Tottenham v Arsenal

[Guest alex]

Not selling out for last night is shocking tbh. Unbelievable in fact.

[Renton 20421]

Not selling out for last night is shocking tbh. Unbelievable in fact.

 

Tbf they were only 800 short and who knows if those tickets were 70 quid odd. Not excusing it but not really surprised either. The most surprising attendance in recent times I think belongs to the mackems, who couldn't sell out for a play off game or a derby against us. Fair enough they bottled it against us but not selling out a play off game? That really is unbelievable.

[ChezGiven 0]

No written by a leading national journalist, Scottish I think he is, absolutely nothing bitter about it at all. All it does is state facts. One of the best articles I've read in recent years

 

I will Alex.

 

Just goes to show that their behaviour winds up all fans.

[FCUM 1]

Good read in the Express today.

Tottenham fail to sell out North London derby

 

In the days of Jimmy Greaves the North London derby was one of the biggest fixtures on the calendar. Since 1970 alone there have been 7 gates in the North London derby of over 50,000, prior to that in Tottenham’s double winning season of 1960/1961 saw a massive 65,962 see a 4-2 home win, while 72,164 saw the fixture at Highbury in one early fifties game.

 

For a lot of Arsenal fans the North London derby is still up there as the highlight of the season. With the influx of new fans since the SKY boom it is fair to say fixtures against Manchester United and Chelsea are as important or if not more so than games against Spurs.

 

However the same can be said of how Spurs view the fixture. As much as Tottenham fans hold the club in high esteem, the club have only managed to come in the top five once during this period. It’s fair to say they are viewed as a perennial mid-table club, who have more money than a lot of their counter parts but can’t seem to get it right. They have a good young squad, Martin Jol has give the masses hope for the future certainly, they’ve even began to sell out their little 36,000 capacity stadium on a regular basis something which was far from evident through-out the 1990’s.

 

There was a claim recently Tottenham had a season ticket waiting list of 30,000, a quick phone call to the ticket office reveals tickets are actually available for next season.

 

Tottenham’s last silverware was the League Cup in 1999 when an Allan Nielsen goal gave them a 1-0 win over Leicester City at Wembley. Like a lot of clubs who haven’t had a great deal of success like Everton, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Aston Villa, there’s a great deal of hunger for success. Or is there?

 

Surely this seasons League Cup is their best chance in years of winning some silverware. A semi final at home, surely the biggest fixture for Spurs fans in recent seasons, but not only that, a fixture against the bitter enemy, often described as the “Woolwich refugees”, surely 100,000 would want to attend such a fixture.

 

I think it’s fair to say given the nature of the tie, one step from the final the ticketing demands of Liverpool v Everton, Newcastle v Sunderland, Manchester United v Manchester City or Rangers v Celtic, would surely reach in to six figures. Not at White Hart Lane. The self proclaimed best fans in London failed to sell out their biggest game in years. On advice of the police, the ticket office stopped selling at 12pm yesterday and 800 tickets remained unsold.

 

You could argue that ticket prices are to blame, some of the seats unsold cost as much as £71, you could argue Arsenal use an under strength team in the Carling Cup, you could even argue, that Tottenham only had 12 days to sell the tickets. All of these are pathetic arguments, the fact remains the club couldn’t sell out their biggest game in years against their bitter local rivals, with tickets on general sale on the day of the game. If Tottenham had a ground the size of Arsenal, Manchester United or even Newcastle United, virtually half the ground would remain empty. Last night proved their little White Hart Lane base is perfectly adequate for a club of their size..

 

I do wonder if this is all part of a bigger 'meltdown' with football's attendances. People today can no longer afford all the games.

I think even Newcastle's most ardent supporter would say some of your cup gates have been fairly poor of late (in comparison to previous).

 

I gave up my season tickets at Old Trafford 2 years ago, in the scheme of things it didn't matter a toss to Man Utd, season tickets at Man Utd were like rocking horse shite and they regularly changed hands for in excess of £10,000 each as the club quite rightly kept the numbers artificially low (around 20k) to protect the long standing supporters in the big games. However, along came Uncle Malc and being desperate for the cash he flooded thousands more ST's onto the market last year which were basically available to anyone who was a member. I got an email last week from them asking me if I'd like to reconsider my decision and buy season tickets for next season. This suggests to me that even Man Utd are struggling to sell all their season tickets.

