Tim Sansom
Have you been on a stadium tour around Arsenal’s ground? It is a difficult to escape the tour posters which line the escalators of key underground stations. The dramatically red advertising tempts you to spend a day, or at least an afternoon walking around the stadium, treating the place like a show room, and peeking into the areas that are often out of bounds to the general public. Arsenal is going big on their tour. Even on non-match days, they want fans to come to the stadium. These other tours (or ‘experiences’) do exist but I have never seen an advert for a tour around Wembley or Chelsea, whilst out and about across town.
I have been on the Arsenal tour twice this year. Back in January, I enjoyed the tour and really got the meaning of what Arsenal Football Club means to people. Recently, I took a friend who is a devout Arsenal fan who seemed to enjoy the experience. In this age when tickets are at such a premium to watch Arsenal play, it is possible that this tour will be the only occasion when some fans can see inside the stadium doors. A decent tour is important for this club. A bad visit may break any passion that a fan may have for their club. There is no question that this tour continues to gives you the complete full-on experience.
Who goes on these stadium tours? Football fans of the home club, children of football fans, football fans’ partners, and the football geeks of other clubs, stadium architects, and tourist who need to fill one of their day’s holidays. On the Saturday, when I visited, all those groups were present on the self-guided tour. Visitors drifted around the route in a hypnotised state, murmuring in hushed tones that this was the dressing room, the director’s box, and where Wenger sits in the dugout. When you are on the tour, it really feels that you are walking around a saintly church just before mass takes place.
The information is full on for the visitor. The amount could be too much for the youngest visitors but the commentary is by Bob Wilson, and there are regular options via your audio device to watch player interviews, great goals, and sage words from Wenger. Having been on some of these tours around other stadia, the Arsenal experience is the most comprehensive. If you decided to listen and watch everything via your audio box, this tour could take many hours, and that would still not count the minutes to take the champagne pictures or to just gaze silently around a beautiful stadium bowl.
There is a large amount of detail about the Invincibles season which happened over ten years ago, much to my shock. On the day of the visit, fans could be photographed next to the Charity Shield and FA Cups, and pick up their snaps from the megastore (for an additional fee). It was a nice idea, although not cheap, and for an Arsenal fan, you hope to be photographed next to a Premiership or Champions League trophy in the near future.
The first view of the pitch on this tour is via the Director’s Box. It is the area for the signature photograph, or you can just sit on one of the extremely comfy director’s chairs to take in the eerie, but expectant atmosphere that is a football stadium on a non-match day. The silence is there. A general murmur may be amongst other visitors lining up their loved ones for a champagne snap, but people are lost for words when they see the massive cavernous stands. At this point, you do not want to be linked up to an audio device, with a voice droning on about how this stadium was built. You just want to breathe in the air.
Arsenal staff are out and about on the tour and they are friendly and knowledgeable. Not condescending in any way. They are also very patient and are willing to swap anecdotes and some banter. During my visit, one of them in the home changing room seemed to be spending her Saturday afternoon constantly taking pictures for visitors who wanted a photo next to an Ozil or Wilshere shirt. However, she knew her club history, and seemed to welcome any opportunity to give a few nuggets about what life is like in the changing room on a match day. The public seemed to love this. In a room that basically consisted of a serious of wardrobes without doors, it was a friendly place to be - very British in tone. This atmosphere is not always there at other stadiums.
By the time that the friend and I had reached the end of the tour and the interview booths, we were pretending to be interviewing each other in a hammed up Match of the Day style, in front of the real advertising boards - much to the delight of foreign tourists. I wondered whether some of these tourists thought that our act was part of the tour. You can also play the journalist, asking the unwelcome question to the ‘manager’ in the press room. It is a lot of fun, but it does feel a bit of an anti-climax when you have to travel back over the service road into the brightly lit mega store, where you can buy a range of polyester and plastic goods with the armoury badge, served by even more friendly staff.
It is very difficult to not walk out of the megastore, full of bright lights, shockingly young staff, and fast paced urban hip sounds without buying something. I decided to buy some Arsenal market biros, and a certificate of attendance. You can get yourself a free certificate saying that you took part in the tour. On reflection, I think that I probably was too old to get a certificate, but it is a nice idea that has been introduced since my first tour in January. The club seem to realise that visitors had made the effort to get to the stadium, and not every fan can afford to clad their life in Arsenal merchandise.
My tour and E******s ‘experience’ finished after three hours. It could have gone on for much longer, but time was pressing for other activities. If you are a devout Arsenal fan, you can spend much longer drifting around the home of your club, and for fans of other teams, the Arsenal tour is well worth the visit. Even non-football fans will find some things of interest. This experience is not especially cheap. For parents of Arsenal loving kids, it will be very difficult to stop your money slowly drifting away from your credit card throughout your visit, on behalf of your sons and daughters. However, for a club that has come to recognise that it needs the general public even on a non-match day, this attraction is a fine effort.
