Written by Lindsay Melrose Sunday, 01 August 2010 20:05

GunnerTalk Blog

Club Level – A Necessity or Death of our club by Prawn Sandwich?

By Lindsay Sheehan

My name is Lindsay Sheehan and I am a Club Level Season Ticket Holder. I hide my super sexy black leather season ticket amongst friends and fellow fans alike with a shame usually reserved for middle aged men and their adult, fits any size, nappy collection. I feel a fraud, a plastic, a suit, a friend of Piers Morgan or to put it more colloquially - a member of the prawn sandwich brigade.

Other fans refer to these ‘watchers’ in the most derogatory terms. If you don’t sit with or near the ‘element’ you are deemed not to be a ‘real ‘fan. Sly looks are given when I explain where I sit, add that to the fact that I am a bird and all the credibility of my opinion instantly goes out the window. Is it some weird class prejudice, is it a genuine concern about Arsenals future and does club level really fulfil a purpose other than the obvious financial one?

Firstly, how did I end up here? Briefly my cousins, uncle, my brother and I all held ‘normal’ season tickets at Highbury throughout George Graham and ending with Bruce Rioch. We had a family firm and used it to pay for all sorts of things we shouldn’t have but most importantly - these tickets. Well surprisingly enough it went bust and, in the days before credit cards were given to anyone who could spell their own name, so did our tickets. Then some bloke called Wenger arrived and we were forced into the murky world of touts, becoming serious beggar friends and the holy grail of red membership face-value tickets. Once the new stadium was announced we were in. No more being in the cold, damn the price, damn the CCJS for unpaid Barclay card bills - we were getting seats again baby. So that’s what we did. In Club Level. As God himself couldn’t get in, as my brother Steve has now affectionately named, the Plebe levels. This seems to be common and quite a lot of club level is filled with us ‘usual’ fans now holding big Arsenal shaped debts

I refer you back to the original bible of any Arsenal fan – Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch. In the chapter entitled “Graduation Day” he talks about the Arsenal Bond Scheme. His concerns were crowd noise; corporate/middle class fans expectations re success on the pitch and the general effect of moving from traditional working class support towards corporate suits. He argues that people go to watch football for the atmosphere as much as to see any game or player. That fans revel in the shouting, swearing and general mixture of the “vicarious and parasitical” finding it a crucial ingredient for their entertainment. “Who will make the noise now? Will the suburban middle-class kids and their mums and dads still come if they have to generate it themselves? Or will they feel that they have been conned. Because in effect the clubs have sold them a ticket to a show in which the principal attraction has been moved to make room for them." So was he some kind of Gooner Nostradamus? We now have a full level of 1000 seats all dedicated to worship the corporate. Add this to our 150 executive boxes, Diamond lounge and O2 room and we are definitely well furnished with the posh seats. Is the ‘Library’ growing?

So enough questions what’s it really like? Well I must say you do get a really smashing prawn in club level. Really. They are amazing, huge, succulent and juicy. Not only that but they are widely available, in the buffet alongside the oysters or at the new Shellfish and Champagne area.   I’ve heard that you guys get fish and chips and burgers. Ok they are £8 a pop, but to me if you can’t taste dirty fried onions at the end of a game you have not had the full experience. The Club Level food is great and diverse and really, if people want to pay for that, to have a bit of luxury, can it really do any harm to my club? Oh and did I mention the free booze at half time? Only one beverage per person mind, but no one’s watching and I’ve watched many a second half with my beer goggles happily on for free.

There is the legend /celebrity factor. I personally have seen Dermot O’Leary, Holly Willoughby, Ian Wright, Tony Adams, Bob Wilson, Perry Groves, Steve Bould, Demot Moinahan, Clive James, Charlie George and the geezer with the coloured turban from The One Show. That’s not including other reported superstar visitors such as Kevin Costner, Spike Lee, Jay Z and P Diddy.  I’ve done a wee in the cubicle next to one occupied by Jane Torville. It’s brilliant to feel part of that, to stand shoulder to shoulder with people off the telly and the players of your youth who are also experiencing the Arsenal’s beauty.

I wont bother singing the praises of the lovely, warm, clean toilets with their posh scented  hand soap, not the 4 open plan bars, 4 restaurants, 4 Ladbrooks, Gooner shop, dedicated membership area or the ‘ex player in big club moment’ artwork that if you won the lottery you would have behind your new bar. (I have already picked out a Henry one should I get 6 balls on any given Saturday.) Come on - we are all paying at least £2500 a season – they have to make it seem like we are special. 

What is Arsenal getting for this money? In a time where the fact that football is struggling can no longer be denied, is Club Level a necessity? Even Man Utd are facing an uncertain financial future, and if it brings in revenue to my club, if it means that we are that little bit more secure, if we can afford the best players and their wages then ok I can live with it. Adrian Ford our commercial director said to me in an email, “My perspective is simple. All sorts of people follow football nowadays. And Arsenal probably has as diverse a fanbase as any club, both in terms of income and ethnic composition. Emirates Stadium was designed to give something for everyone, and I think it does it well. This has a double benefit – it allows us to generate more income, but it is also giving something to all our fans. And we are the envy of other clubs and fans – research shows that we are rated as the best stadium in the UK, not just among our fans but also opposition fans. Does that mean we have lost our soul? I don’t think so, but it does show that football has changed significantly over the last 15 years – and rightly or wrongly we are in the vanguard of this change.” Absolutely fair and eloquent comment from Mr Ford  I think.

But when it comes to it, when the noise needs to be made, do they prove the stereotype wrong? Are they even loyal, will they be there season in season out even if our silver cabinet stays dusty? The simple answer – NO. I wonder how many of the corporate bought seats are actually sat in by Gooners. It drives me fucking nuts. All the rest I could justify, you have just read me trying (successfully?) to defend the right to a more luxurious football experience. But bollox you have to be a red surely. Take for example the 2 seats behind me; I don’t think they have been filled by home support more than 10 times since we moved into the Emirates. All I get is some northern twat in my ear going on about how much shorter Arshavin is in real life than he looks on the telly. Every fucking week! Steve and I are considering spread betting the time when it gets mentioned.

In my row alone there are 8 seats that are empty more than they are full. They are owned by a Japanese firm and when they are there, they are lovely. Really nice people.  But they are never there. It’s lonely and when the wind is whistling down my row, it’s bloody cold. It’s also hugely embarrassing when it’s shown on the telly, like we can’t fill the seats. In fact I wonder for how long we will? I believe more and more of them will become filled with the usual hoi polloi as football continues to eat itself and entertainment budgets are cut.  My ticket has already been reduced by £500 this season without asking! As Mr Hornby way said back when “One more thing about the kind of audience that football has decided it wants; the clubs have got to make sure that they are good, that there aren’t any lean years, because the new crowd won’t tolerate failure.... We mug punters put up with that, and at least twenty thousand of us would turn up no matter how bad you were but this new lot............I’m not so sure“. If our lack of Trophies continues the suits will slip quietly away.

So to sum up Club Level has given me experiences I love, the tour round the half constructed stadium, the mad one-on-one with Tony Adams in between interconnecting doors, watching Holly Willoghby’s husband burst with pride as every Gooner within a 5 mile radius baciscally groped his Mrs while he got stuck taking the photos, Dennis Days Orange T shirts, Carling Cup games with players so young they look like they should be in bed by now and warm, comfortable indoor areas with tiny beer queues.  It’s not evil, it’s, not taking over, it’s not for most people, but hey its quality and better still it’s only a minor irritation completely wiped out by watching the beautiful Arsenal.  

 It’s not that bad being a prawn sandwich brigade member. Honest.