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Should we have stayed at Highbury? Quite a lot of you have been at the Emirates. You know what it is all about. It is a commercial wonderland. No matter how much money you have you could spend it there. So c’mon, you have won big on the lottery and you decide to bring a bunch of your mates (15) to an executive box for a big match day? £13125 will leave your pocket which is close to a grand a person. If you decide to let them buy what they want from the Arsenal store that could be any sort of figure. Throw in five star hotels and limousines you could be looking at £30,000 to £50,000 for your day out. And do you want the bad news? I had a look and most are sold out. You have to go on a waiting list. The Captains lounge - one of the many executive boxes The Emirates is a goldmine. Highbury was more like a copper mine. The Kroenke’s expertise is in sports centres that are also shopper’s paradises. They have the largest collection of them in the States. And hey, the ground has capacity for up to 75,000 for which an application to expand has been handed in. No doubt there will be more executive boxes bringing in lots more dosh if successful. A good big guy will always beat a good little one Highbury’s capacity was 38,419 but without anywhere near the footprint of the Emirates. The huge panorama surrounding the ground makes all sorts of possibilities for extracting money from fans. Highbury made $171.76M in its last year in 2006. The latest year for which we have figures for Arsenal is 2022/3 and it is £464M. The current rate of exchange is approx. £131M so you can see something like a 3-4 times rise. But last season we had Champions League football and again this year so the figure will be a lot more. The tight pitch at Highbury There is no argument. The Emirates brings in a lot more cash. It puts us up with the big boys. If we had stayed at Highbury the Kroenkes would have had to find ways of making money from a much lower match-day base. What do the fans say? What about from a fan's point of view? Highbury was more fun for me. It was smaller, more intimate, and the players were nearly in your face. The Emirates is much bigger including the pitch and it is harder to see what’s happening at the other end of the pitch. As against that there is much more happening there, it is easier to buy food and drink and go to the toilet. Arsenal Souvenirs are to be had in abundance. Little chance of meeting the players at the Emirates It is definitely harder to link up with players. At Highbury players would hang around for the fans after a match and you could even find them in the pubs afterwards. Good luck with trying that nowadays. The trophies say no What about trophies? The Emirates has a very long way to go to catch up with Highbury with 4 FA Cups and 5 Charity Shields over 18 years. We do need the Premier League and the Champions League to sit nicely in our trophy cabinet, and many times as well if we are to say that the move was a success. Wenger and Dein - the creators of the Emirates and the saviours of Arsenal The crucial factor is that Arsene Wenger and David Dein knew that the Emirates move was a strategic necessity. Billionaires and oil rich states were coming into play and Arsenal needed to compete. We were the second best current team to Manchester United when we left Highbury and now we are the second best team to Manchester City so it could be argued that, even in a football sense, we are starting to catch up. The move was essential. Our final Highbury years were the greatest The situation looks worse, however if you look at the 18 years of the Emirates against the final 18 years of Highbury. 5 League titles, 1 European Cup-Winners Cup, 5 FA Cups, 1 League Cup and 4 Charity Shields plus one drawn. Add in two doubles and a double League Cup/Fa Cup in 1993 and we surely have a long way to go. I would love to swop the Cupwinners Cup for the Champions League trophy I think it is fair to say that without the revenues of the Emirates, we would have no chance of matching the Highbury achievements of their final 18 years. We do seem to have a lot of strong elements in place to make the next 18 years as strong as those years. I would certainly take those records, particularly if you exchange the Champions League for the defunct Cup-Winners Cup. The Emirates is in a world of its own The Emirates will never have that close atmosphere of Highbury. It looks very different, it feels totally different, and the sound levels from the fans, now that we are winning, is raucous and pulls us all together. The Emirates is still new, shiny and very big. It is the base on which we can now spring forward. Will the Kroenkes ever make the Arsenal stadium better than the Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles which cost them $5.5 billion? In short, it is very hard to make any real comparisons between the two. We had to make the move. We made the right one. We are still in the same area. Islington is still our home. Arsenal is Arsenal and we have shown that our ground is not us, just a part of us. We are Arsenal, we have the best ground in the UK, the best fans (mostly, I don’t like the out brigade or the only support when we are winning brigade) and I think we might just have the best team as well. It is a good time to be an Arsenal supporter.

