The Arsenal Fans’ Forum took place yesterday with both Josh Kroenke and Vinai Venkatesham in attendance. This is the first time that the Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke's son has attended this year after missing the earlier Forum which took place in the wake of the LA Rams Superbowl victory. Although, Josh was present at the first Fan Advisory Board meeting in 2022.
During the Arsenal Fans’ Forum, there were a number of topics discussed from the Amazon: All or Nothing series, stadium refurbishment, transfers and ticketing. It is the latter which caught the attention of supporters with a new policy set to be introduced.
According to those attending the event and publishing the content of the meeting on social media such as the Red Action Gooners , Arsenal plan to implement a system to deter season ticket holders from failing to attend. Arsenal matches, despite showing near full capacity matches, often suffer hundreds, even thousands, of empty seats on matchday.
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Arsenal have a system whereby if a season ticket holder is not attending they can put their ticket onto a system called the Ticket Exchange, making it available for other members to purchase. However, the club has clearly needed to take action with this not happening enough.
The information claims that the club will now make it so if a season ticket holder fails to attend ten matches they will be unable to renew their ticket for the following season. However, should they make their seat available on the ticket exchange, this will not count towards a non-attendance – even if no one purchases it on the exchange.
On the surface, this appears like a good thing. However, there is an argument that the system prevents unhappy supporters from performing their own personal protests against the club.
Protests have been far from uncommon, be they targeting the manager, a lack of spending or simply the ownership’s custodianship of the club. Most recently saw the biggest protest in recent memory as fans turned out in their thousands to show their opposition to the proposed European Super League plans.
This new season ticket policy will impact some supporters' ability to show protest against the ownership. Voting with their feet, as it has been described, some supporters despite having a season ticket refuse to attend until the club shows greater ambition towards returning Arsenal back to its title-challenging pedestal.
With the new policy, supporters would be forced to attend matches or allow someone else to go in their place. The only way around the issue would be to attend the matches but watch on the screens from the concourse.
Arguably the club are making attempts to return the team back to its place amongst the elite. The club spent more than any side in the summer of 2021 and could qualify for the Champions League with the youngest average side in the division.
Yet this overhaul does still impact on this aspect of a supporters’ actions. The hope will be that the ground is better attended, and the atmosphere will have a positive impact on player performance, turning the Emirates from a place criticised for its lack of atmosphere into a cauldron of noise.
