, with under fifty who’ve not been successful at all. The club will review how the season has gone for all members at the end of the season.

STANDING

We asked why there was a constant repetition of the ‘no standing’ message but nothing ever seemed to be done for supporters whose view is obstructed or groups of people who cram into a single seated position. The response is that it is the role of the stewards to police this, and if anyone has a concern or issue that isn’t being resolved, they should call the same number as is given to report abuse. The issue of railed seating/safe standing? It is still being reviewed.

Including Liam Brady event, Cup tickets, Sad news, Blogs for members, Gooner calendar is back.

AN EVENING WITH LIAM BRADY

A date for your diary.  Our next AISA event is February 1^st and we’re pleased to tell you it’ll be with Liam Brady.

Liam will be chatting with Adrian Clarke and taking your questions. It’ll be a great evening and one not to miss! And if you haven’t asked for his book for Christmas, this will be a chance to buy one and get it signed.

We’re still working on the venue and other details, but it’ll either be at the Emirates or a pub nearby. As numbers may be limited, we would ask you to pre-register.

To pre-register, please contact us on [email protected]

CUP TICKETS – DID YOU MISS OUT?

We know of quite a few season ticket holders who missed out on choosing to take all upcoming cup tickets, and then missed out the Liverpool match because of the short window and the club website problem).

We are told that it’s not possible to put information on the Arsenal Members’ site as that’s run by Ticketmaster. The only place to look is to go to tickets & membership and check on the i for more information. That’ll take you to the purchasing location.

 We have told the club that people are telling us they’re finding the window is too short and often miss it or didn’t even know when it was. In response, the club has said, say, ‘We are undergoing a website review and have fed back your comments as there will be other supporters undoubtedly having the same issues when it comes to accessing important information. In the meantime, please do check the above page when looking for information relating to ticketing so you get what you need – I’m sorry it’s been a challenge to find!’

SAD NEWS

We have full more details about their contributions to AISA, Arsenal and the footballing world in tributes paid on aisa.org:

 https://aisa.org/steven-powell/  and https://aisa.org/geoff-bedingfield/

WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF THE LAST MATCH?

We know blogs are ten-a-penny these days, but we’re adding our own views on matches – and Arsenal supporting in general – on our new Member Blog page on aisa.org. Ours is a different take to the usual ones, though you’ll only be able to judge how accurate that statement is by having a look. As an AISA full member, you can just click on the blog link.

If you have lost or forgotten your log in, or never ever tried to log in, contact us on [email protected] and we’ll do it for you. There’s also advance news of outcomes from our meetings with the club’s Directors and the Supporters’ Forum.

And our coverage is not just of the men’s matches. We also report to the club issues around the women’s game, and feed that back to members.

THE GOONER CALENDAR IS BACK

It was on our Woolwich Arsenal history walk that one of our members asked if we knew what had happened to the Gooner’s letters’ page and the calendar. So we asked the Gooner editor, Layth, and it seemed he was keen to restart both.

And, supported by AISA, you can buy the new Gooner, complete with letters and a 2024 calendar, both at the West Ham game or online

The Gooner is as much a tradition as the bagel sellers were at Highbury. We lost the bagel sellers but let’s not lose the Gooner. It’s a right riveting read with news and your opinions – and it also has a regular AISA page, too, alongside familiar favourites like match reviews, Arsenal Academy Spotlight, The Spy and Mickey Cannon.

And, supported by AISA, you can buy the new Gooner, complete with letters and a 2024 calendar, both at the West Ham game or online (https://shop.onlinegooner.com/)

The Gooner is as much a tradition as the bagel sellers were at Highbury. We lost the bagel sellers but let’s not lose the Gooner. It’s a right riveting read with news and your opinions – and it also has a regular AISA page, too, alongside familiar favourites like match reviews, Arsenal Academy Spotlight, The Spy and Mickey Cannon.

And for AISA updates, news and insights, please visit aisa.org (and your own members’ pages, where you’ll also find this newsletter, with live url links), check us out on Facebook (www.facebook.com/groups/ArsenalAISA)

and follow us on X or Twitter or whatever it’s called this week (@AISA_Arsenal)