The greatest English stadium and it is ours I have no idea how many of you Gooners out there who read my stuff have been to the Emirates. There is something like 1000 supporters in ASCB. I would say, judging by the amount I have seen, that quite a few have made the journey. I wonder how many have been to other stadiums in the UK? Probably not so many. Herbert Chapman likes looking at our magnificent stadium Today I want to praise the Emirates Stadium because it is unique. It is in the middle of a very busy part of London and close to the centre. Highbury was great, lively and yet impressive with its marble halls and the closeness of the pitch. However, the Emirates has everything, a museum, a huge shop, an extensive box office, lots of stalls and bars selling all sorts outside and long bars inside to cater for the food and drink of 60,000 spectators. It is a big operation and you become an essential part of the match day experience, you help to create the atmosphere and help Arsenal to win. All of our history can be found there What is it like? There are many statues of our greats, and, as you cross the bridges to get into the main hub, nonstop photos of major figures, past and present. The history of the Arsenal is all round us, everywhere we go. If you go there with a knowledgeable Gooner, such as myself, you can learn what it is that makes Arsenal great just by asking questions about everything you see. In my opinion this is one area in which Arsenal are the best. We have the most tributes to the club on match days because we have a huge area around the stadium. I don’t believe any other club in England has such a panorama. The Henry statue - a great meeting place Another fantastic aspect is if you arrange to meet anyone, there are plenty of excellent meeting points. The statues are the obvious ones, take your choice of all the Arsenal legends commemorated there and take the opportunity for selfies as well. Have your picture taken with the master himself, Arsene Wenger, or Mr Arsenal Tony Adams, or our greatest, Thierry Henry. Mingling with the fans is the greatest experience Outside the ground, there is the Arsenal Supporters club bar which is not only a very useful meeting point but also essential if you are to become a diehard Gooner. It is full of memorabilia from down the days and you may even spot a former top player there. The smell of the burgers is integral to the match day experience I guess most of you that go there come by public transport. There is a huge choice from the Arsenal tube station to the Holloway Road, Highbury and Islington, and Finsbury Road stations where you join the streams of fans chanting and singing. You can never lose your way to the stadium – you just follow the fans. As you get closer there are more and more stalls appearing, selling everything from burgers to scarves, caps, and programmes. The aroma of the food frying lets you know you are home at the Arsenal. You won’t starve and you could end up with more colour on you than any rainbow. I love that walk up to the stadium. I feel more at home then than maybe anywhere. The magic letters get you in All you need to do then is find your turnstile entry letter and there are sixteen A, D, E, H, J, K, M, N & S. which get you into the four stands The North Bank, The Clock End, The West and East Stands. Then you must find your seat but there are plenty of helpful stewards for newbies. It’s all easy. Get in early and there are no queues You first see all the food and drink stalls as they circle the entire ground. There are big queues but they move along quickly enough. You cannot bring alcohol to your seats, though. You create the atmosphere The Emirates is good for viewing in general but watch out if you are on the lower pitchside seats as often people stand for the entire match which means you also have to do so. I have a problem from a badly broken ankle three years ago and I struggle to stand for long periods. I am not tall either so it can be difficult to see. The higher stands are better for such practices as you have a better view of the entire pitch than when you are low where people stand in order to see better. I much prefer the higher stands. Pitchside can be tricky And the atmosphere? It just gets better every year. The addition of North London Forever to our repertoire means that excitement builds from when you hear the opening bars of Louis Dunford’s classic. The sound seems to rise up from the ground, through the stone, and you feel your heart lifting, you become an integral part of the stadium and the Arsenal. You are now Arsenal. You have a bearing on the outcome of the match. You are there to push your team on. You feel the symbiosis creeping into your body as you become one with the team, the crowd, and even the bricks and mortar of the stadium. You know you are home. More spaces = more success? There is talk of increasing the