Sat 13th March 2010 17:30, KC Stadium
Is Arsenal’s Digital Innovation A Revolution Or A Distraction
ByIf there’s one thing that jumps right at you when you first visit the Emirates Stadium, it’s the sheer magnificence of the home of Arsenal FC. While Highbury was the spiritual home of the Gunners for 93 years, it was time a club the stature of Arsenal moved to what is widely recognized as one of the best sporting arenas in the world.
I was quite lucky as I worked on Holloway Road during the final years of the stadium construction, and every day, the view from my 4th floor office window looked absolutely majestic.
I remember attending a work reception at the Victoria and Albert museum when my colleagues and I were bombarded by a pompous director of the V&A. Every 5 minutes, this chap bragged and waxed lyrical about the view of the city from his new corner office. If I would have got away with slapping the punk, I would have decked him – but hey, I had bills to pay.
Anyway, the next time he mentioned his panoramic view of the city, I instinctively suggested that I too, had the best ringside view of one of the world’s most majestic structures. And we had a Waitrose supermarket too, so he should just stop with the verbal diarrhoea.
Arsenal was quite innovative in the way it used partnerships to build the stadium, the most obvious example being the collaboration with Emirates Airlines. Until Arsenal as an elite club did the naming rights thing, very few big clubs looked at the sale of stadium naming rights as a revenue option.
Now even big clubs like Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea are seriously considering ditching their traditional stadium names for a few bob (well, quite a few bob if I’m honest).
In the next few weeks, Arsenal will blaze the trail again by introducing an interactive digital match day service in partnership with Sony.
In a nutshell – supporters will get their own mini TV (using a Sony play station portable) by their seats showing them action replays from selected camera angles, plus slow-motion options, live match statistics, team sheets and Arsenal player profiles and pre-match video content and Arsenal.com editorial news.
Fans will also be able to vote for their man of the match within the Arsenal TV Match day + user base, access the League table and live scores and results from other fixtures.
I’ve got to tell you, that while such innovations are amazing and it’s great that Arsenal are showing they can keep up with the 21st century, you have to ask the question as to whether it’s a good idea.
I guess that I’m just nervous because it’s a project keeping fans in the stadium in the first place, win, draw or lose the match. There’s a new breed of stadium supporter who is unpredictable.
When you get fans then playing with Sony PSPs and analysing every detail of every move, reading statistics like how fast a player is running or the mileage they’ve done – very few PSP users (and fans around them) will end up watching the game.
There’s a serious risk that the accusation that Arsenal supporters didn’t leave the library behind at Highbury will become folklore.
Unless you’re a member of the press corps filing match reports and photos, technology for supporters should be restricted to small radios that will give an alternative commentary and perspective without distracting the primary job of supporting the team.
Wow. Amazed to hear about the Interactive Matchday Service. That would be at par, if not better, with the best in the world of sports. Arsenal has forever re-invented itself keeping it’s history & tradition in check. Proud to be a Gooner.
Hope you like this feature on the Emirates:
http://11gunners.com/11moments/11moments-a-new-beginning-the-emiratespart11/2136/
On a different tangent here…
Did anyone notice that Chelsea dropped 2 points last night?
Maybe now we can have just a touch of perspective and less of the hysteria.
It doesn’t make it any easier for Sunday – far from that – Arsenal still have a hell of a job to do. But I think a bit of perspective helps.
There’s something that Saloner said yesterday that strongly resonates with me. We’re not going to win every game and I think some sections of our fan base need to manage their expectations to accommodate this fact of life.
However, there is no excuse for losing a game because of lack of effort or fight. I’d rather lose 3 nil because the rub of the green wasn’t with us, as opposed to the fact that we were buggered by the opposition and showed no fighting spirit or work ethic to defend gallantly for the honour of wearing the shirt.
First things first, a positive result (whether it’s a win or draw) at Stamford Bridge is a must. If Hull can do it, I bloody well hope Arsenal will.
well said.
Fans should come to the emirates to watch us play and support us.
Hull, at a stroke, have offered the more worried sections of our fanbase, and the team, hope.
