A couple of weeks before Christmas, my wife and I along with a Blackburn Rovers supporting friend and his girlfriend travelled over from Dublin to visit some friends in Blackpool. This weekend was chosen especially as, firstly, my wife and I were long overdue a visit to Blackpool plus with the home team playing Rovers that Saturday it was a perfect football opportunity for all concerned. My Rovers mate has been living in Dublin for a good number of years now but he has always maintained his support for his hometown club so everyone was happy with the opportunity to see the two Lancashire rivals at Bloomfield Road. As a complete neutral I was very much looking forward to visiting a stadium I’d never been to before (unfortunately I was unable to obtain a ticket when Arsenal played there the season before last) and enjoying a game without worrying about the result.

So how did I find the Bloomfield Road experience versus the E******s one? Very favourably I must admit! I still think the E******s is a fantastic stadium with great facilities and always enjoy watching games there but it’s also obvious that many Arsenal supporters have become turned off and are beginning to stay away due to rising ticket prices and the overall feeling that you are treated more as a “consumer” than an actual supporter. The ticket pricing issue in particular attracted a lot of attention during the season when, for our home game against Man City, the visiting club sent back approximately 900 tickets because their supporters felt £62 was too much to pay to watch a game of football! That’s fair enough but it’s also worth mentioning that when we travelled to City earlier in the season our supporters were charged around £57 for the privilege which didn’t attract the same media analysis even though there wasn’t a huge amount of difference in the prices, plus visits for Arsenal supporters to Chelsea, Spurs and QPR are also expensive but again don’t attract a media debate about away fans being exploited! I sometimes think Arsenal need to stand up for themselves a little better when we get bad press like this. For example at our home “Grade C” games there are tickets available from £26 which compare very favourably and are cheaper that many others in the Premier League. There is no doubt however that our “Grade A” prices are becoming or have become too expensive for many fans and this is something that needs to be addressed very soon! But ticket prices have been covered before and I’m sure will be again so I’ll leave that topic alone for the time being.

Back to Blackpool, and I must admit at Bloomfield Road it felt very different, it’s obvious that they are very much a big part of the local community and the whole club has a great family feel to it where you really felt part of it all and they pride themselves on their loyal local fan base. Ticket prices are very reasonable and there are great kids/family deals available on both a season ticket and match by match basis. The inner concourse reminds me actually of what Arsenal have done at the E******s as part of their “Arsenalisation” process where pictures and details of past successes and famous players and managers adorn the walls. They struck me as quite a progressive club, in recent years they have acquired ownership of a casino next door to the stadium where club members and their guests can go to before and/or after the game for a meal in their restaurant, drinks in the bar and even a flutter on the roulette wheel if you fancy it! The facilities are excellent, comfortable and just as importantly affordable so that everyone can make use of it if they so wish.

I think it’s fair to say that both Blackpool and Blackburn can be considered “proper” football clubs with history, tradition and both have a very good local and loyal support. Blackpool’s history can compare favourably to many clubs and my friend filled me in a little about their past triumphs and final appearances; one notable example (even if it was a defeat) was that when they were beaten by Man Utd in the 1948 F.A. Cup Final this was considered a major shock because at the time Utd were very much considered a small club in comparison to Blackpool. Blackburn Rovers also have a proud tradition and their recent successes as a long-standing Premier League club have been well documented and they more than held their own in that division against more obviously wealthy and larger clubs. As things stand now at the time of writing however, both of them are in the lower half of the Championship and unless their fortunes change very soon both clubs appear to be going nowhere fast.

To most observers Blackpool and Blackburn are a million miles away from Arsenal in terms of expectation, attendances and finances and to a large extent this is true. However I saw an article recently on a football website where a Blackpool supporter had written in with a headline declaring that “Blackpool’s frugality is actually only displaying a lack of ambition” and this got me thinking that maybe we’re not that far apart after all. The situation at Rovers since the Indian chicken giants Venky’s took over has been covered to a large extent in the media, the majority of their supporters are not happy, many are staying away from Ewood Park as they feel that under these new owners the club is not being run correctly and is on a slow downward spiral! The situation at Blackpool is similar in that the Oyston family who own the club may have spent a large amount of money in maintaining control of the club, however this in effect is all they have done and they haven’t actually invested much further into the playing side of things. Sounds very similar to Arsenal and our Mr Stan Kroenke who may have spent a fortune to acquire the majority shareholding at the club, but this is basically all he has done as he hasn’t actually invested any of his own money into buying new players and we still seem to be in a situation where we need to sell first before we can buy and the bottom line figures and profit margins seem to be the most important thing at the club at the moment.

Whether we like it or not, football is big business these days, football clubs are businesses and therefore need to be run and managed accordingly! The fact that Arsenal are a well-run business with a more than healthy bottom line figure should be applauded to an extent, however what separates football clubs from other business is that the most important part of any club should not just be to exist and to be well run financially ! It should be to compete and to succeed! The levels of competition vary obviously depending on who your club is, so most Arsenal supporters therefore will have a different level of expectation to Blackpool and Blackburn but the principle remains the same. We all want our clubs to compete and to (hopefully) succeed! This might mean challenging for the Premier League title, trying to qualify for the Champions League, maybe trying to get promotion into the Premier League (and maintain the position there) or maybe at the other end of the scale simply challenging to stay in the football league itself! As I said, as football supporters we all have various degrees of expectation. What’s clear however is that for the likes of Blackpool, Blackburn and many others who have owners who are simply obsessed with breaking even, then the potential to really improve and push on may never be realised and unfortunately as Arsenal supporters it’s something we’re also becoming accustomed to under Mr Kroenke’s ownership. A major change in either ownership or in the mind-set of the current owner is required if we are to try and fulfil our undoubted potential!