Ahead of Arsenal’s first men’s home game of the 2025/26 campaign, we put a few questions to the club about changes and improvements to the matchday experience.
From stadium updates and ticketing policies to food, drink and tifos, here’s a round-up of what’s new – based on the club’s answers and recent articles on their website.
__
Updates to Emirates Stadium
New electronic hoardings at Emirates Stadium
The most noticeable change this summer is the introduction ofelectronic hoardings between the lower and club level tiers. Above and below the executive boxes, the Arsenal branding remains static; however, the trophy motifs have been updated to include Arsenal Women’s successes. Given they will play the majority of their home games at Emirates Stadium, that certainly makes sense. The fan-made banners remain in place.
As you’ve probably heard, Arteta requested the removal of theretractable pitchside tunnelso the players get the full force of the crowd noise as they walk out. It always looked a bit temporary anyway, so good riddance. A new lightbox, glass doors and glass canopy have been installed in its place. New LED lights will add to the atmosphere ahead of night games.
Other changes in and around theplayer entrance and tunnel include new lighting and updated wall designs to make it “a more atmospheric journey for our players”. New imagery also includes replicas of the ‘Welcome to North London’ and ‘1886’ artworks from the stadium’s exterior.
A new lightbox featuring club crests greets the players when they get off the team bus
The club have long promised an upgrade to thePA system, but that’s yet to materialise. As things stand, anyone in the upper tier will continue to struggle to hear pitchside interviews. On the plus side, subtitles were added on the big screens last season, alongside live signing, as part of the club’s accessibility efforts.
The club’s5G connectivity project remains ongoing and the club weren’t able to provide a timeline for completion. Those of you who struggle for reception on a matchday will have to remain patient.
Morefamily toilets and baby changing facilities “have been implemented to cater for the growing number of women and families who attend our men’s and women’s matches.”
__
Tifo design
In light of the embarrassing Tifo unveiled ahead of the Champions League semi-final first leg with PSG, we asked the club if a more formal supporter-inclusive design process might be implemented.
The club replied:“We’ve picked up learnings from past experiences and we’ll strive for even greater engagement and co-creation with our supporters around the matchday atmosphere. Our aim is to harness the creativity and passion of an even wider range of supporters for matchday activations across men’s and women’s games, whilst maintaining the close links with longstanding groups such as those represented on our Matchday Experience Forum.”
If you’re wondering how the Matchday Experience forum fits into the supporter engagement structure (we were!), it sits alongside the Ticketing, Sustainability and Women’s Matchday forums, all of which feed into the Arsenal Advisory Board.
The club have published more details in itsSupporter Engagement Plan, which can bedownloaded here.
__
Abuse & Discrimination
The club recentlyconfirmed that 17 supporters were banned for abusive and discriminatory behaviour during the 2024/25 season. This included 11 for abuse in the stadium, as well as six members for online abuse.
This continues a year-on-year decrease on the 31 supporters banned in 2022/23 and 24 supporters banned in 2023/24. Each supporter has been banned for between one and three years, during which they are prohibited from attending any Arsenal match, home or away.
__
Food
In addition to the popular Willy’s Pies which were introduced ahead of last season, there are several new food options available includingLesley’s Jerk Chicken Burgers– as featured inBlack Arsenal Untold series –Provenance Burgers,Beyond Meat Burgers andBombo Doughnuts (Hi, Gareth!). The Argentinian dining experience,Gaucho, is also being added to Club Level.
__
Beverages
Both Asahi and Guinness are now on tap at the Emirates after new partnership deals were struck.
Asahi Super Dry – £7.20/pint
Guinness – £7.50/pint
Guinness 0% – £6.95 (can)
You’ll also find Meantime Anytime IPA, Meantime Dial Lager, Cornish Orchards Golden Cider, plus a range of non-alcoholic options from Athletic Brewing.
The good news: during the Fans First offer (an hour after the stadium opens on matchdays, concourse & Club Level), Asahi and Guinness drop to a much more palatable £4.40/pint. The club also plans to keep rolling out the ad hoc promos we’ve seen before – including the infamous buy-one-get-one-free deal that’s fuelled many a lively atmosphere.
Heads up – Asahi are running a BOGOF offer for Leeds on Saturday – it’ll run from 3pm-4pm on Club Level and 3:30pm-4:30pm in General Admission areas.
On the soft drinks front, Pepsi has been replaced by Coca-Cola. The bad news: £2.99 for a bottle of water remains daylight robbery, especially given you can’t bring your own in.
__
Programmes / Handbook
Arsenal’sofficial matchday programme remains the best in the business, and at 92-pages long (for men’s games), you’ve plenty to get your teeth into. For £5 you get wise words from captain Martin Odegaard, opposition profiles, updates from the Academy, stats and an A2 poster. For the fourth year running, when you buy the programme you can also pick up an exclusive pin badge for £3.
The official handbook, which the club has produced since the 19th century, now costs matchgoers £10. Not long ago it was ‘free’ as part of annual membership packs and, more recently, could be redeemed using points from the now defunct My Arsenal Rewards loyalty scheme.
If yousubscribe to the programme, you get the handbook free, but still, it’s disappointing that the majority will have to pay for it now.
__
My Arsenal Rewards
On the subject of My Arsenal Rewards, the club says:“We are replacing My Arsenal Rewards to give all members the opportunity to earn experiences and prizes such as special access to club events like open training and screenings, ticket draws, and merchandise giveaways.”
Given you used to get something physical / tangible as part of your membership subscription, the above just feels like a sly way to cut costs. I’ve moaned about this onBlueSky already.
__
Ticketing
The introduction of a ballot for general admission tickets has arguably been the most contentious issue in recent years for matchgoing fans. The club are happy with how things are going on that front –a full review for 2024/25 can be read here – with key stats below.
85% rise in the number of tickets allocated via our men’s ballot, from 197,000 in 2023/24 to 365,000 in 2024/25
54% rise in the average number of balloted tickets per game, from 7,900 to 12,200 across all competitions
68% rise in the average number of tickets accessed by Red Members per match, from 3,300 to 5,600
7% rise in the number of members who applied to at least one ballot and were successful at least once
0: the number of members who applied to all 30 ballots and were not successful once, down from six in 2023/24
64% rise in the number of Ticket Exchange transactions, up to 167,000 from 102,000
24% increase in the number of tickets accessed via Ticket Transfer, from 303,000 to 377,000
5,800: the average number of tickets purchased via Ticket Exchange for Premier League fixtures
9,000 Disability Access tickets made available to members via the ballot, Ticket Exchange or Ticket Transfer across the season
31,401 suspicious entries were removed from ballots in 2024/25
__
New Ticket Hub
Arsenal have launched a new digital Tiket Hub for managing tickets. Whether supporters are transferring a ticket, managing their network, or downloading their digital pass, the Ticket Hub “brings everything together in one place.”
It’s accessible through supporters’ Arsenal accounts via the official app and website, and “is designed to provide more flexibility and a smoother user experience when it comes to matchday tickets.”
The club recommends that members and season ticket holders familiarise themselves with the new platform ASAP. If you need support or a step-by-step guide, you can visit theHelp Centre or browse the updatedTicket Transfer Guide on the website.
Arsenal are also due to introduce a newAway Ticket Exchange at some point.
__
Cup final policy
As season ticket holders vastly outnumber the number of tickets available for cup finals, a ballot is used to decide who gets tickets.
After feedback from the Ticketing forum, the club is introducing new priority windows which reward the most loyal fans, namely those that travel away from home (in addition to attending home games).Details here.