From Andy Pinker: Sunday Supplement
I watched it, Myles.
And as he said, tens of thousands can’t be arsed to attend matches.
The BIG question is : will the new yuppie money in Islington, Shoreditch, Bow, Hoxton, Hackney Etc be enough? Back in the 40’s, 50’s and early 60’s my grandparents moved to Edmonton to get away from the East End. They were all slums back then and my maternal grandparents were both born in the late 1800’s. To put it in perspective, Jack the Ripper was around at that time and people thought Edmonton was the countryside.
I’m 57 and remember the hooligan days, and paying 50p to get in the Clock End.
So will these new “Arsenal fans” dump their season tickets, and say fuck it? Or will they lend them out ? Or will they renew them because they are wealthy ? Will there be enough takers, to buy the STs for a year or two? Or until Wenger has gone ?
And will they care enough about Wenger’s Arsenal to come back in 2-3 years time ? If they aren’t really Arsenal fans.
Maybe Spurs will be a bigger draw with a new stadium.
Arsenal FC have already priced out the local working class lads.Will Spurs and their new prices do the same?
Myles says:
I’m giving Daniel Levy the benefit of the doubt so far.
I have a soft spot for the club. I lived in Ossian Road, N4, when I was a feature writer and rock journalist and we used to walk to Highbury or take a W3 bus through Crouch End to see Ardiles, Hoddle and Archibald at White Hart Lane.
From 1982 onwards, when I was in the press box, there was a particular moment when David Ginola said something brilliant that was never reported, let alone explored.
He said, “The crowd have given up.”
Ginola was spot-on. That was a very perceptive comment at that moment in the season. But I can’t remember when it was, let alone the exact context.
Nowadays Spurs have a better team than Arsenal, and a young manager everybody respects, but that doesn’t mean they can attract a bourgeois audience.
Of course they will always have an educated core of solicitors, accountants and professionals in the most expensive seats.
But Daniel Levy’s strategy could be the opposite of Arsenal’s. When Arsenal moved they targeted a more affluent market and put prices up to squeeze out their core supporters.
The Emirates is a shopping mall and you don’t really want atmosphere in a shopping mall. It’s a facility like an American stadium, where you get people to come early and keep them there buying food, drink and merchandise.
Do you know what impressed me about Daniel Levy?
He was forward-thinking in the last couple of seasons at the Lane. He was selling four tickets for £50. Two adults for £20 each and a pair of kids for £10.
That was honest and realistic pricing. But it was also a savvy investment in the future.
By doing that Levy was saying: the immediate future of Tottenham Hotspur will be the children of working class fans who support us now.