Le Grove

New to your site, written by proper Goons.

I’ve been a season ticket holder for nearly 40 yrs go to all home games & 90% of away here & overseas. I sit in block 101 row 8 (orange section) above (ish) RedAction section.

I sing even when others don’t. Too many new ‘fans’ may feel reserved or feel awkward but even if we can get the quiet ones to at least clap when the noise levels rise.

SUGGESTION:

How about over every Entrance from the concourses to the seats we have, a little like ‘This is Anfield’ a sign along the lines of;

Welcome to THOF

Get Behind The Team

Come on you Reds !!

Perhaps there could be more Arsenal signs with lines from known chants positioned on the stairwells & concourses so that everyone gets used to them.

Doublegooner Rob

Ollie
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http://Oneteammanyoppinions.blogspot.com

My good friends down at Le Grove (a fantasic Gooner site) have begun a campaign to bring the noise back to the Emirates.

I think this is an excellent idea and I’m 100% fully behind it.

Now I know over the years us Gooners have suffered with a tag of being, well, quiet. But that could change and that means needing all the help we can get from yourselves.

There is no doubt that there will be further ridicule from other clubs fans for doing this. Just ignore it. We’ve had it for years so a little more wont hurt.

What we need is ideas on how to turn the Emirates into a very intimidating atmosphere. When the place is rocking, there isn’t an atmosphere better, anywhere. Thats what we want more of.

We get 60,000 people week-in, week-out at the Emirates and for rival fans to claim our ground is one of the quietest around is slightly embarassing. Its time to do something about it!

There have been many ideas bandied about. My favourites are to unleash a massive Arsenal flag before the game and pass it around the stadium. My other is for every Gooner in the ground to simply start to clap. This creates an eerie atmosphere which can shit the life out of the opposition!

So leave your ideas in the comments section. No matter how mad they may sound. Its important that my fellow Gooner voices are heard! (or not) excuse the pun! Many thanks to the guys at Le Grove for doing this, but they need help. So c’mon!

Keep it Goonerish……

Wrighty 7

1. Get all the forums on board and representatives from each to co-ordinate action (don’t know how many there are)
2. A protest that gets publicity but doesn’t hurt the club financially (to begin with), we’ll be the ones to end up paying for it in the end and it will only annoy certain board members and we’ll get nowhere.
3. Protests could be along the lines of A) silence, though some may joke, how would they know. B) Boycott. We could ask everyone to stay on the concourse until 15 minutes into the game, or after 15 minutes to leave our seats and go to the concourse for 15 minutes. We’ll still be able to watch on the plasma screens. C) Stand, not signing but holding scarf above our heads. D) Red or Yellow cards similar to the Bond scheme protest.
4. Not so sure about Orange shirt, yellow would be better if doing that kind of thing, it stands out and is traditionally our colour.

Kelvin (Arsenal Forum)

Pedro -

I am attended a meeting with Keith Edelman in the autumn with a couple of the redaction guys (to discuss atmosphere initiatives) and proposed the following…

When season ticket renewals go out, the club include a multiple choice question asking fans if, where they sit they are –

1 - happy with the atmosphere as it is.

2 - would like a bit more noise and ‘jumping around’/excitable behaviour.

3 - would like it more tranquil with less having to stand up every time something exciting happens.

once they get these results, during the course of 2008/09, they devise a plan to move people very slightly - with their consent obviously, to have like-minded people sitting together so that everyone is amongst the kind of people that will behave in a similar fashion.

it would take a fair bit of effort and a fair bit of engineering, but gradually, over the course of 4 or 5 years, via season ticket holders, pockets akin to the redsection can be established. ideally, certain blocks would get reputations and some silver members would apply for blocks on that basis. the club could even indicate that certain blocks are more suitable for those that wish to make some noise or indeed those who don’t like to get on their feet when drama occurs (and there are many of those, like it or not)

it requires a lot of thought and planning, and it has to be done by the club, but it can be done. i agree with your post that a big problem is singers being isolated. moving them all to the back rows of the lower tier is a great idea, but those are the lower tier seats with the best views and the quiet ones aren’t going to give those up lightly.

anyhow. that is pretty much the only way i can see it improving short of getting fans with megaphones in different parts of the ground to get the chants going the way they have in italy - and that isn’t going to happen, is it?

anyhow, if a consensus can be reached on an idea amongst the opinion formers out there and a cohesive plan presented to the club, there is more chance of it happening. something drastic obviously needs to be done. redaction and aisa should also be involved in this and i have added them to this email reply.

- kevin whitcher,

- editor,

- onlinegooner

Sounds like a good idea. I’d be up for writing any of the suggestions on my site. I liked the one about starting a new blog just for singers at the games. By the way, that clapping at Madrid and Barca scares the shite out of other teams and is also fun as hell to watch and listen to. Let me know what the others thing and I’ll put it up on my blog right away!

Up the Gunners!

Kyle
The ArseNole

Dear Pedro,

The atmosphere or lack of has been discussed on this blog upon several occasions. I also wrote a blog detailing all of the songs.

There are several reasons I believe why the atmosphere at the Emirates has not lived up to expectations, and the solutions will be as complex as the causes of the problem itself.

I feel that the new influx of fans do not know many of the songs, and even when years ago songsheets were provided at Highbury for all 38,000 fans at some considerable cost, the initiative fell at the first hurdle. I believe that in the current climate of wanting to get behind the team during this slump, the launch of such a campaign would receive momentum.

There is a need for someone/everyone to return to the provision of songs for each or the majority of players. I am sure that we can all recall how the players would turn around to the North Bank and clap acknowledgement to the singing of “their” song. This is a big challenge that could be worked on over the close season.

The situation is exacerbated by the clubs obsession with the PA, and at times, whether on purpose or not, fans chants are literally drowned into submission before the game. The playing of Port Vale’s “The Wonder of You” has been particularly irksome in this regard. The club would need to co-operate here.

There needs to be a core group of non offensive chants which can be sung by all parts of the ground, regularly. This is really quite easy.

If all of the blogs can agree upon this initiative it will work for the fans that already sing, my concern relates to the coordination of chants throughout the ground. perhaps the club could help by displaying simple words of chants like C’mon Arsenal C;mon Arsenal, or similar on the big screens at key points during the game?

I also suggest coupling the chants with the attractive scarf twirling that seems to have caught on of late, and is one way of signalling the need to sing a particular song. The drum could also help co-ordinate the mass singing of chants like Red Army, Red Army.

Hope you find this helpful.

Tony aka Fabregas the King of InsideArsenal.

Easy Pedro,

I actually read the post yesterday about the noise level – reckon you got a good point – some of the replies were bang on the money too - liking some of your ideas too. I will think of some things as well, but I’ll make a point of putting a post up on Allgoonerdup to see what the other ideas can be brought in.

Cheers
Tommi G

Allgoonerdup