Highbury

As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
User avatar
NickF
Posts: 1628
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2016 9:00 am

Re: Highbury

Post by NickF »

The new stadium should have been the start of a new era but the club decided that it no longer wanted to compete.

Instead of building a team around our top players we decided to let the top players go. We started to do things on the cheap by getting unknown players and hoping they would be the new Henry.

We paid these players far beyond their worth (a policy that is still in place). Our custodians sold out to whoever had the most money regardless of their background.

It could and should have been so much different, those involved should hang their heads in shame (but they won't).

User avatar
Sean
Posts: 1823
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 7:17 am
Location: N5 [In hibernation]
Contact:

Re: Highbury

Post by Sean »

Spot on, Nick. It really was the turning point :(
denhaaggooner wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 12:50 pm
I don,t want to sound pedantic but Highbury was the area the ground was called the Arsenal Stadium so with all this shitty commercial bollox why couldnt it be called the emirates Arsenal Stadium ? :banghead:
To be fair, for European games, it is known as Arsenal Stadium.

It would be great to have a more Arsenalised name when the arabs' deal ends, but they'll likely re-new. Plus, after a decade the name has largely been accepted by the masses and would likely still be used in spite of any new sponsor name.

Like some radicals associated with The Gooner, I will not use the name E******s. I prefer to refer to the bowl as Cashburton Grove ($-signs optional) :barscarf:

User avatar
bergkamp10
Posts: 1131
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 2:23 pm
Location: Cumbria

Re: Highbury

Post by bergkamp10 »

NickF wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 3:41 pm
The new stadium should have been the start of a new era but the club decided that it no longer wanted to compete.

Instead of building a team around our top players we decided to let the top players go. We started to do things on the cheap by getting unknown players and hoping they would be the new Henry.

We paid these players far beyond their worth (a policy that is still in place). Our custodians sold out to whoever had the most money regardless of their background.

It could and should have been so much different, those involved should hang their heads in shame (but they won't).
Well where do you start with that one! 60,000 fans are all well and fine, but honestly the stadium when it opened I felt was poor.
Granted they may of had difficulties with the money, but come seriously I think it has back-fired.

User avatar
Nos89
Posts: 4568
Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:44 am

Re: Highbury

Post by Nos89 »

There were so many ways in which they could have redevelop Highbury but the stadium was no longer fit for purpose, for both supporters and players.
The move was the best thing to do at the time and whilst I miss the old stadium I don't want to go back to it. Just attend a game at Everton or Burnley grounds and they will remind you of days gone by and how poor the facilities were.
I hope that when the Emirates stadium naming rights expires it will be The Arsenal Stadium.

User avatar
OneBardGooner
Posts: 42540
Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:41 am
Location: Close To The Edge

Re: Highbury

Post by OneBardGooner »

Nos89 wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:13 pm
There were so many ways in which they could have redevelop Highbury but the stadium was no longer fit for purpose, for both supporters and players.
The move was the best thing to do at the time and whilst I miss the old stadium I don't want to go back to it. Just attend a game at Everton or Burnley grounds and they will remind you of days gone by and how poor the facilities were.
I hope that when the Emirates stadium naming rights expires it will be The Arsenal Stadium.
The arab deal will be re-newed for another 6 years, then when that comes to an end they WILL re-name it.

Wenger's Stadium (sub title) (He built it with his own two hands).

It is a nightmare that will now never End the cuntslop will be involved with the club till he fucksoff in the ole pine box. :cry: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :cussing:

Redarmy
Posts: 8195
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:45 pm
Location: Avenell Road

Re: Highbury

Post by Redarmy »

OneBardGooner wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:15 pm
Nos89 wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:13 pm
There were so many ways in which they could have redevelop Highbury but the stadium was no longer fit for purpose, for both supporters and players.
The move was the best thing to do at the time and whilst I miss the old stadium I don't want to go back to it. Just attend a game at Everton or Burnley grounds and they will remind you of days gone by and how poor the facilities were.
I hope that when the Emirates stadium naming rights expires it will be The Arsenal Stadium.
The arab deal will be re-newed for another 6 years, then when that comes to an end they WILL re-name it.

Wenger's Stadium (sub title) (He built it with his own two hands).

It is a nightmare that will now never End the cuntslop will be involved with the club till he fucksoff in the ole pine box. :cry: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :cussing:
As another poster said he is as healthy as fuck, so could be a long wait.......

