The Black Scarf Movement
(Ed’s note – The Gooner and onlinegooner are an open church which will give air to the views of Arsenal fans across the spectrum of divided opinion. We have been asked to publicise the following march by the Black Scarf Movement/Where has our Arsenal gone? Given that we have a lot of sympathy with some of their initiatives, we are happy to do so. A representative from the BSM will be appearing on the Gooner podcast this week to explain more fully their aims and position.)
We are calling for a gathering of BSM members and supporters on 1 December, before the Swansea match, to join us on a walk to ‘Bear Roundabout’ outside The Armoury.
The objectives of this walk are to heighten the Board’s awareness in the following areas:
We want Stan Kroenke’s commitment not to take money from the club.
We want Peter Hill-Wood off the Board. He has become an embarrassment to the club and its supporters.
We want Red & White Holdings to be offered a seat on the Board. Ivan Gazidis called for us to all come together and work in the same direction but how does this work when a 30% shareholder in the club doesn’t get to have a say? In what other large business would this blocking of a major shareholder happen?
We want action from the club to stop poor allocation of our money. From wasting money on players we have to write off a year later, to handing out huge contracts to players who we can’t then sell on because nobody will match what we pay. It’s mismanagement and it’s the fans who get hit in the pocket because the club fails in other revenue generating areas such as commercial deals.
We want the club to deliver the initiatives we’ve previously put to them, which would greatly benefit match going fans. These include:
A ‘lite’ version of a season ticket with no cup credits
A short-term staged repayment scheme for season ticket renewals
The ability for season ticket holders to downgrade to Silver membership
Move away fans to the upper tier, thereby providing cheaper seats for Arsenal fans
Introduce season tickets in the Clock End at Emirates; recreate the atmosphere of the famous old stand at Highbury and improve the Emirates atmosphere on matchdays.
Introduce safe standing. This continues to be investigated by more and more clubs across the country but continues to be ignored by Arsenal.
Cheaper tickets at Emirates Stadium. If you can afford to sit on £70m of cash in the bank, you don't need to charge fans the highest ticket prices in football.
On 1 December we will be meeting at 1.30pm outside Cannons public house on Blackstock Road (opposite The Gunners pub). The walk will start at 2pm and take us past our beloved Highbury and down to Emirates Stadium where we’ll end at ‘Bear Roundabout’.
Come and join us and let the Board know that change is needed. That the Board needs to listen to its core support. Tell your friends and help spread the word. Come along, let’s make a stand.
Please do all you can to drum up support for this. We're working the media channels to get coverage, so we need numbers on the day.
More information can be found here.
