Advice for a Furrrner Who May Go to the Emirates 8/31 and/or WHL 8/24 (Swansea)?

An alternative option, might be to consider a Thomas Cook Sport deal. They do match tickets with overnight hotel stays for a number of PL clubs, including us and Arsenal.

I guess your proposed itinery doesn't include a Thomas Cook chosen hotel, but it does offer a good chance of gaining tickets provided you move quickly as soon as they are released. And you just take the tickets and don'r turn up at the hotel if that's what you prefer to do.

I have just noticed that they have Spurs v Swansea deals on sale already starting at £99 per person.

Good luck .

 

You wouldn't get near a turnstile, let alone through one with opposing colors on in this country, its just a different concept, its the same in certain Pubs around English grounds, their doorstaff will ban entry of opposing fans. Because this is commonplace and acceptable here, and has been for years, we would assume that anyone wearing oppo colors wishing to gain entry to a Stadium or pub, would only be to cause trouble as no-one in their right mind would attempt it.

 

If you're a Millwall fan you can cause trouble by wearing your own team's colours

 

Thanks everybody. We'll have to check out the Thomas Cook deal, and think about moving soon on the Swansea front. It is interesting to me how sport(s) in the US seem to be more a diversion, while football everywhere except the US is more of a passion. It probably owes something to the fact that we have six major team sports in the US. so interest in everything seems to settle at a less passionate level. Partly it may be that Americans, while often murderous as individuals, are docile in crowds. That, in turn, may be due to the fact that crowds in the US have always tended to be a diverse group of strangers. it has something to do with the point that Americans are good at yelling at people and good at getting yelled at. Whoever is supposed to be in control of a group tends to be able to.

But on the main point, you all have really helped me out, and I appreciate it.

 

I don't follow American sport, so I'd like to know if your stadiums are mixed or do you have contained home/away sections? thats partly behind the way things are here, opposite fans have always been segregated into seperate ends of the ground, and thats the way we seem to like it.

If you think thats a culture shock, I'm glad you're not applying this theory of yours to an EL away game in say Milan, walking into the Ultras bit in an oppo shirt would see you leaving the building via a stretcher!

 

I believe in most (all) American sports the fans are mixed. RWAEB will be able to correct me on that - I've only ever been to one baseball match.

Thing is that here the whole thing is very much more family and telly-friendly. Personally I find it quite sterile.

Also before ANY baseball, American football match they play the national anthem. My wife was surprised to discover that we don't do the same at football. It's almost like everyone has that bonding moment of being 'Murican all together and that's bigger than team rivalries.

Sod that. I don't want everyone to be holding hands and singing about how wonderful Britain and all us British people are (away fans included).* I want to get straight down to the rivalry and banter and abuse!

Also the atmosphere at US sports things seems very...conformist. Well a different type of conformism to UK sports. At a footy match there's conformity cos everyone sings the same songs and only the bravest will start up some new song or chant. But it's a sort of bottom-up conformity. It's people conforming to their peers around them. In the US it's very much a top-down conformity with the stadium staff and TV companies saying "You sing this song/do this thing now" and everyone does it: They play pop songs and expect everyone to sing and dance about, they have the "kiss-cam" which will focus on a couple and then the whole stadium expects them to kiss, you have the 7th innings stretch in baseball which is where they blare out some pop ditty from the charts and everyone's expected to get up and dance and act like twats when the camera goes on them. Ugh.

I love the fact that football crowds are so much more inventive, opinionated, rude and even funny than the trained drones you see at US events asking "How high?" when the organisers tell them to jump (in the designated correct way that the sponsors approve of).

And on that note let's all just hope that they never start playing a piece of music after a goal at WHL - it is so excruciatingly cheesy when clubs do that. It's as if the clubs have to provide atmosphere cos the fans won't/aren't.

* Interesting point here - the UK anthem is all about how amazing the queen is, the US anthem is all about how amazing America and Americans are. I think I sort of prefer our sentiment even though I'm a total republican.

 

City do some similar impromptu geriatric aerobics classes from the look of things

[video=youtube;tkoVlNpsgVg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkoVlNpsgVg[/video]

Got a lot of time for City fans, they do make me laugh

 

Corrected
All wearing suits, eating prawns

 

I'm not so sure there's much acting involved.

 

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It's only for football that segregation of fans happens in the UK though. Rugby Union or League, cricket and all other sports don't have any issues with mixing fans up.

 

We got seats next to each other for the Swansea game! Block 43 row 19 seats 123 124, if anyone's in the neighborhood and cares to stop by. The blessing in disguise is that Spurs need a better web developer--the site was dysfunctional about my membership. That forced me to Skype them at 4:30 am my time Tuesday. After an hour of no answering, I got a very friendly dude who was happy to sell me two tickets next to each other. I don't think there was any way to do that online. Shows to go ya, talking to live people is always the best thing...

Thanks again, PNP, Deedub, Enigma, LDL, DL, Sidney Fiddler, Junction8, Spurcat, YV, NSS, Lenny, Spurm, WY and PowerSpurs (sorry if I missed anyone) for all the advice, help and constructive criticism. We're going to opening day!

 

Maybe I should apply to the Spurs IT department! Would love to work for Spurs and you're right, the OS is awful

 

Not sure we have one. That or we're still using Viglen PCs that Sugar lent us 15 years ago.

 

I could be it! Even better, haha. I could say "I'm manager <under breath> of IT</under breath> at Tottenham Hotspur"

 

Great news! Pretty good spot too - near the away supporters which is always good for atmosphere. Just one more bit of advice - have a beer before the match. It really is better fun that way.

Oh - but DO NOT expect the facilities to be anything, er, good. The food/booze/loos are all crap/expensive/too few. Dunno what other baseball grounds are like but the Giants stadium is like some gleaming, spacious food mall. WHL is more, um, utilitarian.

Also my preferred public transport (you're not expecting to park near the ground, are you?) route is to forget all about changing here and there and getting on overland trains. From the centre of London just get the underground Victoria Line to Tottenham Hale and walk the last mile or two up the Tottenham High Road. It's a ****-hole but I just sort of like doing that. If you're in London you should buy an A-Z immediately. For me one of the best things about London is walking around in it, not going down to the Tube all the time where you can only stare at black windows and rats.

 

Missed this post, thought Spurm was just having a random pop at the site. That's good to hear you got there in the end, there shouldn't have been any problem with buying two tickets together online, did you have a membership each or just one between you?

 

Northumberland park is a closer walk but a slower train. Trains are usually jam-packed with spurs fans regardless of which you get

 

The tube up to Tottenham Hale, on the other hand, was practically empty last time I went. I shouldn't think most fans consider it a viable alternative since it's a bit of a walk.

 

(I'm assuming, by the way, that RWAEB is more likely to be coming from the south than the north).