The Emirates: Arsenal FC

For most people of a certain age it is impossible to separate Arsenal from Highbury, their home from 1913 until 2006. Much as that ground was only ever known as Highbury despite its official name being Arsenal Stadium, so modern day football fans will perhaps only ever call the club’s new stadium The Emirates no matter what happens in the future.

Arsenal themselves are one of the most successful British clubs ever, with 13 top-flight titles to their name alongside a record 14 FA Cups. They were the first club from the South of England to join the Football League, which they did in 1983. In the 2003-2004 season the club went unbeaten for the entire Premier League season, the only club to have done so since its formation in 1992.

Stats

The Emirates Stats
Year Opened	2006
Capacity	60704
Average Attendance	60236
Record Attendance	60383 (Arsenal v Wolves (November 2019))
Pitch Size	105 x 68 (7140)
Former Name	Ashburton Grove
Owner	Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
Sponsor	Emirates
Clubs Hosted	Arsenal
First Fixture	Arsenal v Ajax (22/07/2006)

Arsenal Stats
Year Founded	1886
Nickname	The Gunners
Club Mascot	Gunnersaurus Rex
Rivals	Tottenham, Chelsea, Fulham, West Ham, Manchester United
Previous Stadiums	Manor Ground, Invicta Ground, Highbury
Kit	Red & White (Home) / Yellow & Black (Away) / Dark Green (Third)
Training Ground	Arsenal Training Centre
Shirt Sponsor	Fly Emirates
Team Owner	Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
Record Goalscorer	Thierry Henry (228)
Record Appearances	David O'Leary (722)

The Emirates Photos

The Emirates Seating Plan and Where to Sit

The Emirates Stadium sees an abandonment of the more typical design of British stadiums that have four stands on each side of the ground. Instead the architect, Christopher Lee, opted for a three-tiered bowl. The upper and lower stands feature standard seating, whilst the middle tier is taken up premium seating and is known as ‘Club Level’. There are also 150 boxes above the club level.

Each section of the stadium does have a name like more traditional stands, so the choice open to you is not only where to sit but also whether to go for the upper or lower section of the ground. Whilst upper sections offer superb views the atmosphere isn’t quite as good as down below.

Away fans are normally seated in the lower section of the Clock End, whilst the rest of the ground is taken up by the home supporters. Whether you opt to sit in the Clock End, The East Stand, The West Stand or The North Bank, where the most vocal Arsenal fans sit, you’re pretty much guaranteed an excellent view of the match.

Arsenal Ticket Prices

Ticket prices for matches at The Emirates are amongst the most expensive in the league. The prices of tickets are different depending on whether or not you’re an Arsenal ‘member’ – although getting a ticket as a non-member is practically impossible. This requires you joining the membership scheme and paying a yearly fee, in return for which you’ll be able to buy tickets in advance of general sale and for less money than non-members will have to pay.

Non-member prices aren’t widely available, so here we’ll give you the price for members to go to a game at The Emirates. Like most clubs, Arsenal separate their league fixtures into categories depending on how popular they imagine the matches will be. Unlike most clubs, concessions are only available in certain areas of the stadium.

League Games Adult Prices

• Category A – £74.30 – £141.00
• Category B – £42.60 – £81.80
• Category C – £30.30 – £57.40

Senior Prices (Lower Tier Only)

• Category A – £55.73
• Category B – £31.95
• Category C – £22.73

How To Get Arsenal Tickets

You can buy tickets for Arsenal matches via the club’s website, their telephone booking line, by post and in person by heading to the box office which is beside the Arsenal club shop on Drayton Park. There’s a strong chance that people will be selling tickets near the ground on the day of the match, but we strongly recommend you avoid buying from such types.

Where to Buy

• Ticket Compare

Getting To The Emirates

The Emirates is located in the Islington area of London, so the transport options are numerous and top-notch. However you want to get to Arsenal’s ground you should find it a reasonably pain free experience.

Train – Your best bet for rail travel is to get yourself to one of Central London’s main stations and then get on the tube. Arsenal is the closest tube stop and is about 3 minutes walk from the ground, but both Finsbury Park and Highbury & Islington are around 10 minutes away. The latter stations are also on the Great Northern railway line. For your information, Drayton Park is closed on match days and Holloway Road is exit only before and after matches.

Bus – There are bus stops on each side of The Emirates, so your options for this form of travel are plentiful. There are direct routes to the ground from most of North & Central London, so consult TfL for more specific information.

Car – The Emirates is in a mostly residential area, so driving to the ground is tricky to say the least. If you really want to, however, then the postcode is N7 7AJ and you’ll be heading towards Central London. You maniac.

By Air – Gatwick, Heathrow, Stanstead and London City Airports all serve London so if you’re hoping to fly to the match then picking your airport is the best place to start. Once you’ve done that you’ll be able to find a way to get to Central London from there and then follow our directions for travelling by train.

Taxi – A taxi from Euston, for example, would set you back about £15 and would take around the same amount of minutes, traffic depending.

Parking Near The Emirates

We’re not going to say that parking near The Emirates is impossible, but it’s very, very tricky. There are numerous parking restrictions in place around the stadium that will stop you being able to park on a road that is reserved for residents. It’s also worth noting that traffic wardens are often out in full force on match days, so we’d recommend that you park in an official parking garage if you can find one, but good luck with that too.

Honestly, don’t drive.