Chelsea isn’t going to be a walk in the park, but, equally, neither is the cause lost even before we set foot on the park. I hope our more pessimistic fans make lives easier for themselves on this evidence.
Go in and put in an honest shift, and you can come away with something is a fact that must, equally, be obvious to the team now. Hell, with a bit of luck, you can probably return with the entire pot. Per Darius, if Hull can…….why can’t we?
I hope the players lift their hearts out of their boots and put their noses to the grinding wheel.
Interesting article, Darius.
For me the more “entertainments” (other than the football some of us actually go for), in the ground, the lesser the atmosphere, but then I am an old duffer.
Saloner
“I think a few walk outs and boos are just the cold showers these lads need to become men”
I could not disagree more. That could only be condoned by witnessing a real lack of effort, something that I certainly have not detected from any recent Arsenal side.
Confidence is all important & any team needs its support to be right behind it.
Have you ever played any sport seriously ?
Maybe these guys are a little too comfortable, earning vast sums, but they need to be shaken up by the manager, off the pitch, if they are not pulling their weight.
My feeling is that mentally we are not quite there. In these big games, they go out pumped up & ready to battle but when they get out there & it just does not go the way intended. That happens to all of us one way or another.
I can understand why Arsenal are trying to provide “atmosphere” at the Ems. Seriously though, they are trying too hard and all the gadgetry will only leed to distraction as you rightly pointed out.
Liverpool has not won the league for 20 years, yet their fans create a special atmosphere without gadgetry at Anfield. Damn, stoke City fans made their players seem like supermen with their noise. Unfortunately, Arsenal fans of the last five years want all the entertainment to be provided for them without any of their own input. No wonder our boys somwrimes feel that they are not supported.
‘Sometimes’ not *somwrimes*.
I’m sorry Flint; but I must disagree. There have been quite a few ocassions, ManU being the latest example, when atleast some of the boys, in my view, weren’t going at it full tilt. Look at the debacles, specially against some of the lesser sides that have become a feature of the last few seasons, and I think slackness will be well evident. Now, it might be argued that those were off days. But, to me, they are too persistent to pass off as happenstance.
As for support, yes, teams certainly need support to be right behind them. But I disagree that such support has to be unconditional and ever positive. I think fans have every right to, and should, voice displeasure when they feel let down. In my view it is the manager’s job to then instill a spirit to prove the doubters wrong. If they can’t take even a modicum of justified criticism they aren’t fit to be professionals. I stick by my view that you’ll get wholehearted applause for application, regardless of outcome, and will be booed if you let yourselves and us down.
As for my having played serious sport; if, by serious sport, you mean professional sport. No, I have never been a professional sportsman. But, I was a keen cricketer and kept wickets and opened the batting, right through, for my school and college teams. I was reasonably talented but also a bit lazy, meaning that I, atleast initially, sometimes erred in playing to whim rather than to team need. The one thing that invariably got me going, I can honestly say, was fans letting me know I was a dickhead when I erred, and my coach telling me I had erred, had to take responsibility, and to get out and set the record straight. Yes, I sat and moped around, but was taught to let my bat do the talking.
I expect no less of these well paid professionals.
As for the “entertainments”, Darius, I side with Flint. Football, and the give and take between the fan groups is entertainment enough thank you.
Very impressive but I wish that the money could be spent elsewhere, good old fashioned boards to hold up, or anything innovative that creates noise fireworks that are ’safe’ of some sort, anything to get a rise out of our librarian support. I for one have increasing disdain for my fellow gunner. What is wrong with us, do we not remember the 80’s we had nothing. The blogs the last few days have angered me so much.
Let’s just nuckle down and drive the team forward with fanatical support so they can turn over teams that come to the emirates.
We are going to prove the fickle wrong against Chelsea.
Come on you gunners!!!
Too right els. I too am sure the money could be spent elsewhere and as Darius suggested, this can only be a distraction unless we can use the gadgets to show off the visitors…but seriously may be cheerleaders…nah too NFL and rugby leage-ish, what about little mics at the bottom of each home supporter seat (only) and the mics hooked up to massive (inconspicuous) speakers…provided by Sony. That ought to work.
Will leave that to marketing to sort out.
Any word on Diaby?