capacity to 75,000. The stadium is designed for many more as you can see where it dips. That can be built upon to make the capacity bigger, comparatively cheaply and quickly. I doubt if it could be done in the close season but I still feel that it could be done maybe by reducing the capacity and just having building works where the stands are being made bigger. Maybe six months might be possible in that scenario. It would just be the seats and the bars and food stalls underneath them. Arsenal fans can be fickle Of course, a bigger ground means that success must be guaranteed. Arsenal fans quickly slope away once we start losing. Not so long ago it was a lot easier to get tickets when we were high midtable. Now we are near the top everyone wants them. Our two main heroes need to be recognised at every match One thing I would like to point out and that is that without David Dein and particularly Arsene Wenger, it would never have been built but neither seem to appear regularly. That needs to change and they both need to be there and applauded at every match. Without them there would be no Emirates stadium and probably few of the many trophies and achievements that made us a great team. We must never forget that. Dein and Wenger - they are the Emirates Stadium To end on a positive note, we have probably the best stadium in the country. All around there is history, input from the fans (lots from ASCB), all kinds of everything in Arsenal accessories, fans from everywhere, some every week, some for the first time. All have that magical level of expectation that they are where they want to be, a part of the Arsenal, drinking in the sights and the smells, looking up, looking around, and being mesmerized by seeing their heroes outside and the real-life players battling for us on the pitch. We are home and we know it.

A new team versus an old tired one? 1. Leicester 1 c 2. Ipswich, 2 c 3. Leeds, 3 c 4. Southampton, 4 c 5. West Brom 5 c 6. Cardiff 7 c 7. Sunderland 8 c 8. Hull 9 c 9. Blackburn 10 c 10. Middlesbrough 12 c 11. Stoke 13 c 12. Swansea 14 c 13. Birmingham 15 c 14. Watford 16 c 15. Norwich , 17 c 16. Coventry 20 c 17. Huddersfield 21 c 18. QPR, 23 c 19. Sheff Wed 24 c 20. Portsmouth 1 L1 21. Bolton 3 L1 22. Barnsley 5 L 23. Derby 7 L1 24. Blackpool 8 L1 25. Charlton 11 L1 26. Wigan 17 L1 27. Reading 24 L1 28. Swindon 10 L2 29. Wimbledon = MK Dons 12 L2 30. Bradford 16 L2 31. Oldham NL 1 12 Listed in order of league position as of 11/11/2023 C= Championship L1 = League 1 L2 =League 2 NL = National League Only the Premier League matters? The 31 teams above have gone out of the Premier League since Sky invented football in 1992/93 31 years ago, an average of one per season. I don’t like the way the previous history gets wiped out by commentators, tv stations, etc., but in this case I have a point to make about the Premier League so I will use statistics from it mostly. Blackburn -will they ever make it back up? Now we at Arsenal sit privileged and smug as we laugh at all those suckers who support teams who fall out of the big time. We are at the main table, we pay huge prices to support our team, and scramble every match for the privilege of doing so. There are many ticket forums with people pleading for tickets. For most of the teams in this list, getting tickets is not a problem, nor are the prices high in comparison to Arsenal. Winning can still turn you into losers Two of these teams have won the Premier League, Blackburn in 1995 and Leicester in 2016 so that is no guarantee of safety. 3 teams go every season and some rarely or never make it back. There are plenty of teams on that list that will probably never get up again. Bye bye glory days. The cups provide the only hope of a top team coming but stuffed with reserves. From Coventry down are in real danger of never getting back up. And as for a truly new club, that doesn’t really seem possible. Wimbledon, which rose from the ashes of the old Wimbledon, which relocated and went to Milton Keynes, is still a successor to the old Wimbledon. Will either get back up? Leicester - may come straight back up The problem is that football in England is very conservative. There are probably families who have supported their team since they were formed in the 19th century. Fans who switch clubs are regarded as traitors, and even the fabled golden sun supporters are most likely made up of young people looking for a successful team to support and not old ones switching allegiance. I know very few people who have switched and I have been hanging around football fans all my life. We never switch Support continues throughout families, passed down like sacred script. We are an Arsenal family, another is Man U, another is Everton. The problem is that if a team disappears, as some have, it leaves no obvious candidate to take its place. Become a traitor and support a rival? No chance! Hands up those of