Fans' Forum - Feb 09

Ben Frost provides the key points from the February 2009 meeting of the official AFC Supporters Forum.
 

Arsenal Fans Forum 2008/09 - Saturday 21st February 2009
 

Highlights

• Ivan Gazidis was at the meeting, the first time he has met officially with a group of Arsenal fans.
• Season ticket prices will be frozen next season. With the 2.5% VAT cut, they are actually going down. But, with more than 7 cup ties this season, the price most people will pay will actually be more than this season.
• There are advanced plans for a “Highbury Shrine” outside the stadium, and for significant “Arsenalisation” on the lower tier concourses.
 

Ivan Gazidis
• Was at the meeting throughout. First impressions were that he is a warm, genuine guy – very different to Keith Edelman (in a good way).
• He briefly introduced himself and told his story. He lived all over the UK as a child, and supported all of his local teams.
• When he worked as a lawyer in London, he lived in Stamford Hill, and went to Highbury from time to time.
• At MLS, his 2 roles were marketing the league, and player transfers. He has concluded around 1000 international player transfers, including many from places where “sharp practices” are rife! He has probably done more player transfers than anybody in the world (even including Redknapp and Benitez).
• He is very optimistic about Arsenal’s future – especially as the recession brings some harsh realities home for other clubs.
• He believes that it is very important to get the club’s relationship with fans right.
• 2 commitments to fans “We will always listen”, and “We will admit mistakes”.
 

Finances and Season Tickets
• It isn’t brain surgery to know that, if we do not qualify for the Champions League, it will be a financial issue. It will mean either that the cost budgets will need to be cut, or that additional revenue will need to be found – most likely a combination of both.
• Also, it isn’t a surprise that the recession will cause problems for football. On this issue, Ivan Gazidis believes that Arsenal are better placed to cope than any of our main competitors, and wouldn’t want to swap places with any of them.
• Season ticket prices will not be going up next season. With the 2.5% VAT cut, they will be going down. However, as we will play more than 7 cup ties this season, the amount that most people pay will be more than this year. Non qualification for the Champions League may change this situation further (presumably downwards).
• The club are confident that the season ticket renewal rate will be high. Clearly, non renewals will be higher than previously, but the club are confident that waiting lists are more than robust, not least because they are still very big.
• The club won’t be offering payment terms on season tickets. They have tried and failed to find a finance partner that would offer a better deal than you could get on the High Street. Simply allowing delayed payment was not something they would consider.
• Churn in Club Level is an important issue for the club, again they are confident that waiting lists will take up any slack this year. However, they are aware that, with 4 year Club Level deals up for renewal next year, that summer 2010 will be important.
 

Spurs Away Tickets
• Ivan Gazidis explained the club’s position, which in summary is:
• They felt that they should “do the right thing”, and treat Spurs as they would want to be treated.
• The issue was over £10 that, had everything gone according to plan, nobody would have had in the first place.
• It “doesn’t sit well” with Ivan that away scheme members were treated less well than one-off purchasers of tickets.
• Therefore, there is continued discussion inside the club about what to do for away scheme members.
• Spurs have paid Arsenal’s additional costs to recover the money.
 

Arsenalisation
• The club presented 2 proposals for "Arsenalisation" of the stadium and podium. First, a "Highbury Shrine". Second, a series of initiatives for the lower tier concourses. Both of these have had design concepts created, and the plan is to introduce them in the summer.
• The Highbury Shrine is a 50ft by 10ft wall, planned for podium level, in the corner above the Armoury. Its main feature is a huge “squad photo”, of every player that ever played for Arsenal at Highbury. Imagine a huge school photo, with the 2005/6 squad on the right hand side, and every previous player in chronological order, ending with the 1913 players on the left. Every player name is there, along with every trophy we won at Highbury. On the reverse of the wall is a huge cannon. The proofs looked absolutely fantastic.
• There are various plans to create different kinds of artwork to decorate the Lower Tier concourses. There are 4 different types of artwork planned, and it was agreed that the next Fans Forum meeting would be used to get feedback on the style and content of this.
 

Other subjects
• The possibility of having concession tickets outside the Family Enclosure was raised again. The current club policy not to do this is under review, Ivan Gazidis said that it is high on the radar, not least because other clubs do this. The issue is working out a way to police a system to prevent abuse, but in principle the club are looking to review the current policy.
• On Arsenal’s policy of “no comment” to the media on many issues; it was explained that, as a Public Company, many issues are off limits in terms of comment from the club – e.g. financial results, boardroom, etc – they either have to be announced officially to the stock market, or not at all. Also, generally the club do not comment on transfers, as this weakens their negotiating positions. On the Arshavin transfer specifically, it was pointed out that Sky Sports changed the “story” so often, that comment from the club would have needed to happen every 10 minutes. Ivan Gazidis said that he was shaking hands with Arshavin at the same time as Sky Sports News were saying he was at the airport waiting to fly home.
• It was confirmed that Emmanuel Eboue was fined by the club for his sending off at Spurs.