User avatar
DB10GOONER
Posts: 58944
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
Location: Dublin, Ireland.
Contact:

Re: Highbury

Post by DB10GOONER »

Nos89 wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:13 pm
There were so many ways in which they could have redevelop Highbury but the stadium was no longer fit for purpose, for both supporters and players.
The move was the best thing to do at the time and whilst I miss the old stadium I don't want to go back to it. Just attend a game at Everton or Burnley grounds and they will remind you of days gone by and how poor the facilities were.
I hope that when the Emirates stadium naming rights expires it will be The Arsenal Stadium.
Nos89, I don't agree with barely a single word of this. How was Highbury not fit for purpose? It had good facilities for both players and fans. FFS what "facilities" do fans need? The toilets worked. The access was adequate. You could have a beer before the game if you really needed one. Do we really need hipster bars, cafes, restaurants, WiFi, shops etc in a stadium? No we do not. Eat and drink before the game. Watch football in the stadium. The seating was fine. We could accomodate 38000 no problem. Why do we need a bigger stadium? We don't have 60000 regular die hard match attending fans. And we are getting further and further from that number as the shitfest that is Wenger's management drives the team towards mid table mediocrity. We have won 3 FA Cups in the last 4 seasons and still seldom do you see anywhere near 60000 actually in the stadium. Apart from a couple of back seats in the West Stand the views at Highbury were excellent. In contrast, that poxy fucking third tier at the Conglomerates is like looking down on a Subuteo pitch.

"Days gone"? You mean the days when 90% of the fans at a game were there to actually watch the game and cheer their team on, rather than arrive late, leave early and spend the intervening 60 minutes playing with their iPad or telling people on their mobile that "ya ya I'm at the Soccer ya!"???

I honestly think the worst thing we did was leave Highbury and move into the corporate soulless Conglomerates Stadium. I would go back to what we had at Highbury in the blink of an eye. Back to when we were a proud and successful football club with a genuine fanbase and a beautiful stadium that felt like home, back to before we became a business entity that dabbles in football, with a big chunk of its "fans" being JCL Wenger-worshipping cúnts.

User avatar
flash gunner
Posts: 29236
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:55 am
Location: Armchairsville. FACT.

Re: Highbury

Post by flash gunner »

DB10GOONER wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 8:57 am
Nos89 wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:13 pm
There were so many ways in which they could have redevelop Highbury but the stadium was no longer fit for purpose, for both supporters and players.
The move was the best thing to do at the time and whilst I miss the old stadium I don't want to go back to it. Just attend a game at Everton or Burnley grounds and they will remind you of days gone by and how poor the facilities were.
I hope that when the Emirates stadium naming rights expires it will be The Arsenal Stadium.
Nos89, I don't agree with barely a single word of this. How was Highbury not fit for purpose? It had good facilities for both players and fans. FFS what "facilities" do fans need? The toilets worked. The access was adequate. You could have a beer before the game if you really needed one. Do we really need hipster bars, cafes, restaurants, WiFi, shops etc in a stadium? No we do not. Eat and drink before the game. Watch football in the stadium. The seating was fine. We could accomodate 38000 no problem. Why do we need a bigger stadium? We don't have 60000 regular die hard match attending fans. And we are getting further and further from that number as the shitfest that is Wenger's management drives the team towards mid table mediocrity. We have won 3 FA Cups in the last 4 seasons and still seldom do you see anywhere near 60000 actually in the stadium. Apart from a couple of back seats in the West Stand the views at Highbury were excellent. In contrast, that poxy fucking third tier at the Conglomerates is like looking down on a Subuteo pitch.

"Days gone"? You mean the days when 90% of the fans at a game were there to actually watch the game and cheer their team on, rather than arrive late, leave early and spend the intervening 60 minutes playing with their iPad or telling people on their mobile that "ya ya I'm at the Soccer ya!"???

I honestly think the worst thing we did was leave Highbury and move into the corporate soulless Conglomerates Stadium. I would go back to what we had at Highbury in the blink of an eye. Back to when we were a proud and successful football club with a genuine fanbase and a beautiful stadium that felt like home, back to before we became a business entity that dabbles in football, with a big chunk of its "fans" being JCL Wenger-worshipping cúnts.

