Another frustrating morning for many of the Arsenal supporters arrived yesterday as tickets for the final game of the season went on sale for silver members. With the Gunners in a title race, fans have clamoured to see their beloved club in what might go down in history should they lift the Premier League trophy and this fixture in particular could have bear witness to that very moment.
Of course, for a game of this magnitude, the demand for seats was always going to be at its potential peak for the season. However, the club has faced issues throughout the campaign with what was once a relatively accessible process for the majority of those that wanted to get tickets through their memberships or on the ticket exchange, to now seeing seats vanish quicker than Bournemouth’s first goal at the Emirates this season.
Arsenal have acknowledged the existence of bot traffic and touts and said in February that they are “working extensively to address these issues and clamp down on this illegal activity. We want to keep supporters updated with progress on this.”
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Adding: “The technological enhancements we’ve implemented have already resulted in the blocking of over 25,000 IP addresses for suspicious activity each time we’ve gone on sale to members in recent weeks. We expect the security improvements will enable us to identify more misused memberships which would add to the thousands of members we have already banned for ticket touting.”
However, on the day of the sale of the final chance for silver members to buy a ticket for a home game this season, it became evident swathes of fans were still being impacted, football.london reached out to supporters affected by the situation to get a better understanding of how they’ve experienced the issues and how it has affected them. First, we hear from Oliver who provides a detailed outline of the process that he and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others have to go through every time they wish to try and get a ticket.
“I got tickets for games in October and November (when tickets were on sale in September and the season was still early) as usual. However, since November time onwards I have failed to get a ticket to a single Arsenal home game that I've tried for.
“The success of the team this year has caused an expected rise in interest but the ticketing system is just not able to handle it. The results have been appalling.
“To even stand a chance of getting a ticket for a game now (never mind two together) you do not need to log on at 10 am when the tickets actually go on sale as that's far too late. You now need to log on at 9 am and join a queue for the website that then changes to "Website is being updated" at 9:20 am but somehow still holds everyone's queue position.
“The queue then restarts at 10 am and you just sit and wait. I logged on and joined the queue for the last 5 home games in a row at 9 am and managed to get into the website sometime between 10:10 -10:20 am.
“At which point every ticket has been sold apart from the family enclosure and a few stragglers that instantly sell. This has meant I've unsuccessfully wasted an hour and a half plenty of times this season for nothing.
“Loyal members like myself and my friend are now being punished for the team being successful and not rewarded in any way for our support over the past 15 difficult seasons. The club needs to rethink its ticketing system for next year and needs to do it quickly."
Oliver will be watching the game on television, should it be shown, either at home or to join friends and family somewhere showing the game but it is difficult not to feel empathetic toward fans who have been going for so many years left disappointed. Speaking of which, George explained to football.london of his 20-plus year membership with the club and the frustrations associated with it.
“Having been an Arsenal member since around 2002 when the membership scheme was first launched, this season has seen it become the most difficult it has ever been to secure tickets - mainly due to how much Arsenal have progressed. Whilst we as fans understand that with success comes greater support and popularity, as a 'Silver' member of Arsenal, paying a £50 yearly fee is supposed to provide us 'priority ticket access' (as quoted from the club's website).
“It could not have felt farther away from this, this season. There appear to be bots scooping up the tickets that are made available to non-season ticket holders, making it near impossible for fans and members of the club to obtain tickets - with the current ticketing system being clearly outdated with the need of upgrading at Arsenal, making it so easy for bots to purchase all of the tickets.”
George adds as a potential solution: “It would just be good if the club could take some sort of action, even if it's imposing a ballot system for a game of Wolves' calibre, which could see us lift the league title.”
It is not a bad suggestion although it is difficult without knowing the systems at the club and the infrastructure in place how easy this would be to create. What’s clear from both Oliver and George is they understand during this season in particular that demand will be higher, but it is the frustration of seeing evidence of bots still snapping up these tickets before they get a chance to even get close.
Arsenal supporter Garrett reached out to explain how he’s begun to give up hope on getting into future games. But interestingly highlighted the issue that even when he finally made it to a match, the confusion of empty seats remaining in the stadium was a frustrating reality.
