Emirates Stadium, my first footie match (Emirates Stadium (Arsenal))

Member Name: f18nfz

Product:	Emirates Stadium (Arsenal)
Date:	29/07/07 (1243 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mexican wave is amazing, crowd experience, great control(security)

Disadvantages: expensive food, long cues on way home

Yesterday I went to my first ever footie match at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium to watch 2 matches, first Valencia vs Inter Milan, the second was Arsenal vs Paris St Germain.
An excellent day, first match started 2.00 second 4.00, was home by 7.30.

Ticket cost: £25 for both matches
worth it? definitely, this was an experience I will never forget.
The weather was excellent and we arrived there by tube (came out at Arsenal station turned right and walked down the road (5 mins) with hundreds of fans towards the stadium. A sea of red covered the street with the occasional white shirt (Arsenals new colours) with very few blue shirts or any other kits.
As you walked down the street there were several police officers on Massive horses with riot helmets, and there were little stalls on the streets selling Arsenal merchandise like shirts, scarfs, booklets and bags.

The ticket was booked online Arsenal.com, a party of 4 of us, tickets £25 each. The exit gates at arsenal tube station were open to avoid people getting crushed by the mass of people, people would just can their oyster cards as they passed.
Its easy to get lost and loose who you came with, particularly if everyone is wearing the same colours. Arsenal offer a history tour at their museum - just opposite the stadium which just has old shirts etc. so I didn't bother with that. There are different stands, indicated by different letters, I went to zone F in the blue color and went through gate 23 to arrive at my allocated seat of 242, all seats are RED.
As this was my first time at a football match i didn't know what to expect, i was expecting loads of footie hooligans and drunks and a massive pitch with seats all around you up to the sky. I have to say the pitch was much smaller than i imagined it. It looked very clean and tidy and exactly like the picture they have at arsenal.com

Its very well organised in the sense that there is lots of security and people just sit at their seats talking with friends, while players come on and train and mascots (Gunnersaurus wearing #99) went around to the people nearest the pitch. I have to say the match isn't as 'brilliant and intense as it looks like on tv. I could not recognise and players except Materazzi who kept getting boo'd heavily every time he got the ball and by his large figure. I regret not taking binoculars - i wasn't even that high up, row 23!
The first match was great 2-0 to Valencia was the final score, almost all fans were Arsenal fans and they started getting restless chanting Arsenal every so often, but were fairly calm (until someone scored).
As i could not see it was alright as the goal was replayed on the big screen TVs (2 of which were visible to me) the rest of the time the players name and time remaining were displayed on the big screen (and adverts at half time)
I can tell you its probably worth bringing your own food as cues to get food are MASSIVE and take more than the half time (even with announcements 3 minutes before the match resumes)+ food/drink is WELL OVERPRICED, a small bottle of coke (like ones at McDonald's cost 2.00 each, we got Doritos things with jalapenos and sauces - delicious but cost like a fiver each!! Other people got hot dogs which I'm sure were around the same price. If you don't have £10 don't even think of getting food.

When the Arsenal players came out there was a standing ovation, and when the arsenal game began the crowd began their typical chants. (if you hate Tottenham stand up! etc) The crowd were much more noisy with chants in the second game and as the players were taking time to score a Mexican wave began, this was absolutely amazing probably the best experience, better than the match! the entire stadium took part even people at the very top rows went with people below them, the stamping of feet to the build up of the wave filled the arena and echoed, getting louder as the wave came to you and everybody rushed onto their feet and cheered and the wave would die down to the other end of the arena. The wave went around like 4 times, it was just before the end of the first half when an Arsenal player scored and all fans got to their feet and destroyed the Mexican wave.
I expected cheering to be the main source of noise as we hear on TV, but the main thing people do when good football is displayed is clap, the entire stadium is filled with clapping and a few cheers when something happens.
You can see the photographers and workers lined around the pitch with their laptops, and 1 camera man were visible taking footage of the audience (never my side!) ( the match was only on sky sports 1 as far as i know)
The second half was much the same, Arsenal missed a penalty which caused a lot of 'aww' sounds around the stadium, I could feel all around me people were waiting for a Mexican wave to start, and a few people tried to initiate it but nobody followed up, luckily just then a goal arrived for Arsenal and the fans were all on their feet again. If the opposition score (which they didn't in Arsenals match) the audience are silent with occasional boo's and a few claps.
We cannot hear any commentary inside the stadium but right behind me i got a running commentary from 2 old men talking to each other, but this wasn't annoying as you'd expect as one of them sounded like Trever Brooking!

Many people left 10 minutes before the end even though the match was still very active, I understood why later. We left 1 minute before the end of the match with SEVERAL other people, there was a large cue to get out which got even bigger outside the stadium, the police still there ready, this time more in numbers created a barricade allowing separate cues for people to walk the street and up for Arsenal train station. After maybe 30 minutes in the cue we entered the tube station onto the crowded tubes and began the Journey back home.

So overall the experience was much more peaceful than I expected, this was probably because 99.9% of fans were Arsenal fans, there were some very old people coming to watch, women men and lots of kids, some very young children, I saw a mother with a baby that looked only 1 day old coming and parents with two toddlers sitting, how their children didn't cry with the noise God knows. People were reading books waiting for the matches to start, the tv's were playing adverts and past Arsenal matches, this wasn't what I was expecting at all.
I had great fun participating in all the cheering clapping and Mexican waves, once your in the audience you are part of the crowd and often just follow them naturally. For example most of the arsenal fans supported Valencia and i planned on supporting inter Milan (in the first match) but i ended up following the crowd without realising it.
The first match included famous names like Brazil's Adriano, Materazzi (Italy), Solari, etc. But none of these faces could be identified and watching the match was like watching anyone play football, except these guys were quite good.

Summary: A Great Experience, maybe prefer watching on tv, but a must experience