I dont say this often about your posts my little Irish friend :wink: (so make the most of it) that is a brilliant post, exactly how i feel

User avatar
Herd
Posts: 6386
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:00 am

Re: Highbury

Post by Herd »

Highbury worked for me and frankly speaking the old "could compete" if we stayed there is utter tripe !
We had a capacity of 38,000 we now have a capacity of 60,000, so we have paid 400 million pounds for 22,0000 seats roughly 20 million a year for 20 years without interest .
Granted we didn't have 7,000 premium seats to pander to the rich but we made very good coin there .
As TV money balloons gate moneys importance will continue to diminish in the future to the point where they could let people in for free .

User avatar
DB10GOONER
Posts: 58944
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
Location: Dublin, Ireland.
Contact:

Re: Highbury

Post by DB10GOONER »

Herd wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:11 am
Highbury worked for me and frankly speaking the old "could compete" if we stayed there is utter tripe !
We had a capacity of 38,000 we now have a capacity of 60,000, so we have paid 400 million pounds for 22,0000 seats roughly 20 million a year for 20 years without interest .
Granted we didn't have 7,000 premium seats to pander to the rich but we made very good coin there .
As TV money balloons gate moneys importance will continue to diminish in the future to the point where they could let people in for free .
I assume you mean "couldn't compete"?

User avatar
DB10GOONER
Posts: 58944
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
Location: Dublin, Ireland.
Contact:

Re: Highbury

Post by DB10GOONER »

Herd wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:11 am
Highbury worked for me and frankly speaking the old "could compete" if we stayed there is utter tripe !
We had a capacity of 38,000 we now have a capacity of 60,000, so we have paid 400 million pounds for 22,0000 seats roughly 20 million a year for 20 years without interest .
Granted we didn't have 7,000 premium seats to pander to the rich but we made very good coin there .
As TV money balloons gate moneys importance will continue to diminish in the future to the point where they could let people in for free .
Also, if the current malaise of us not competing for the PL or the CL (never mind actually winning them :roll: ) goes on for a few more years a lot of our JCL and corporate "customers" will take a pass on their season ticket renewel and put the money into another London team or the cricket. I actually predicted this as a risk of the move back in 2007 and I still think we could see a future not too distant where we regularly have 30K-40K attendences at home games. What do you do then? Give the away team bigger allocations? Let kids in for free or on cheaper tickets? Makes the move fucking pointless.

User avatar
OneBardGooner
Posts: 42540
Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 9:41 am
Location: Close To The Edge

Re: Highbury

Post by OneBardGooner »

flash gunner wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:06 am
DB10GOONER wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 8:57 am
Nos89 wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:13 pm
There were so many ways in which they could have redevelop Highbury but the stadium was no longer fit for purpose, for both supporters and players.
The move was the best thing to do at the time and whilst I miss the old stadium I don't want to go back to it. Just attend a game at Everton or Burnley grounds and they will remind you of days gone by and how poor the facilities were.
I hope that when the Emirates stadium naming rights expires it will be The Arsenal Stadium.
Nos89, I don't agree with barely a single word of this. How was Highbury not fit for purpose? It had good facilities for both players and fans. FFS what "facilities" do fans need? The toilets worked. The access was adequate. You could have a beer before the game if you really needed one. Do we really need hipster bars, cafes, restaurants, WiFi, shops etc in a stadium? No we do not. Eat and drink before the game. Watch football in the stadium. The seating was fine. We could accomodate 38000 no problem. Why do we need a bigger stadium? We don't have 60000 regular die hard match attending fans. And we are getting further and further from that number as the shitfest that is Wenger's management drives the team towards mid table mediocrity. We have won 3 FA Cups in the last 4 seasons and still seldom do you see anywhere near 60000 actually in the stadium. Apart from a couple of back seats in the West Stand the views at Highbury were excellent. In contrast, that poxy fucking third tier at the Conglomerates is like looking down on a Subuteo pitch.

"Days gone"? You mean the days when 90% of the fans at a game were there to actually watch the game and cheer their team on, rather than arrive late, leave early and spend the intervening 60 minutes playing with their iPad or telling people on their mobile that "ya ya I'm at the Soccer ya!"???