“My experience of trying to get hold of tickets as a red member this season has been pretty miserable if I’m honest,” Garrett explained. Adding: “It’s gotten to the point where I don’t go through the whole process as often as it genuinely feels like a lost cause.
“I’m well aware the demand for tickets has increased due to our stellar performances this season but the one time I did make it to the Emirates this season for our Carabao cup loss to Brighton it was “sold out” yet you could see a multitude of free seats in the upper tiers?”
Why these seats have remained empty cannot be known for sure but it is fair to theorise that perhaps tickets being sold at extortionate prices picked up by the bots aren’t always selling out. Even though some may be willing to get these tickets through non-legitimate means, which we seriously caution against, the club’s atmosphere could potentially be affected should large amounts of bot-bought tickets not get sold after they’re grabbed.
Arsenal’s fan base expands globally and supporters who show incredible commitment to get up at crazy hours in the night to watch games have bucket list aspirations of visiting the Emirates. However, with the situation regarding ticketing the only alternatives have become extremely expensive and in the case of Louis, there’s fear they might never get to a game.
“As a red member living in New Zealand, it is extremely difficult to get tickets to any game. It makes planning for trips impossible as there's no certainty in even being able to make a game.
“The system needs a serious shake-up in order to allow fans an even chance to get tickets. Travelling fans have to attempt to go through authorised ticket sellers that only sell very dear packages. It's the dream of a lifetime for me to go to a Premier League game at the Emirates but sadly it seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.”
Another frustrating story from an overseas fan, Vlad from Bucharest, Romania, highlighted the speed at which he saw tickets disappear too. On the positive side, Vlad decided to make the trip anyway and found a great alternative for visiting supporters in London.
“I was planning on coming to London for the City game. All I did was basically refresh the exchange portal every now and then for one month or so in advance of the game.
“However, I couldn’t get any even though I’ve seen plenty popping up. They were gone in milliseconds, obviously, guys using bots. So, so frustrating but I ended up watching the game at the Tollington which was a pretty great experience as well.”
One of the frequently used methods to access tickets has been through the club’s aforementioned exchange system whereby season ticket holders who cannot attend are encouraged to put their seats on the exchange to be purchased by someone who can go. However, Albert explains how this has also been an unsuccessful method for him this season and some of the lengths people are willing to go to in order to attend games.
“When I have tried to purchase Arsenal tickets via the ticket exchange service, there were a total of four home games this season, where tickets were available on resale to purchase, but when I went to purchase them and add them to the basket, it kept telling me that I needed to refresh the page. It has been an exhausting and exasperating experience this season to purchase tickets.
“I just hope for the remainder of this season and probably more so for the 2023/2024 season that Arsenal can put a big focus on the accessibility of how tickets are being purchased because Arsenal fans are losing out, or potentially paying over the odds by people purchasing Arsenal tickets and making a fortune through selling them on “black-market” websites. It's a huge problem, I know, but one that needs to be eradicated as soon as possible.”
In light of the frustrations suffered by supporters, football.london reached out to the club for comment on the situation yesterday. An Arsenal spokesperson told us: “Demand for tickets to our games this season has been incredibly high and has outstripped supply. Supporters have shown amazing support - both home and away - and we’d like to thank them for their contribution to the team’s progress and success.
“When we went on sale today to our Silver Members for our Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, we sold out in minutes. This season has seen unprecedented demand and we’ve stepped up our efforts to eradicate ticket touting. We’ve implemented new and improved technology to prevent bot activity to do everything we can to put tickets in the hands of our supporters. This has resulted in more than 300,000 suspected bots being blocked from the ticketing site in recent weeks.
“We remind all supporters that tickets for our matches are only available through official Arsenal channels. Anyone buying tickets from unofficial outlets runs the risk of being denied access to the match, paying heavily inflated prices and receiving counterfeit or duplicated tickets.”
Whilst the club is putting in place measures to tackle the problem and since February more than 275,000 more suspected bots have been blocked, fans have reported on social media seeing resale sites stocking hundreds of tickets for extortionate prices. Arsenal are aware of the problem and certainly taking steps to address it.
Hopefully, further improvement in the technology available or methods being used will see the problem mitigated to a greater degree. The number of accounts however that have been blocked so far with the issue remaining in its current state perhaps provides a greater understanding of the scale of the task the club faces, one which we’re reassured they are taking very seriously.
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