Is Alexis Sanchez boosting Arsenal's ticket sales?

With Alexis Sanchez in fine form, it’s difficult to get tickets to Arsenal games

Arsenal have never had trouble selling tickets in much of my lifetime. Indeed, they have one of the longest waiting lists for a season ticket in world football and red memberships rarely offer access to the best seats.

Like many others within commutable distance of the Emirates Stadium who does not own a season ticket, I go to matches as and when I can. As a non-season ticket holder I can’t block out my calendar with Arsenal match weekends and plan other social and domestic activities around it and as I usually get offered tickets or access to them no more than a week or so ahead of the event I have sadly had to pass up quite a few match going opportunities.

It’s hard to get tickets as far in advance as say a silver member so I can effectively plan around matches so when I get the opportunity to go to a match and I’m sure I can get a pass from my better half I grasp it with both hands. I’m often asked on social media how easy it is to get tickets and over the past few seasons I’ve given advice to a few people and generally informed people how simple it was to get tickets direct from the club but now I’m converting to the online secondary ticket market livefootballtickets.com.

This season I’ve had a bit of a mixed bag with home matches. I live much closer to the stadium than I did last year and I’ve certainly been to more matches on average this season than in the previous two or three but I’ve noticed a dearth of available tickets – even last minute ones – from my fellow fans.

Last season I was offered tickets – singles and multiples – for 18 home matches, 14 EPL and 4 cup, and due to my location, impending and new fatherhood, cost of travelling to matches irrespective of the cost of the ticket I had to turn down 17 of those offers and rely on my red membership for the handful of other games I managed to see.

I was thinking last night why it has been so hard to come by tickets this season and I can only come up with one answer – Alexis Sanchez.

There aren’t fewer tickets available they are just being snapped up more quickly than before or people are giving up their seats less. Flair players aren’t why you buy tickets, you attend to support your team, or for the more casual fan, you attend games you think you will be thoroughly entertained and Alexis is the sort of player who can entertain you every single match.

People I know who only went to the biggest home games last season and offered out their ticket for the majority of games to supplement the cost of their season ticket have been going to the Category B and Category C games this year. I can only assume it is because of Alexis as we aren’t exactly doing as well as we did last season. Even Mesut Özil’s crowding drawing effect wore off by the international break last season and tickets flowed confidently – with Alexis, tickets are trickling at best.

Getting ticket offers for away games has been easier than getting home tickets this season. Ideally I’d like to go to every game but for the time being that isn’t possible however if Alexis lighting up the league and winning us points on a weekly basis restricts the amount of times I can go to the Emirates this season then it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make (no need to thank me) and on the occasions I can get a pass for a home game or fancy an away trip I’ll just visit the website to order tickets and hope Alexis and the rest of the boys do the business.