Wow that drum is massive...can't see arsenal allowing a drum of that size!
But honest if people are moaning tell them to man up or have the drum at the front of the stand, alot of ultra groups have a person with a drum just infront of the stand or like DB10 said put the drum in a different block where people wouldn't mind having someone banging a drum for 90 minutes non stop

I like the flag idea but REDaction should personally make flags themselve instead of the ones arsenal gave us...no offence it looks pretty cheap and tacky, get a load of volunteers not just 1 and get them waving the flags before the game and after every goal and after full time etc.

I know someone (not personally) tried to get a ultra group running a few years back but with no success he came up with the name 'Arsenist' www.igooner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=4519 bear in mind this was two years ago.

I've just read this on another site ...

'Regarding the atmosphere at the Emirates - My son's a "Noise, Vibration & Harshness Engineer" who is a former Institute of Acoustics Young Engineer of the Year (just in case you were wondering, I'm a proud dad). We were sitting in the North Bank upper last season and he reckoned that the 6ft or so different material at the front of the underside of the roof (hope that makes sense) probably absorbs sound, so actually makes the crowd seem quieter than it is. I suggested he write to Gazidis about it but he never did'

Can someone mention this to Ivan or whoever might be able to look into this please? I seriously reckon the acoustics at the Grove can be improved, creating a better atmosphere. This looks to have confirmed what I've suspected.

It's a bit naive to suggest RedAction to mutate into an ultra group. The ultra movement has it's origin in Italy and it took about 10 years to establish it in the german Bundesliga. It makes little sense to try to "import" a foreign tradition which is completely different to english customs. By the way: Fan support on english football grounds is based on spontaneity and individualism. Fans react to the action on the playing ground and I appreciate this. The ultra ideal is completely different: coordinated support for 90 minutes which relies on the input of a precentor with a magaphone, no matter what happens on the pitch. I know what I'm talking about because I'm following matches of Hertha BSC Berlin at the Olympic Stadium for many years. The result is sometimes impressing as the "you tube"-videos show. But does this consider british playground tradition ?? It's a bit ridiculous to write this being a german gunner, I know, but it's not meant educational, honestly !

What we need at the Grove first of all are a couple of smaller steps to more support and more identification:

- a homogeneous singing area where everybody is supposed to stand including free choice of position
- a roundly accepted club song that everybody sings before match
- a lot of flags and scarfs (Red Action often stressed the topic, but I don't see a change)
- choreos before important matches
- a squad willing and ready to celebrate with the fans after match (a real lack for now !!)
- reasonable ticket prices for fans.

I think that would be a good start. Later on we may discuss bringing in new traditions.

Tony - how about 'The Unconditionals'?

The people who sing we love you Arsenal for 20 minutes irrespective of the scoreline fall into this group.

germangooner59 wrote:



Right I understand where you are coming from, alot of the things you said are great ideas apart from the ticket prices as we all know Arsenal will never decrease the price of tickets but look at the Dortmund game a few days ago look at the atmosphere, they are a ultra group every single atmosphere that will give you that 'hairs on the back of your neck stand' feeling are clubs that have ultra groups the only reason the atmosphere in england was the best back in the day was because of standing terrace, look at mordern football today in england the fans are treated as customers not supporters, arsenal even tried forcing a crap elvis song on us as our 'anthem' it is embarassing unless we have a proper stand where proper fans are situated then I can't see us ever having a good atmosphere, ultras are the way forward look at the lower league teams FFS they even have a better atmosphere than us!!

I really like this idea. A loud colourful section of the crowd and I think there is potential there, however approaching the club with this idea is where it would hit problems. Ultras are often associated with hooligans, look at the prominent Ultra groups: Roma, Lazio, Galatasary, various Greek and other Italian clubs, they all have strong hooligan elements. The club would be very hesitant in promoting an effort like this in fear of it being seen as promoting violence. Maybe if this idea is to really take off it we would need to do it without bringing it to the clubs attention?