Emirates Stadium: Soulless?

ARSENAL have been criticised by their own fans for a “soulless” stadium on matchdays, with warnings that the cost of tickets has priced out too many supporters.

The message to the club’s ownership came as a string of long-standing supporter groups and Arsenal bloggers wrote an explosive open letter to its majority shareholder, the US investor Stan Kroenke.

It said the Gunners, who finished the season empty-handed while watching rivals Spurs reach the Champions League final and open an impressive new stadium, were suffering under a “passive ownership”.

In a co-ordinated campaign, criticism was shared across the internet and social media with the catchline: “We Care Do You?”

Gavin Charlie, who writes the “She Wore” online blog, was one of the signatories to the letter sent to Mr Kroenke, which has since had more than 100,000 endorsements from fans.

He told the Tribune that Arsenal should be “leading the way” in the campaign for safe standing zones at the Emirates stadium with a ticketing scheme that favours younger supporters who may not be able to afford tickets.

He said: “The ground desperately needs to ­create an end where ­people can sing and make some noise. The best way to do that is if the club actively petitioned for safe standing.

“A club like Arsenal with its stature should be leading the way on this instead of being dictated to.”

Standing sections in the top two tiers of English football stadiums were banned after a report by Lord Justice Taylor following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 where 96 Liverpool fans died on an overcrowded terrace.

But there have been growing calls to bring standing sections back to the Premier League with the development of technology that will keep fans safer.

Mr Charlie also proposed a ticketing scheme where “wealthy season ticket holders” who do not turn up to games should be pushed to donate their ticket into a pooling system that will reward children in the borough from lower-income backgrounds.

Mr Charlie added that the letter to Mr Kroenke was written after a group of about 30 fans, with representatives from the major supporters’ groups and active online commentators, met in a pub in Holloway last month.

The open letter, sent on Monday, lists what the group believe are the main reasons the club has alienated many fans.

It said: “On a match day the Emirates Stadium can be a soulless place. The atmosphere is poor and there are thousands of empty seats blighting almost every game.

“If Arsenal really cared they would make sure seats weren’t left empty.”

The letter added: “Fans have never felt more marginalised, less listened to or valued.

“Our club feels like an investment vehicle, personified by the owner’s statement that he didn’t buy Arsenal to win trophies.”

Mr Charlie told the Tribune: “A lot of people have said Stan is not even going to read the letter and if he does he is not going to care. The more it is ignored the more it proves we’re right.”

Arsenal managing director Vinai Venkatesham will be meeting with fans on July 25.

Director Josh Kroenke, Stan Kroenke’s son, said in a television interview on Tuesday the criticism was “hard to take” and the ownership was committed to Arsenal’s future.