Why are our home fans so bad?

[Accomplished]

The ticket price thing I think really effects age more than class. I've never been told to sit down by a young person but loads of older men (45+) complain to the stewards and shout "sit down" if you get up at all.

Great point. There are plenty of "middle class" young people who go who make a bit of noise and are there to have fun (i.e, not just sit and watch the football whilst moaning), so I'd agree that it's more about age than class. I got told to sit down by some older guy whilst watching a penalty a few seasons ago, still can't believe it to this day. Young(er) people want a good atmosphere, to get a bit rowdy and have some beers, older people (no matter what "class") tend not to.

Another thing which annoys me, which obviously is out of our control, is the fact that many of the big games have an early kick off. I know this is often for TV and the police prefer derbies to be early to stop mass drinking, but it completely ruins some of the best matches of the season. We don't want to have to start drinking at 10am in order to get plenty of beers inside us before the game, so the noisier fans just never get going in those games, at least not for the first half. Even if it's not about drinking, the lunchtime kick offs are just too early for some people to get in the mood, and I've always noticed a dramatic drop in atmosphere. Even RedAction seems to struggle with early games.

I'd love to see Arsenal be proactive on this and start creating singing sections (they've created 1, but that's not enough). They could be the first English club to really try to improve the atmosphere in a big way, but we all know it's not going to happen.

It's all very depressing really, I can't wait to start going to away games primarily. I thought the atmosphere at the ground had picked up last season, at least marginally, and the club had made some progress. But this season it really is utterly dire. It's like all the things people complain about (people leaving early and complete lack of noise) have become "the norm" and now they are getting worse because people are used to it.

The singing sections idea really has to happen soon. There's often a great atmosphere in the pubs around the ground leading up to kick off, with plenty of people making noise. The fact that this doesn't translate to noise inside the stadium just shows that the people wanting to make noise are far too spread out.

 

[Accomplished]

We travel well but it's downright embarrasing at times when teams like Leeds come to town and take the roof off, yet we've got 50,000 odd people just sitting there.

Leeds was horrific. The atmosphere on Thierry's return last year should have been unbelievable. When he scored, I don't think I've been that happy at an Arsenal game in years. Turned around in my euphoria and most people were sitting down just a minute after he'd scored.

 

[goonerwarsh]

We travel well but it's downright embarrasing at times when teams like Leeds come to town and take the roof off, yet we've got 50,000 odd people just sitting there.

Leeds was horrific. The atmosphere on Thierry's return last year should have been unbelievable. When he scored, I don't think I've been that happy at an Arsenal game in years. Turned around in my euphoria and most people were sitting down just a minute after he'd scored.

Well I was going nuts...I was up in the gods somewhere though. Literally my arse was touching the top of the stadium. I didn't know if it was Thierry Henry scoring or Wojciech Szczęsny

 

[Cruisio]

Been to Stamford Bridge, Loftus Road, Old Trafford, Villa Park and have had friends who have been to Anfield and St James' Park

The only one that had an atmosphere any better than ours was St James' Park

It's the way of the modern fan rather than a problem with just us, it's just a stigma that's been thrown at our club for years from OTHER people, not our own fans and from people who regularly go to the games

I've been a season ticket holder for 13 years now and i'm happy enough with our fans, it's what's on the pitch that's a problem

 

[MaestroCesc]

We travel well but it's downright embarrasing at times when teams like Leeds come to town and take the roof off, yet we've got 50,000 odd people just sitting there.

Leeds was horrific. The atmosphere on Thierry's return last year should have been unbelievable. When he scored, I don't think I've been that happy at an Arsenal game in years. Turned around in my euphoria and most people were sitting down just a minute after he'd scored.

Really i remember since he came on it being incredible, huge noise for the rest of the game and it was one of the few games where i could stand up for an extended period of time. Several singing sections sounds like a great idea and i agree the upper tier is unattached to the game too much.

