Working with Arsenal: how supporters are influencing the club. The Fans’ Forum.

By Tony Attwood

I’ve mentioned from time to time that I am a member of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association, a supporters group recognised by Arsenal, which aims to work constructively with the club to improve supporters’ experience, rather than criticise the club over its activities, strategies and so on.

Obviously anyone can join AISA if they feel so moved, but I thought I would today link to an article on the AISA blog because it does give a big insight into the sort of work AISA does.

This is a report on the Arsenal Fans’ Forum meeting to which AISA representatives are always invited, and which is the prime way in which the feelings and opinions of fans are passed onto the club and the club’s response can be passed back to the fans.

Topics covered in this meeting included the feeling in the dressing room now the new management team is installed, the warm weather break, the latest on the introduction of safe standing at the Arsenal Stadium, improving the atmosphere at home games, encouraging season ticket holders to re-sell their tickets via Arsenal when they can’t go to a game, and the constant battle to reduce ticket touting.

Also discussed was access to the ground, WiFi coverage and improving the rollout of information to mobile phones.  Back with the team there was also discussion of the role of the new loan manager.

Plus on the catering front the move towards making the ground a cashless stadium was a key discussion point (it is coming sooner than many of us expected).  And of course there is the eternal question of whether the catering can be improved.

But perhaps the biggest news was that concerning next season’s ticket prices – which you can read in the AISA article

As the AISA chairman’s report on this meeting says, “The Supporters Forum is a very positive place for Arsenal fans to be represented by the likes of AISA… and it is private and controlled…

“Arsenal don’t have to hold forums… nor do they have to listen to fans’ groups. I very much appreciate the fact that they do. We should hold them to account and demand more and better, but we also ought to acknowledge that we are all on the same side and we all want to same thing, which is for our club to prosper.”

If you would like to read the full AISA report on the Fans’ Forum meeting it is on the AISA blog here.

If you would like to be kept fully informed about AISA activity and thus get a closer view on what the club directors think and what they are up to, you can join AISA here.

My own role within AISA is to run the AISA Arsenal History Society which researches areas of Arsenal’s past that have been misreported elsewhere, and which runs the daily Arsenal Anniversary log.

You can find an index to a few of our major research projects on the website’s home page   For the daily listing of the club’s anniversaries just go to the home page  and then click on the first post in the latest posts list, at the top left.  We normally publish the new day’s anniversaries before 8am each day, but the site is run by volunteers so sometimes we do get there a little bit late!