[nufc4ever 0]

Anyone else hear the Blackburn chairman the other day saying the new Sky deal money should be used to help reduce ticket prices? Cracking sentiment, even though it'll never happen.

[Renton 20421]

No written by a leading national journalist, Scottish I think he is, absolutely nothing bitter about it at all. All it does is state facts. One of the best articles I've read in recent years

 

I will Alex.

 

Just goes to show that their behaviour winds up all fans.

 

There's a point well made in the Football Factory (not a book I particularly liked), which was words to the effect that one thing that unified all football fans was that they hated Tottenham. It's true.

[Guest stevieintoon]

No written by a leading national journalist, Scottish I think he is, absolutely nothing bitter about it at all. All it does is state facts. One of the best articles I've read in recent years

 

I will Alex.

 

Just goes to show that their behaviour winds up all fans.

 

There's a point well made in the Football Factory (not a book I particularly liked), which was words to the effect that one thing that unified all football fans was that they hated Tottenham. It's true.

One of the finest points I've read on an internet message board.

 

FCUM how the fuck can you compare a derby game between the two so called biggest clubs in Europe's biggest metropolitan in a Semi Final to 28,000 gates against the likes of UEFA and FA ties with Estonian and Lithuanian part timers?

[FCUM 1]

No written by a leading national journalist, Scottish I think he is, absolutely nothing bitter about it at all. All it does is state facts. One of the best articles I've read in recent years

 

I will Alex.

 

Just goes to show that their behaviour winds up all fans.

 

There's a point well made in the Football Factory (not a book I particularly liked), which was words to the effect that one thing that unified all football fans was that they hated Tottenham. It's true.

One of the finest points I've read on an internet message board.

 

FCUM how the fuck can you compare a derby game between the two so called biggest clubs in Europe's biggest metropolitan in a Semi Final to 28,000 gates against the likes of UEFA and FA ties with Estonian and Lithuanian part timers?

 

I'm not comparing anything, just making the point that I think attendances are on the downgrade for most clubs, particularly cup games. It's bloody hard to afford it at current prices. I kept track in my last full season watching Man Utd 04/05 and I spent in excess of £1800 that season on tickets alone including season ticket, aways, cups, Euro's etc. That was without any travel and beer expenses which were in addition. And prices have actually gone up since then! It seems to me that a lot of supporters are giving up on games outside of the premier league.

 

I appreciate this was a 'big game' for the spuds but just think it's part of a bigger malaise.

 

The only reason a lot of people went to some of the lesser cup games, euro qualifiers etc was to stay in the loyalty pot for the big games. A lot of people I know are now finding it cheaper in the long run to give up on these games and pay the touts prices when the need arises.

[Renton 20421]

Jol and spurs taking the piss after avoiding getting knocked out by Feyenoord:

 

Tottenham boss Martin Jol misses out on a trip to his homeland, but had earlier claimed Spurs should receive some compensation for the loss of income.

 

Jol said: "My chairman thinks that if we want to play in Europe we should play in Europe.

 

"He's right because it was a big tie against Feyenoord and hopefully we'll get some compensation but other people may think differently."

[Mowen 0]

Anyone else hear the Blackburn chairman the other day saying the new Sky deal money should be used to help reduce ticket prices? Cracking sentiment, even though it'll never happen.

 

Yeah, brilliant idea. Although for Blackburn it probably won't make much difference, as the money they'll lose off the tickets they're selling anyway will be compensated for by the extra fans.

 

Stevie, by "best article you've read in a few years" and "best point you've read on an internet message board" do you really mean "a point/article that happens to eloquently(ish) back up your opinions on your current objects of greatest derision"?

 

 

Edit: Sorry mate, just realised that's unfair. I forgot about the 'bin-dippers'!

Edited January 25, 2007 by Mowen