That is true, but does it matter? I love hearing the sounds of car horns constantly going until the early hours of the morning after a league / cup win. However, the partying through the night on the streets and all the assosiated noises etc. (quite well summed up in fever pitch actually), doesn't really mean anything unless you are there. Does that make us better supporters? No. But it does mean that beating the spuds is probably more important to us, because of the abuse that we have to endure all year round, year after year for our entire lives, any single time that they actually achieve any insignificant thing.
The cheapest available that I can see are £41. The rest appear to be around £47. Be interesting to see how many big clubs in London offer seats are those prices on general sale....
Its against Wigan, I'm sure there are many clubs offering cheap seats for games they don't expect to be sell outs. It DOES matter. I'm not talking about who is a better fan or anything like that, I am talking about that feeling of belonging. I've said it a few times, Arsenal is MY club, I've grown up with it infused in me for all the reasons I have mentioned in this thread and many more. Too many of these new era fans have said rubbish like Man U is our biggest game, or Chelsea, these are the Wenger era fans, they know nothing of the rivalry between Arsenal and Spurs. So when I hear someone say that a fan in Africa feels the same way I feel I can say thats bollox because he doesn't and cannot. You can't understand a rivalry unless you are in it, involved in it. How many times have you heard people say ... they had no idea football matches had that atmosphere - being there is completely different to watching it on TV, singing until you've lost your voice, hurling abuse at opposing players and the ref, the smell of the 'Shergar burgers' from the stalls. I maintain my view. We can only imagine what its like for the Rome derby for example, but we don't know for sure unless we are living it. Taking a tram to the stadium, sharing a stadium, we don't know what thats like,
£53 seems to be the cheapest on general sale at the spuds vs Norwich... £52 for Chelsea vs Newcastle.
You know, I just realised. Non Members only see the prices at £40 or so every time it goes on general sale. Perhaps if they saw that it was cheaper for us members, they might buy membership.
The whole thing kind of takes the piss. IMO, get rid of membership and just do first come first served, much better that way, isn't it?
Totally understand where you are coming from and totally agree. Nothing annoys me more than when people say United and Liverpool are our biggest rivals, for me it is the first way of sniffing out the JCL fans, the supporters live and breath the club. I have the same argument with my housemate who is an Irish Arsenal fan that tries to tell me about rivalries and boasts about being "London's top club". I genuinely cannot see why it would matter to you unless you are born and bred in London. You simply can't understand the rivalry unless you live and breath it, it's impossible. The problem I have with Sky is they have made the footballing experience completely superficial and people no longer understand rivalries hence why they get diluted and weaker. London Derbies in general are nothing like they used to be, back in the day they were a big deal. Liverpool or United to me will never be a rival, not in the same way Spuds are or West Ham and Arsenal.
No, Law and legislation forbids clubs from doing that. Since the 80s due to hooliganism problems there has been a big crackdown on that. Clubs have to know who is going to the matches so if anything happens they can be easily identified. I don't agree with Membership, but what can you do?
Looks like you know the real meaning of supporting a club. Anyone who says otherwise is chatting bollox.
I think they still are for fans who go to the games. When we play Spurs, there's none of the polite sensitivities that are demanded from pundits and forums - it's full bloodied rivalry all the way. Same for Chelsea and in days gone by against West Ham too. I'm a South Londoner, so running the gaunlet of Chelsea, West Ham, Millwall, Palace, Charlton and visiting fans in the capital on match days was always a reminder of the rivalry in London.
Piskie talking bollox as usual. Going to games has nothing to do with feeling football rivalries. If you are in the manor you are involved AUTOMATICALLY. I think some people just don't get football. Stick to being a mod.
For the fans that go the games it's different, they embrace the club and it's culture. Whilst you are a South Londoner (like myself ) you are still nonetheless a Londoner and understand and can relate to the geographical boundaries and rivalries within the city. Sky have definitely done all they can to dilute and in some cases promote rivalries that were never really there. In particular London rivals. Chelsea and West Ham are huge rivals, yet this is rarely publicised and games between them are rarely televised, at least not as often as they should be. Sky would have you believe Fulham and QPR are our rivals which is not the case, they always show our games with them and promote them heavily as "feisty encounters". That couldn't be further from the truth. I don't know a Chelsea fan that has a bad word to say about Fulham, most of us actually like Fulham to do well. As for QPR, I understand they hate us and there is a slight rivalry there but not near the scale of Spurs, West Ham and Arsenal partly because we have rarely been in the same division as them. Sky have used the Anton vs JT to promote it as a "fierce" rivalry to up their viewers and misinform people. They do the same with Man Utd vs Liverpool and promote it as the worlds biggest game and they did the same with Man utd vs Arsenal/Liverpool vs Chelsea game. This kind of manipulation misinforms supporters and global fans hence why the culture and the history of the clubs are soon diluted. The only rivalries that are still going strong are those that have been less affected by Sky and the corpocracy in football i.e Tyne-Wear Derby, Black Country Derby and rivalries in the football league i.e Sheffield Derby and East London Derby As the working class have been driven out (by the looney ticket pricess) of London clubs, so have the traditions and rivalries. Just my opinion. Clubs outside the top 6 are far less affected, it's the downside to being "global".
I have sworn that if I ever have a child I will not allow him to support a club outside London and will urge others to do the same. If they don't want to support Chelsea/Spurs/Arsenal/West Ham who are the so called bigger London clubs take them to Fulham, QPR or Palace. Proper clubs with foundation and local fans, not like United and Liverpool. The sooner we are rid of the gloryhunting United and Liverpool type the better.
Yup, I will do the same. My brother has a boy, grew up in Parson's Green, West London. He was an Arsenal fan because of the Invincibles. A few years later he said he was a Chelsea fan. I had a go at him and told him what was what - pick a team and stick with them, stop changing. He turned back to Arsenal surprisingly Rivalry at the stadium is only a part of it, I can see some people think thats what it is all about, no its not, Spurs V Arsenal isn't just about the game, its about the banter leading up to the game and the banter after the game - anyone who knew anything about Arsenal would know that PISKIE. You might go to games but you don't sound like you understand football at all and the tribal-like hold it has on us proper footie fans. You sound like a mate of mine who is an Arsenal season ticket holder because it is a status symbol, its fashionable now to be into football - and you have the audacity to call people plastics
