Picking up on Marco Silva's recent post ( Those overpriced pies are funding Thierry Henry , I would like to extend some of his more economic themes into an area that is dear to all our hearts: the atmosphere! Although I am a member of the RedAction forum, and have supported many of the events last season (DB10 day) and have been to the pre-match watering hole, the Rocket, it strikes me that if RedAction and other gladly vocal Gooners want to drum up atmosphere at the Emirates there is only one place they should be before a game, and that is at the Emirates!!!!
If you had those guys singing in the lower tiers or upper tier bars before a game, more people will pick up some of the lesser known or newer songs, thereby increasing the likelihood of actually getting them sung during the game. For the last five home games pints have been £2.50 pre-match and Premiership games have been shown in the upper tier (and, I believe, from Saturday's programme, will now be shown in the lower tier too). Like Marco said, this is just as cheap as many pubs around the area.
There are many different ways of doing this. Taking advantage of the ability to walk all the way round the concourses, a group could move around singing. As in the old North Bank before a game - people will join in! There could be a area before a game in the North Lower concourses where we all gather, have a few pints and a singsong. Gathering in that area would then become tradition. The noise that could be created in the lower concourses could be tremendous. Club level would even be able to hear us! The club have provided us with a wonderful new facility. It's up to us to make it our own. If we don't use it before and after games it will never feel like it is.
On the concourses at the moment the sense of common purpose and community that used to be at Highbury isn't quite there yet. But it could be. Recently on the RedAction boards there have been lots of excellent suggestions for new songs (Also on the onlinegooner forum – Ed). There is a unanimous feeling that they need to be "put out there". The question is how to do it.
Someone like Cesc certainly needs more vocal support - "He wears the number 4, we love him even more". Alex Hleb and Kolo as well. These players are the future of our club. If they do not feel that they are loved individually as well as collectively it will make looking elsewhere a whole lot easier. TH14 has said himself, as has Cashley Cole, that the reaction of the fans on the final day against Wigan was instrumental in deciding their respective destinies.
I can see the rationale behind going to the Rocket and the pub before games but if passionate fans such as RedAction want to encourage others to improve the atmosphere they need to be where other fans are, and that's at the ground.