Kevin Whitcher
League Cup matches at the Emirates have provided an opportunity for the non-membership holding general public to buy tickets for a first team Arsenal game, at very reasonable prices - £5 and £10 for kids (lower and upper tier respectively) and £10 and £20 for adults (lower and upper). The match is not on the season tickets of those in the upper and lower tiers (although it is for those in club level), so season ticket holders have to either buy their own seat or can choose another available one for variety.
And this is why, over time, the club have gradually seen a fall in attendances for the League Cup. Many who buy a season ticket these days treat is as an annual investment which gives them the option of attending Arsenal home matches as and when they feel like it. And many either give their seats to friends or leave them empty for a good number of matches – as can be seen at all but the highest profile fixtures from the many gaps in the stadium. So with this culture of pick and choose for games they have actually paid for, they are not about to go out of the way to buy a ticket for a 3rd Round League Cup game, however cheap it might be.
So instead of 12,000 seats to sell (assuming the away allocation is 3,000), suddenly the club have 48,000 seats to sell (57,000 minus the approx. 9,000 seats in club level and the hospitality boxes). With the take up by season ticket holders, silver and red members not making too much of a dent in that figure, the club get active on two fronts – marketing the game to non members – i.e. Joe Public – and giving away blocks of seats to schools.
They have done a fair job on tonight’s game for the lower tier. It will look fairly full except for the blocks where all the giveaway tickets are not used. The upper tier though is going to look very strange. The blocks on the halfway line have sold fairly well – people choosing the best possible seat from the website options and paying their £20. And at the front of some blocks, you can see that the club have given away tickets to schools. But many of the blocks will only have bodies in the first row or two. If you have a lower tier ticket, you can just stroll upstairs and pick your seat in most blocks. It will feel very eerie up there.
Significantly, it sends the message to the club that, slowly but surely, the appetite for watching Arsenal is in decline. The biting point will be when Premier League games do not sell out habtually (West Brom next Monday night is not as yet a sell out) and when the season ticket waiting list expires, and people can simply apply for a season ticket in the summer and get one. We are some way off that one at present, but if Arsenal have less and less meaningful matches – in terms of competing for big trophies and facing big European teams – the day will come. League Cup games, in the greater scheme of things, do not matter, but they are an indicator of the depth of interest / enthusiasm for the club.
This time next season, they will have lost a pair of marquee players, and a crowdpleaser (Jack Wilshere). Theo Walcott does not put bums on seats (as tonight will confirm). Alexandre Lacazette might do if he can propel his new club back into contention, but let’s face it, he was no superstar – unlike Ozil and Sanchez, when he arrived. He needs to become a modern day Thierry Henry, alongside the equivalents of Bergkamp, Vieira and Pires to lift the club again.
Take a look at the upper tiers this evening. This might just be the shape of things to come.
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