 

[Accomplished]

We travel well but it's downright embarrasing at times when teams like Leeds come to town and take the roof off, yet we've got 50,000 odd people just sitting there.

Leeds was horrific. The atmosphere on Thierry's return last year should have been unbelievable. When he scored, I don't think I've been that happy at an Arsenal game in years. Turned around in my euphoria and most people were sitting down just a minute after he'd scored.

Really i remember since he came on it being incredible, huge noise for the rest of the game and it was one of the few games where i could stand up for an extended period of time. Several singing sections sounds like a great idea and i agree the upper tier is unattached to the game too much.

Ah maybe it's just where I was, or maybe I was expecting something a bit more special given how happy I was

 

[VAVAVOOM 14]

Also, I believe the biggest loss we've had to endure since moving from Highbury to The Emirates is the distance of the pitch to the stands.

This was what made Highbury so miraculous, the fans were tightly enclosed around the pitch. It made for a very intimate set up, it was almost like some sort of nest.

I understand with these bigger stadiums you probably can't get AS close, but I certainly feel we could be brought closer to the game.

Whether or not it would increase the decibel levels is another issue.

 

[say yes]

I absolutely despise threads like this. I've been going to pretty much every home game for well over 10 years now and nothing pisses me off more than people criticising our home fans.

First things first, stop pretending our home fans are any worse than the other big clubs. I've been to a lot of away grounds and most of them are even quieter than the emirates. Case in point, I was at OT when they spanked us 8-2 and guess what? The roar aside for each goal, their support was absolutely appalling. Dead silent and outsung the entire game by our away support (which is phenomenal).

Secondly how the **** are our home support glory supporters? It very rarely gets mentioned in the press but you should be reminded that Arsenal haven't won a trophy in 7 (probably soon to be 8) years! Yet year-in, year-out, our home support keep renewing the most expensive season tickets in europe. I bet you every other club wishes they had such loyal 'glory supporters'.

Do you have any idea how ****ing jading it is turning up and watching arsenal get outplayed by some ****house side every other week? The home support are absolutely exhausted of lacklustre arsenal performances. Do you know what the worst thing about games like this are? They are not even surprising any more. We've won 2 of our last 8 home games ffs.
Do you have any idea how depressing it is watching your side getting outplayed by the likes of Wigan, Norwich season after season, in the freezing cold, having spent thousands of pounds for the privilege? Going to home games is a huge commitment, and one a lot of those fans have worked their socks off for. You can't just close down your internet stream and go and have a moan on the internet. It takes hours out of your day.

Support is a two-way process. Give the fans something to get excited about and they will sing. This has been proven at the emirates time and time again. In big games the emirates is often rocking (see Barca/Sp**s/Milan etc). The atmosphere in the Arsenal-United champions league semi a few years back was incredible. Of course it quietened down a bit when we went 2-0 down in about 6 minutes but when the team puts some effort in and needs the fans they're often there (see our home form early 2012).

Yes our home support could be better, but the fact of the matter is that the majority of the emirates needs encouragement to sing and the team last night supplied absolutely nothing in that regards.

What the **** is wrong with these people, confirms my suspicion that most people in the stadium on match days aren't actual Arsenal fans but tourists, posh families going out to watch some footie with the lower class common folk and other people with no real interest in the club.

oh **** off.

 

[qs]

What the **** is wrong with these people, confirms my suspicion that most people in the stadium on match days aren't actual Arsenal fans but tourists, posh families going out to watch some footie with the lower class common folk and other people with no real interest in the club.

oh **** off.

Yep. A clear case of not even understanding how to get tickets for the Emirates. How many tickets are even available without a membership for most matches? The fact is that most of the foreigners at the Emirates have spent an absolute fortune to get there and are in London mainly to see Arsenal, most of them have memberships and a lot of them go regularly or semi-regularly. I've heard plenty of foreign fans singing and I've seen plenty of locals sit there tutting and rolling their eyes.