you who would switch to the Spuds if Arsenal went out of business? A grand old club struggling in the National league But can you see the problem here? Drop down a division and you lose both revenue and support as no club retains all their support. Maybe it is partly down to the new young supporters not wishing to support a lower team, as they emerge every season looking for teams to follow. But unless you get back up quickly, you are on a downward spiral of less money, fans and ability to attract. You could go down again, and again until like Oldham, you go out of the 4 divisions. A new team can’t rise up Oldham are in football heartland in greater Manchester, with a huge football population, they were inaugural members of the Premier League, and yet they are floundering outside the main league. Attempts are being made to stop the slide but will they work? Los Angeles Rams moved from St Louis in 2016 -a massive distance New teams really do not emerge in England. And teams are generally tied to their homeland in their title. Arsenal are among the very few that aren’t. After the fiasco with Wimbledon/Milton Keynes Dons, I doubt if a club would be allowed to relocate too far away from their home. And even Arsenal, I feel, would not risk moving outside Islington or changing their name. Conservative forces are the driving force of English football. Not for them to have famous teams relocating to different cities as happens in America. Or indeed, for new teams to emerge. These are some teams that have gone all with towns in their name: Bury FC Rushden & Diamonds FC Chester City FC Macclesfield Town FC Maidstone United Aldershot FC Darlington Wimbledon Accrington Kettering Town The excitement of Pele and the New York Cosmos in the 1970's It is almost impossible in England to start a new team. You have to start in low divisions and try and work your way up, a long and gruelling job which will probably never bear fruit. I remember the excitement when new leagues were set up in the USA, with big names like Pele, Beckenbauer and George Best among many others. That cannot happen in England. Is it a good thing? I think there can be an argument for allowing new clubs. The teams that fell apart invariably had bad management and ownership, which led to weakening the fan base. A new team, let’s call them Oldham Warriors, could find a fresh focus with genuine football based owners, and galvanise the town, giving them a reason to believe. Is there a way to make it happen? How could it be achieved amongst the existing structure? Not easily, as you can scarcely kick out a team to make way for a newcomer. One way may be to change the existing rule of promotion from the National league, currently at one, to Division two, to continue, but allow 2 teams to come instead and relegate 2. One is the NL champions and the other a new team. There would have to be strict criteria for the newbies. A proper ground, genuine football people involved, backing from the local community, a very solid business plan, and a demonstrable dedication to making the club a force in the game would be areas I would see. This could be better than clubs crawling on their knees every year, trying to pay staff, lurching from one crisis to the next, and struggling to have viable local support. Is this the only option we have for new teams? New clubs could give fresh impetus and hope to disillusioned fans. It would create an interest in the lower leagues as unheard of teams start to push up, and we wonder if they can make it to the Premier League? 4 years is the minimum, but coming from nowhere, they could attract fairly big crowds as they climb the ladder and realistically, success would be getting promotion, and playing better teams. Will it actually happen? This is an idea that could work, but the conservative forces in England will not allow it. The world keeps spinning, we need new ideas all the time, and keeping failing football clubs alive in intensive care for the sake of it may not be the way to go. Does my idea have merit? I think so. Does anyone else? Maybe not. A rebrand, not a new team? Arsenal did a rebrand that worked, moving ground and totally changing the environment in which we watch games. It was necessary, yes? Otherwise we start to fail, maybe go down and into a sinking spiral leading to National League. We had the people to build Arsenal up, to ignore the conservative forces saying that we had to keep Highbury. The Spuds did the same and Liverpool and Everton are in the process. Chelsea are trying to find a way to increase their capacity. At this moment you need huge revenues to be a top team. Rebranding a top team is far easier than at the bottom as the fans can see that it is necessary to stay challenging. I feel that two things will not change – teams will keep getting into deep trouble and it will be almost impossible to make a new team to freshen up football.