Arsenal News 24/7Writer: Rocky7 
Date:Thursday September 20 2007
Time: 2:34AM
UK time is: 16:15:45
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Wenger Wants 100,000 Seat Stadium
As the debate rages on regarding Chelsea and it's half arsed attempt to fill it's stadium, Arsene Wenger thinks Arsenal fans are the heart and sole of the club, and wants to increase the size of the stadium.
Wenger, a world renowned perfectionist, said he wants more people to support the club, and a bigger arena to put them in after another 60,000 Gooners crammed into Ashburton Grove.
Le boss claims he is consistently amazed by the level of support the Arsenal fans show.
Not content with expanding Arsenal Football Club beyond all expectation, the wiley Frenchman wants more, and more for the clubs fans.
'I always said that I'm amazed by this club and its support - we are happy to have such support and we have a big responsibility to keep these people happy,' said Wenger.
'We try, at the moment we managed to do that. That is the real dimension of the club - the fans.
'We want more support, more fans and I hope that one day the next board will extend this stadium and build 100,000.'
Dontcha just love this dude?
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Your Comments
Imagine a 100,000 all seater....you'd be able to fit all the Chelsea fans into the bogs!!
Rocky7
"the next Board" ?????? Call me paranoid, but I don't like the sound of that.
FAB 4
Now thats vision :0
AB_Arsenal
This season, at the minimum. Big things will happen to, and for Arsenal. Again. It is quite vivid. I am a prophet. And I'm not talking about Usmanov. He's not so big. He will fail. GUNNERS FOR EVER.
Warri Gooner
He is talking about the next generation, FAB4. It is logical that this Board will be phased out, before another one runs Arsenal. Maybe with the same owners, maybe without, but thats a long way in future (hopefully). A 100K seater is mind boggling, and filling it every week will be great, but Wenger is visionary. If he can see it in the future, then its possible.
prits
that would be absolutely amazing
ahops101
And that is why, I can't help, but have complete faith in the man.
ducksworth
chelski want to build a new 25,000 all seater stadium.
fcdematthew
poor chelski
korodon
You'd have to build it away from your historic area .... oh well, thats never been an issue for you lot anyway
Gromit
alas, as good as it sounds, we built a 60,000 stadium and it can't be increased. the local council would only allow us 60,000, an extra 10,000 or more would increase traffic and congestion etc etc. it sucks, also i can't see how they would take our beautiful design and just stick say another 40,000 on the top. its high enough as it is without going higher. still i think he means how good our fans are and the support we have for our club no matter who will play, saturday is derby and we are sold out, plus we didn't have to reduce prices :)
PUREGOLD
Chelsea can build a 25,000 all sleeper stadium!!!
afri-gooner
PG; You need to think like AW here. The geezer is not talking about building a new stadium in his lifetime. This man is 100% Arsenal, and is planning for the long term future of the club. Where other managers think of long term as 5 or 6 years, Wenger is thinking 40 years down the line. The guy is an utter genius.
Rocky7
Few clubs worldwide could regularly fill a 100,000 seater stadium 30 times a season. And, no disrespect to Arsenal, I think that unless there were a large number of less expensive tickets, they aren't one of them. Stadium construction costs, in Britain in particular, wouldn't allow for 100,000 seater stadiums and regular £10-20 tickets (all due praise Arsenal for their League Cup pricing), and traffic considerations would prohibit it, etc, so it's a non-starter anyway. However, I don't think that Arsene Wenger intended to be taken so literally. It seems to me that he was making a statement about Arsenal's fan base and making a sly swipe at Chelsea by doing so. Wenger is a very intelligent man, so that he chose those words only a day after Chelsea could only half fill Stamford Bridge for a Champions League tie is no coincidence. He basically said "we're a big club, and we've got the stadium and the fans to go with it - you're not."
