Reference the article by Mark Vallis in issue No 174 of The Gooner. Ed’s note - Reproduced for those who did not buy the issue at the bottom of this article. Can you tell me if anyone has actually communicated this excellent article to the club? I was really impressed with his observations on the lack of transport facilities available to us after the games and his suggestion about the buses.

We have gone from having crowds of 38,000 to just over 60,000 and the transport facilities have actually deteriorated as I cannot remember the Holloway Road station being closed to passengers after matches at Highbury and it seems that the surveys supporters completed in relation to getting to/from the stadium were a complete waste of time.

It always amazes me that we have a railway line that runs right past our door but we don’t have access to it. I would have thought that after the games the railway company could at least run a shuttle service from the stadium to Finsbury Park and Kings Cross stations.

When the recent Champions League game finished in Eindhoven the visiting supporters did not even have to leave the stadium to gain access to the train that took people back to Amsterdam, OK, not everyone wants to go to one destination but it must ease the congestion on the other modes of transport.

Is it indicative of how the club hierarchy view the supporters that there seems to be no integrated transport plan between the club and the transport companies?

Could other bodies connected to Arsenal take these transport ideas to the club and see if something can be provided for the start of next season?

Ed’s note – Here is the article to which Tony Ward refers…

Come On Feel The Noise

Mark Vallis with some original answers to an age-old problem

Complaints about the lack of atmosphere at the new ground appear in The Gooner on a pretty regular basis. Can anyone tell me if anyone at the club, whether fans, players or administrators, has taken any steps to turn this round? I haven't noticed any evidence. As the saying goes: “If you always do what you've always done, you’ll always get what you've always got”. It doesn't always take a great deal to create (or lose) an atmosphere – just a few changes from everyone involved and a determination to turn things round. We're all in this together, after all.

Firstly, before the game: the pre-match drinking ritual has always been one of life's mysteries to me. The Arsenal stadium is surrounded by pubs most of which, on any other day of the week, you would cheerfully avoid like the plague. They are unpleasant, depressing places but, for some reason, on match days they are absolutely heaving with people, to the point where you can't move, let alone get served. The publican, in all likelihood, has little or no interest in football, let alone AFC, but is quite happy to take your money as he needs it to bankroll his holiday place in Spain.

Meanwhile, we have a brand spanking new stadium that proudly boasts that it can deliver millions of pints in ten seconds flat. Could we not, as a body of people, change our drinking patterns and get into the stadium early? I can't help feeling that if you're trying to create a bit of life in the place, that would be as good a place to start as any.

The club would have to do its bit. Put some better beer in at a more attractive price for a start. Is that so difficult? They would also need to make the bar areas a bit more inviting, but that's not impossible with a bit of imagination and a will to create something. Most fans work in offices during the week. Come Saturday, they want the "football" experience, not the "corporate" one. Think about it, Arsenal! There are plenty of telly screens dotted about. How about showing the goal compilations from previous seasons on them? You could easily "theme" it. Drag out a few ex-players to wander about signing autographs, or even current staff who are not playing that day. It's hardly rocket science, is it? The spin off is that the club would earn money.

What about the concourse? I know the English weather doesn't always lend itself to standing around outside, but the potential for that area is never used, other than getting from A to B. What a waste. Come on, Arsenal, use your imagination for Christ's sake. Producing a building is something, a big something, but maximising its use is quite another.

Half time: a nightmare! You've got to keep everybody's focus on the pitch, in any way you can think of. Opening the bars and giving away free drinks is actually counter-productive. And 15 minutes is not long enough, anyway. The team coming out for the second half should be an event in itself, not players coming out in dribs and drabs to a half empty stadium. Whatever the motivational effects of Wenger's team talk might be, they must surely dissolve as soon as the players come out on the pitch. Keep bums on seats at all costs. Get your staff to bring food and drinks out to the people, if you have to. The Yanks do it in their stadiums. Why can't we?

The end of the match. An even worse nightmare. Am I being deeply cynical or would it be true to say that public transport on match days is more or less identical to that on non-match days? Transport for London? Yeah right! They've really got that one taped. Build a big new stadium and actually provide less transportation. Beggars belief, doesn't it? How do you get people to stay right till the end? Not that difficult. You have queues of buses sitting outside the stadium to take you to three or four transport nodes, and they start to roll ten minutes after the final whistle. Again, that's precisely what they do in America and it works like a dream. They use the same system getting you there from a number of pick up points. Why do we have to be so bleedin' stupid? We have more bus lanes than probably any other city in the world! Well, here's a revolutionary thought. Why don't we put some buses in them. Duh!

The point is, we can all do a bit. All it means is changing things round a little. Why do we never feel inclined to change anything, even when it patently isn't working? You tell me.