I honestly think the worst thing we did was leave Highbury and move into the corporate soulless Conglomerates Stadium. I would go back to what we had at Highbury in the blink of an eye. Back to when we were a proud and successful football club with a genuine fanbase and a beautiful stadium that felt like home, back to before we became a business entity that dabbles in football, with a big chunk of its "fans" being JCL Wenger-worshipping cúnts.

I dont say this often about your posts my little Irish friend :wink: (so make the most of it) that is a brilliant post, exactly how i feel
Watch out DB ole Flasheroonie is trying to Groom you (again).

Bujeeezusss remember last year it was embarrassing.... :lol: :wink:

User avatar
DB10GOONER
Posts: 58944
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:06 pm
Location: Dublin, Ireland.
Contact:

Re: Highbury

Post by DB10GOONER »

OneBardGooner wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:57 am
flash gunner wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:06 am
DB10GOONER wrote:
Wed Aug 02, 2017 8:57 am
Nos89 wrote:
Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:13 pm
There were so many ways in which they could have redevelop Highbury but the stadium was no longer fit for purpose, for both supporters and players.
The move was the best thing to do at the time and whilst I miss the old stadium I don't want to go back to it. Just attend a game at Everton or Burnley grounds and they will remind you of days gone by and how poor the facilities were.
I hope that when the Emirates stadium naming rights expires it will be The Arsenal Stadium.
Nos89, I don't agree with barely a single word of this. How was Highbury not fit for purpose? It had good facilities for both players and fans. FFS what "facilities" do fans need? The toilets worked. The access was adequate. You could have a beer before the game if you really needed one. Do we really need hipster bars, cafes, restaurants, WiFi, shops etc in a stadium? No we do not. Eat and drink before the game. Watch football in the stadium. The seating was fine. We could accomodate 38000 no problem. Why do we need a bigger stadium? We don't have 60000 regular die hard match attending fans. And we are getting further and further from that number as the shitfest that is Wenger's management drives the team towards mid table mediocrity. We have won 3 FA Cups in the last 4 seasons and still seldom do you see anywhere near 60000 actually in the stadium. Apart from a couple of back seats in the West Stand the views at Highbury were excellent. In contrast, that poxy fucking third tier at the Conglomerates is like looking down on a Subuteo pitch.

"Days gone"? You mean the days when 90% of the fans at a game were there to actually watch the game and cheer their team on, rather than arrive late, leave early and spend the intervening 60 minutes playing with their iPad or telling people on their mobile that "ya ya I'm at the Soccer ya!"???

I honestly think the worst thing we did was leave Highbury and move into the corporate soulless Conglomerates Stadium. I would go back to what we had at Highbury in the blink of an eye. Back to when we were a proud and successful football club with a genuine fanbase and a beautiful stadium that felt like home, back to before we became a business entity that dabbles in football, with a big chunk of its "fans" being JCL Wenger-worshipping cúnts.

I dont say this often about your posts my little Irish friend :wink: (so make the most of it) that is a brilliant post, exactly how i feel
Watch out DB ole Flasheroonie is trying to Groom you (again).

Bujeeezusss remember last year it was embarrassing.... :lol: :wink:
I still have the photos he sent me of "Little Flash". :shock:

He must thank God every day for those macro camera lenses!

:lol: :wink:

User avatar
GoonerMuzz
Posts: 5748
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:53 pm
Location: Defending is optional

Re: Highbury

Post by GoonerMuzz »

I'm no building specialist but I'm fairly sure that with a bit of sensible spending you could have improved Highbury and pushed the capacity to 45000 with minimal impact to the local area, I always had the feeling the naysayers were those with a vested interest in the bigger more financially 'suitable' prospect at Cashburton.

I could be wrong but I seem to remember there were other options touted but they were very quickly shelved or brushed under the carpet :rubchin:

A11M11
Posts: 2198
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2014 12:07 am

Re: Highbury

Post by A11M11 »

They could have put another North Bank at the clock end , but that might have been a bit of a bugger for the people on the roof of the flats behind it. Also the directors might have had to find somewhere else to park on match days. The corners might have provided more seats and they probably could have shoehorned it up to close to 50,000. As has already been said the 60,000 now with it's cordon Bleu restaurants and Diamond class executive boxes wouldn't have been there but it would have remained a football stadium and probably it would have had a genuine football club inside it.
My son thanked me for taking him before it finally went and now he wishes we had stayed there too.

Post Reply