DeathBeforeDishonour
Went to your match last night,atmosphere was woeful beyond belief...!!Seville were the better side for 30 mins,their left/right wingers were causing all sorts of torment but the games pattern changed with the own goal.Sagna,Flamini,Adebayor were excellant imo but Hleb,Almunia,Senderos were VERY poor.Paul Robinson certainly isnt the worst keeper in N London thats for certain (& thats saying something!).....Also read some nice things in the programme about us from Toure & Wenger as well as some hard hitting comments that they knew we would run out of steam in the second half which adds weight to the arguement that we are not fit enough to be a top 4 side.That is after all a BIG debate amongst us Yids.A question for you........Do you fear in any shape or form Jose turning up at WHL...??Cheers Chalky THFC
chalky76
DBD - When making these comments you also need to think about what the world will be like in 40 years time. Traffic congestion maybe a thing of the past, construction costs may not be a probelm, espesically with the Arsenal making around £3Million per home game!! Bt I agree there is a sly dig in there too.
Rocky7
Chalky where were you sitting? Seville were not the better team for the first thirty minutes, it was 50/50. Yes the game pattern changed with the deflection, the 3-0 result was harsh on Sevilla, it was an excellent open game played by two footballing teams. I enjoyed it and just glad we took our chances well. Also I disagree with you about Hleb, but you need to watch him consisently to see what he brings to the game. But we are all entitled to our opinions and its amazing how people at the same ground see things differently, ie the atmosphere was excellent (room for improvement) but it does vary depending where you sit!
Harry671
Rocky7, it's hard to imagine thinking that far ahead in football. Look at who were the top teams then and who are the top teams now. Empires rise, and empires fall. Who's to say that the big four of today would even be in the top flight in 2047? As for the traffic congestion of 2047, well, until we get the flying cars we've been waiting on for the best part of a century, that's not a problem that's going to disappear, and even if it did you'd still have nimbys to contend with. Wenger has had as much input as anybody else into the new stadium and he knows full well that increasing capacity there is impractical, if not impossible. His words were aimed squarely at Chelsea.
DeathBeforeDishonour
I guess you would put this comment on a par with his stament in 2002/03 season that Arsenal could go a whole season unbeaten? Arsene Wenger stated after the first 6 months at AG that it was too small. Arsenal have a 40,000 waiting list for season tickets, well over 150,000 fully registered members, a larger stadium would not be unrealistic. I'm not disagreeing with you that his comments weren't a sly dig, but do not underestimate the visionary powers of Arsene Wenger. His goal isn't to make this club the biggest in the world, it's to make the club the biggest in the world and keep it there.
Rocky7
I actually thought that Wenger said that we could have built an 80,000 capacity stadium but that they thought better to have 60,000 and everyone has good views. There's no doubt that the infrastructure to accomodate 80,000 is also was also a consideration.
Gooner_Vin
'We want more support, more fans and I hope that one day the next board will extend this stadium and build 100,000.'
............... What the boss means by the next board???
afghenry
Chalky, come off it with your "My uncle's a gooner" story. Truth is you wanted to see Champions League football live so you went to one of the few places in England where you could get some! Can't see Jose going to WHL though - would YOU want that?
Andy-bayor
Plenty of clubs have waiting lists running into tens of thousands but that isn't always indicative of the true numbers that would actually buy a season ticket tomorrow if one became available to them. Circumstances change - people move, they lose jobs, they start families, they die - and clubs rarely keep active track of those that are on those lists as it's not financially viable to do so. I'm on a season ticket waiting list myself, and have been for almost a decade and in that time the club hasn't contacted me even once (understandable, as mailshots cost money), so, until it asks me directly, the club has no way of knowing whether or not I'd buy a season ticket when the chance arrives.
DeathBeforeDishonour
Chalky you do make me laugh. Weren't Seville 2-0 up against your rabble at your own place last season and then took offf their best player to rest him for bigger tests ahead? If you think Jose will go to the Lane you're more deluded than the rest. FOYS.
hatespur
i dont think 100,000 will come for the next 10 - 15 yrs and that would be soon so he means the next generation.
anonymous
Guys, important breaking news: ********** has just sent a new TV message to prove he is still
alive. He said,"Tottenham were s%#t on Saturday." MI6 have
dismissed it saying - "It could have been recorded at any time in
the last 12 years!".