Even if every tourist in the stadium sat there and at sandwiches what percentage of the crowd is that, 5%, 10% maybe?

 

[leo_ense]

I agree that Arsenal fans haven't been great lately, but the problem is with English football in general. Stamford Bridge, Highbury, Anfield, and the emirates are the stadiums I have been to in this country and all have been poor. It seems the English fans are less passionate but the games are also regulated more here so a combination of these make most atmospheres poor. I don't think I'll ever experience anything in England like I have at Camp Nou or even the atmospheres you see at other clubs (particularly in the Bundesliga).

 

[jones]

What the **** is wrong with these people, confirms my suspicion that most people in the stadium on match days aren't actual Arsenal fans but tourists, posh families going out to watch some footie with the lower class common folk and other people with no real interest in the club.

oh **** off.

Yep. A clear case of not even understanding how to get tickets for the Emirates. How many tickets are even available without a membership for most matches? The fact is that most of the foreigners at the Emirates have spent an absolute fortune to get there and are in London mainly to see Arsenal, most of them have memberships and a lot of them go regularly or semi-regularly. I've heard plenty of foreign fans singing and I've seen plenty of locals sit there tutting and rolling their eyes.

Even if every tourist in the stadium sat there and at sandwiches what percentage of the crowd is that, 5%, 10% maybe?

I don't "even" understand how to get tickets, because where I'm from it's apparently different than in England. And maybe I was to quick to judge the fans, maybe it was the frustration after just losing to Schalke at home.

But in any case, it is a disgrace that there were people jeering our own player. I've been to numerous games of my hometown club here in Germany, a club that in the past spent most of its time battling relegation, and the football rarely did for a good showing, since the team consisted mostly of awful players, far worse than Gervinho. But still, you'd probably get beaten up in the stands or in the seating places for booing your own players, and in this case it matters **** all if the tickets are expensive or not.

Only good thing about it was there were other fans who were quick to react to them and outcheer them.

 

[Giroud]

I think all PL home grounds are generally quiet although you do get those small groups creating noise but compared to what I have experienced with Porto, Benfica and Braga fans it is nothing. The Porto fans were singing from 6 right until the next morning during the Europa League final, everyone stands up and a lot of them ditch their seats to join the front row which I didn't mind at all. Just added to the atmosphere and created a family feeling throughout the stadium. I can barely speak any Portuguese but they all felt like friends when Porto went one up.

I wish we experienced more of these things in our domestic leagues.

 

[jerome2158]

it's quite difficult to get tickets to the Arsenal.

I'll give you my example, since I went yesterday after awhile.

First off, spent a fair bit on the most basic of entry-level memberships. This was in july. That'll be about $55 (american) already spent...simply for the privilege of having a chance at buying a ticket.

Then comes airfare, lodging, transport and being in london for a few days. I don't know the exact price off my head, but it's probably in the region of $1500 minimum.

And next I get the grand right to wake up at 4am, and sit in an online queue for 2 hours to buy one of the last seats to the match. Oh and the club are gracious enough to make me pay more for that ticket than anyone else in the country does for theirs.


So then after all this money spent, hours spent on planes, trains, and in airports...

I get there, it brings back great memories of the last time I was there. Tears in my eyes when the team comes out because I'm so happy.

Then the team plays like a bunch of mediocre 12 year olds who haven't practiced in months.


And people think I ought to cheer for gervinho, who can't hold the ball, or ramsey, who is more effective than a defender at killing our attacks? Or the worst of all, andre santos, who doesn't even know where he is?


I didn't boo them. I still cheered on the team as a whole. And i'm not demanding a win just because I'm there. But based on the ticket prices alone, the fans deserve better.