• See Available Parking Near The Emirates

Useful Resources

• Parking - Just Park

The Emirates Hotels

As you may have gathered from reading this guide, The Emirates is close to Central London. That means that your hotel options are virtually limitless. We’ve found some that are near to the ground for you here, though:

Pubs and Bars Near The Emirates

London is filled with more bars and pubs than you can shake a stick at, though why you’d want to shake a stick at them rather than drink in them isn’t exactly clear. What is clear is the amount of choice you’ve got, so if you don’t like the sound of our suggestions then don’t panic!

Facilities

As one of the newest stadiums in the country, the facilities available at The Emirates are excellent. From kiosks selling food and drink through to areas for you to place bets before and during the match, the ground has got everything you’d expect a modern day Premier League stadium to offer.

Prices

• Programme: £5
• Pie: £4.8
• Cup of tea: £2.5
• Beer: £6.3

Hospitality

The hospitality options at The Emirates are excellent and numerous.

We won’t tell you every single different hospitality option on offer as a lot of them are essentially the same but in a slightly different part of the stadium, so instead here are three that are from different price brackets so that you know the sort of thing you’ll be getting if you go down the hospitality route:

• Club Woolwich – Here you’ll enjoy a champagne reception, a three course meal before the game on a private table, complimentary beers, wines and soft drinks, a match programme, an Arsenal gift and premium seating.
• The Heritage Package – Tickets for this package are sold in pairs, so you and your guest will enjoy a cocktail on arrival, a five course meal with half-time and full-time snacks, a private table at the club’s exclusive restaurant, champagne at the table as well as complimentary drinks, a match day programme and premium seating in the midfield section of the pitch.
• Foundry Legends – Premium match seats on Club Level are included here, with a three course meal pre-match on a private table in the restaurant. This includes complimentary drinks throughout the day, refreshments at half time and post match, official matchday programme, an Arsenal gift for each guest, and appearances from Arsenal legends.

Private Hire

Much like with the hospitality options, there are numerous different types of private hire you can opt for at The Emirates. Their website is an excellent place to start, allowing you to say what sort of layout you want for your event – from boardroom to cabaret via dinner dance and theatre – and then saying the amount of guests you want to bring.

Both its location in one of London’s suburbs and the excellent facilities on offer mean that The Emirates is one of the country’s premier locations for events and private hire occasions. From product launches to business meetings, the options on offer at The Emirates are truly excellent.

Stadium Tours & Museum

Tours of The Emirates stadium are excellent. As one of the most modern grounds in the country the entire time you spend at the stadium has been thought out and well planned. You’ll get to sit in the changing room, walk down the tunnel to the pitch and have your photo taken in the manager’s chair.

The other great thing about The Emirates is that there are numerous different tour options depending on how much time you’ve got and how much you want to spend. There is a self-guided audio tour of the stadium, narrated by former Arsenal greats Lee Dixon, Charlie George, or Nigel Mitchell; a Legends Tour that is led by a club legend such as Nigel Winterburn and Perry Groves, and includes them telling you stories about their time at the club; and a guided tour that takes place on a match day.

All tours include entrance into the Arsenal museum where you’ll be able to look at the fascinating features, see Arsenal’s bulging trophy cabinet and enjoy their fascinating exhibits.

Regular tour prices are £30 for adults, £25 for OAPs and £20 for children, and for the Legends Tour it is £50, £40, and £30 respectively.

About Arsenal

Founded in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, the Gunners are also one of the only clubs to have had their home in both North and South London at different times in their history. Arsenal fans have long enjoyed a rivalry with their North London counterparts Tottenham Hotspur; a rivalry that was aided, as far as Arsenal supporters are concerned, by the fact that they are more successful than their neighbours.

Arsene Wenger is the club’s longest serving manager, and also the longest standing manager in Premier League history. Alex Ferguson managed Man Utd much longer, but the Premier League did not exist for his first six seasons. Wenger retired in 2018.

For a deeper look at the history of Arsenal football club from a fans perspective see First Football Histories: The Arsenal FC story

The Emirates History

Called The Emirates Stadium because of sponsorship, the ground originally started life as Ashburton Grove and is the third largest stadium in England. Only Wembley and Old Trafford boast larger capacities than Arsenal’s ground.

Tentative steps towards moving to a new stadium began for Arsenal in 1997 when they explored the notion of buying Wembley. In 2001 the club won the council’s approval to build on the site where the stadium now stands and work was completed in 2006, costing £390 million.

Over the last few years the ground has gone through a process of “Arsenalisation” after fans said they felt it lacked the feel of any of Arsenal’s history or heritage. They have attempted to turn it into a ‘visible stronghold of all things Arsenal’ via methods such as the installation of ‘The Spirit of Highbury’, a shrine that depicts every player to have played for Arsenal over the last 99 years.

As well as some classy football The Emirates has also witnessed concerts by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay and Muse.

Future Developments

The waiting list for an Arsenal season ticket has over 40,000 people on it, so it would be far to say that the club would like to expand their capacity if they could. Unfortunately it is not just the stadium that would need to be developed in order to do this as both local tube stations currently operate at maximum safety capacity on match days. Any changes to the capacity at The Emirates would need to entail developments of the local stations, too. There are no plans to do that at present.

Small scale improvements were made in 2022, such as the installation of video boards, turnstile ticket readers, and a roof refurb.