I would like to add further comment to the letter from Superlase in issue 175 (reproduced at the bottom of this offering – Ed) regarding transport facilities around the ground and I apologise in advance if some of the suggestions sound too simple to implement.

One of the recent bugbears from Gooner contributors has been the emptying of the stadium several minutes from the end of matches. It seems to have been ignored - even by the television commentators that there are reasons for this - mainly that some of our supporters don't want to get delayed on their journeys home.

During our first season at the Emirates (sounds much more classy than Ashburton Grove - imagine that in high letters around the ground - it sounds so "northern! - so let's move on) I have stayed behind and made use of the bars whilst the rest of the crowd disperse and have noted the following:

The obvious fact is that we have 22000 more people attending than when we were at Highbury, and that moving said 60000 away takes some management.

Transport facilities are no better than when we were at Highbury - in fact, they are made worse because Holloway Road cannot be used, so the options are walk, walk miles to your car, bus, tube at Arsenal, Finsbury Park or Highbury & Islington, First Capital Connect at Finsbury Park, or bus - that is if you can get past the police blockades due to stations clogging up.

The more options you provide, the less likely you are to have bottlenecks and then some people might stay just a bit longer - so here are my suggestions:

On matchdays provide a service to and from Moorgate - it’s a matter of staffing the stations and providing a few trains to go back and forth - and reversed after connecting at Finsbury Park or another couple of stations up the line. Arsenal and FCC could share the cost - and it might even generate revenue!

Give the Police some copies of the Network rail timetables - so their cordons can be opened in more reasonable timeframes.

Instead of making everyone file past the Arsenal World of Sport shop at Finsbury Park, irrespective of whether they are tube or Network Rail passengers - allow those using Network Rail to use the proper entrance (after all, the station employ staff to prevent people from entering the tube from the Network Rail platforms) - then people might not have to stand around for another half hour or so because of some plod being a jobsworth makes them miss their train because they have to use the World Of Sport entrance to the station.

I thought I'd raise these through the Gooner as so far - my attempts at trying to reason with the police are ignored, and I've twice lodged a potential suggestion e-form to Islington Council, but have not received a response.

Ed’s note – the letter to which Robert Flint refers in issue 175 of The Gooner is reproduced below…

Mark Vallis made some innovative points in his article (issue 174). I especially like the idea of replacing drinking in the local pubs with drinking in the ground, but our culture being what it is, this is far easier to do in the USA. I also really like the idea of a stadium station linking to Finsbury Park, Highbury & Islington and maybe beyond but I think that the TfL (Transport for London) position would be that Arsenal should build and pay for it themselves.

On the subject of transport I understand the original plan was to upgrade Holloway Road Station but feasibility studies proved this impractical, so it was deemed unsafe for the numbers expected on matchdays and thus usage was restricted. Drayton Park was never going to handle the numbers and so the decision early on was to close that also. The main problem is that there is no consultation between the Club, the Council, the Police and TfL. If Arsenal wanted all these things it could have them but it would have to foot the bill and manage the project along with the other involved parties. Health and Safety Regulations would also have to be considered, particularly at Drayton Park. It’s not the same now as when I first started going to Highbury when you might have maybe 50,000 fans milling around the area without any crowd control.

Superlase on The Gooner Forum