 

[RandomHero84]

Yup - I'd like to see a relaxation of the 'all seating' policy as an outcome of the new reports post Hillsborough. Not only would the atmosphere improve but also finances with improved Home gate (we lost 20k at Highbury with all seating).
The current rules for clubs in the Championship to have all seating within 3 seasons (regardless of maintaining Championship status) are a bloody mill-stone.

I blame ELvis & 'The Wonder Of You' for setting the wrong tone.

Give me 'London's Calling' / 'Who Are You' / something with a bit of grit but still popular enough for the masses.

We did actually play London calling 10 mins prior last night actually.

 

[Cruisio]

I also never understood the flak that foreigners got for getting to the games

If you can travel all that way and spend all that money to get a ticket then more power to you.

 

[beck]

I wanted to make a topic on our home fans and how poor they are for a while now. Nobody sings, everyone sits down and goes on their phones and if you do stand up and sing you get shouted at to sit down.

Today was a pefect example, at 1-0 to Schalke half the stadium left even though there was a bit to go, yes we were awful but you payed for the ticket and we might have turned it round, why not stay for a bit longer? Most of them are glory hunters and only care if we win, yes thats a big part of supporting your club but its not everything.

Finally, the awful support of players. The moaning at Ramsey last season, the infamous horrific booing of Eboue and today the jeers for Gervinho coming off, frankly parts of the support are a disgrace.

Our away fans are much much better, although im am not happy with their RVP rape song.

It isnt as if all the true fans are being priced out, as there are 60,000 in the stadium. So not all of them will be the ones sitting on their Blackberry's all game, so why is it so quiet compared to other stadiums?

i sing whenever a song is struck up.its an all seater stadium i stand up when an incident dictates. never been on my phone during a game in my life.
have you ever seen the emirates half empty.
i have for youth cup games trust me half the stadium did,nt leave when we went 1 down.
i like this diferential between the away fans and the home fans.
the away fans don,t go in a box and only come out for away fans
they are the home fans as well

 

[beck]

1) Stewards tell you to sit down, part of the rules for 905 of the stadia.

2) Too expensive so people with passion and not much money can't go and end up in the pubs.

Rest of that I don't know generally I don't think arsenal fans with season tickets generally care that much about that side of support.

The RVP rape song is sound, f#ck him he's a **** and deserves it.

i have a season ticket i care passionatly about cheering for my club
the rvp rape song is disgusting and has no place in a football ground
we have more class than that

 

[beck]

Another point re German support is that they are allowed limited standing areas in the Bundesliga = fosters a very vocal & visual display which they can replicate Away.

By contrast we market ourselves as an 'entertainment' business moreso than strictly as a football club.

i may talk out of my arse but never felt the need to sing or shout out of it.
home fans have always been quieter than away fans
its something about the siege mentality at away games
you sit down at away games
does,nt stop you singing

 

[beck]

Arsenal have always been marked for their quiet, sullen fans. Ever heard of the Highbury library?

As soon as things aren't going our way, we turn into church mice. It's embarrassing.

its a wonder i can tear myself away from my cure and joy division albums to go and sit misarably over the emirates.
sullen fans ?
what a load of bollocks
had some of the greatest laughs of my life in and around arsenal fans win lose or draw

 

[beck]

Arsenal have always been marked for their quiet, sullen fans. Ever heard of the Highbury library?

As soon as things aren't going our way, we turn into church mice. It's embarrassing.

And yet I've also heard from plenty of ex-pats & locals out here who are NOT Gooners & have been to games at BOTH Highbury & The Emirates & not only rate the latter as amongst the best viewing grounds,
but also that the atmosphere can be magic.
Some of these are long term supporters of other clubs who regularly fly back on hols to see family, but also take in games in other countries across Europe & the UK whilst on those hols.

IIRC the common theme in the reports seems to be a before & after Hillsborough & the all seating requirements.

spot on
the emirates knocks highbury into a cocked hat when it rocks
less songs at stupid volume over the pa and more crowd noise when the teams come out
thats our job do your job