Gooner_Vin
Guys, important breaking news: Osam# B*n L%den has just sent a new TV message to prove he is still alive. He said,"Tottenham were s%#t on Saturday." MI6 have dismissed it saying - "It could have been recorded at any time in the last 12 years!".
Gooner_Vin
I dont want to pretend I am a visionary or anything but I always wanted more than 60,000 at Emirates before it was even built. it looked a bit too conservative to me given that Highbury tickets were like gold dust and 22,000 extra tickets (many of which go to the away team) would not fully solve that issue. then I see a team in manchester selling 75,000 every week and I start to think we can at least match that. If Islington put a limit on that then fair enough but I dont feel we pushed hard enough for a bigger stadium.
gazzap
Chalky, You gotta see how funny it is that, being a spud, you go and watch us in the PROPER European competition!!! And then to make things even funnier, you berate us over the atmosphere in the ground and say Sevilla were the better team for the first half hour. That really does sound like sour grapes to me!!! And for all the gooners out there, a couple of things...... Is Senderos the new Cygan (bless him!!!) and was AG built with a view to being able to extend it over the next few decades? (I realise what's been said about traffic and stuff, but remember in 30-40 years we'll all be driving round in hover-cars (obviously that's after the big Jet Pack crash of 2034....Sorry I'm waffling now!!!))
scooch
It would appear that the years of you lot disappearing up your own backsides has'nt ended alas. One of the great pluses of our recent dominance has been we have'nt had to listen to Arsenal fans crowing and feeling generally superior to everyone else. However, you now take the biscuit with this stuff about the Chelsea crowd. Who's using the communal brain cell at the moment. Have you wondered why Arsenal have a bigger fan base. It's not becaiuse they are a nice cuddly club who are so much nicer and lovely than everyone else. If you believe that you are definitely out with the fairies. Anyway in 20 years time Chelsea will need 100,000 and the Arse will be sharing with Spurs.
tjay
Harry671-I sat in Block 11,row 5,seat 232..........And if thats what you call atmosphere...!!Andy-Bayor,LOL at that but its true,family"s evenly split between Spurs & you "orrible" lot..........As for Hleb,he"s being carried in that team,nothing more than a passenger in a very good side.Hatespur,his ego makes THFC a possible destination,however Jose"s wage packet of £110g a week could be a stumbling block..??Also lads,that ref was sooooo biased in your favour......!!Anyway we may be zhit at the mo but at least we wont get 24000 tonight...!!COYS Chalky THFC
chalky76
Stop that, Chalky... up with the mighty Anorthosis of Famagusta, down with the Scum lol!! Jol joining Mourinho outside the jobcentre on Friday morning anyone?!
Andy-bayor
@tjay "Who's using the communal brain cell at the moment" It's ironic that you ask that without a question mark. Maybe your suggestion that we are "feeling generally superior to everyone else" is an inferiority complex on your part. Also you ask if we have wondered why Arsenal have a bigger fan base without actually burdeni....sorry sharing with us your wisdom on why that is the case. Anyway, it's been lovely sharing cyber space with you mate and we'll take your word for it that Chelsea will need 100,000 in 20 years time and we'll be sharing with Spurs. Toodle pip now.
hatespur
It's a swipe at Chelsea, quite a flagrant one really considering Arsene's previous.
AFC85Lew
where is merilin? :)
kidK
...or au revoir as you would say at Ashburton Grove. I'm paying you a compliment really. Arsenal is a far more successful club than Chelsea. You'd have to have no interest in Football not to know or accept that. This obviously will breed a bigger support than would otherwise happen. I can only keep going to Chelsea and encourage younger relatives and friends to do so. In recent years around our way there has been a trend away from Arsenal and towards Chelsea. To be fair I do live in West London so you should expect that anyway. But you would be surprised that 5 years ago it was about 40% Chelsea 40% Arsenal and a smattering of Fulham QPR Manu. Now I would say it was 80% Chelsea and a smattering of others. This is not scientific but a good indication. Therefore, I fully expect Chelsea to need a bigger stadium in 5 - 10 years as our younger fan base become economically independant.
tjay
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