Arsenal Away - details for supporters
AISA (Arsenal Independent Supporters' Association) has provided us with their tips to share with you when visiting the Emirates on Thursday evening, on getting there and around and inside the stadium.
1) Getting into the stadium.
Turnstiles will open ninety minutes before kick-off.
There is a longer process to get into the Emirates these days, so the message is try to arrive early (60+ minutes?). It can sometimes get very chaotic in the last 15 minutes before kick-off.
Holloway Road*, Finsbury Park and Arsenal (all Piccadilly line) and Highbury and Islington (Victoria and Overground) are all close enough to walk to the ground within about ten minutes or less. *If you come from Holloway Road, you’ll not be able to use it after. It’s closed for two hours following the end of the game.
Supporters coming by car, see (6) below.
2) Bag size. There is a limit of nothing bigger than A4. So a small rucksack or handbag. But travel with as little as possible. And usual rules on no bottles - there's an official list of prohibited items below. All bags are searched and tagged prior to entry. We suggest using a clear or string bag - it speeds up entry as they can see what you have and avoids their emptying out the contents on a table.
3) There's no 'away' pub any more. The Drayton (the one people used to use) has closed and there's no alternative. Alcohol is not allowed to be sold in the nearest shops, and it's not allowed to be brought into the stadium. If you want alcohol, it needs to be bought once inside the stadium . . . at Arsenal rates, I'm afraid (see below). You can bring in snacks and soft drinks that are in small plastic bottles or flasks (so long as they fit into that small bag!)
4) The Emirates is CASHLESS so if you want to buy anything inside, you'll need plastic or your mobile to pay.
5) Food is available inside the Emirates. It’s not bad but it’s not cheap - Deleware North are the food and beverage provider to prices are similar to those they caharge at the London Stadium.
Immediately outside, on the concourse around the stadium, there’s virtually nothing, aside from programmes and toilets. But there are brilliant little cafes on the streets surrounding the concourse where you can sit down to eat (a really good café is in line of sight of the ‘away’ entrance - ‘Wagon Café’ - and it welcomes all supporters).
Loads of other cafes and restaurants are slightly further afield (left or right out of Holloway Road tube, or left from Arsenal tube, along Gillespie Road, Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, if you have your mobile maps). Plus the usual quota of burger vans on the roads surrounding the stadium.
6) If you come by car. The usual parking issues (generally, no parking available) have been exacerbated by Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Roads around the stadium have been closed, but not physically - by barely visible signs, with camera enforcement (and £130 fines). So if drivers see a low flying motorbike over a car sign (left) don't go past it.
7) The club tells us, 'For any ticketing enquiries on matchday, the Box Office is situated next to the Armoury Store on the west side of the Stadium.' That's the Holloway Road Tube station side, not the Arsenal tube side, so if you come from the latter, you have cross bridges to the pedestrianised exterior of the stadium and down steps to the 'west' side.
8) There are public toilets in the area immediately surrounding the outside of stadium. So no matter how desperate, please don’t use people’s gardens. (It’s hard to believe but some fans do.)
Below is a sample ‘menu’ from inside the stadium supplied by the club in October 2022).
And there's also a whole load of bumph that their club sends out: