Arsenal safe-standing plans: Will capacity change? What does it mean for expansion – and atmosphere?
Safe standing is coming to the Emirates Stadium.
After years of campaigning by supporters’ groups, and extensive consultation by the club, licensed standing will be introduced at Arsenal’s home ground from next season.
“Arsenal fans have long wanted this, so it is great news that safe standing is to be introduced at the Emirates Stadium,” said a statement from the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust. “We have campaigned for more than ten years to secure this outcome and hope it will further enhance fans’ match day experience, the atmosphere and ultimately support for the team.”
The Athletic answers the key questions on how and when Arsenal will implement safe standing, as well as addressing the potential impact on the matchday experience at the Emirates Stadium.
What is safe standing?
After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, Lord Justice Taylor’s inquiry report recommended that all grounds in the old First and Second Divisions of the Football League (now known as the Premier League and EFL Championship) should have all-seater stadiums by August 1994. That put an end to fans standing on terracing — at least at the elite level of the English game.
Supporter groups have campaigned since for the introduction of ‘safe standing’. In July 2022, Premier League and Championship teams were granted permission to install licensed standing areas from the start of the following season.
There are strict criteria which apply for safe standing areas, such as the fact fans must be able to sit or stand in the licensed areas – the seats in them cannot be locked in the ‘up’ or ‘down’ position. There must be one seat/space per person, and licensed standing areas must not impact the viewing standards or other fans, including disabled supporters.
James McNicholas
What is being proposed at Arsenal, and where?
In the first instance, Arsenal will introduce 6,850 standing berths to the lower tier of the Clock End.
The reason Arsenal are starting at the south end of the stadium is that if they offer standing to home fans, they’re also obliged to offer it to away supporters.
The majority of Clock End tickets are sold on a match-by-match basis, and fans will be made aware they are buying a ticket in a standing area.
The Clock End at the Emirates (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
For the following season, Arsenal will implement safe standing in the North Bank, where many season-ticket holders are situated.
Many of these sections unofficially stand already, so Arsenal do not foresee many issues with implementation – but they hope to offer season ticket holders the chance to move out of the standing section should they wish.
By the 2027-28 season, there will be around 13,500 supporters (including away supporters) in licensed standing areas.
James McNicholas
What does it mean for possible Emirates expansion?
The implementation of safe standing will not increase the Emirates Stadium’s current capacity of 60,704.
Arsenal consider that a positive outcome: at one stage, they feared the introduction of safe standing might see the capacity reduced.
When Arsenal initially explored the idea, there were concerns that the need to segregate standing areas from seating areas might lead to stripping out areas of seating, leading to a reduction in standing berths. That will now not be the case.
Regarding a potential expansion, the club continue to explore their options. There are no imminent developments expected, however.
James McNicholas
What other Premier League clubs have safe standing?
Arsenal are the last of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ clubs to implement safe standing. Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and neighbours Tottenham already have safe standing areas — Spurs have capacity for 7,000 home fans to stand, as well as 3,000 travelling supporters.
Aston Villa, Brentford, Bournemouth, Burnley, Everton, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, and Wolves also have provision for safe standing.
It leaves just Fulham, Crystal Palace, Brighton, and West Ham as clubs who are yet to implement the licensed standing.
James McNicholas
What effect could it have on the atmosphere?
Mikel Arteta has been a key driver of the significance of an energised atmosphere since he returned to the club as manager. It will please him to potentially inject more impetus behind both goals at the North Bank and, initially, Clock End where the Ashburton Army set up camp in recent years and do their utmost to bring the noise. The increase of pre-match light shows, tifos (where the club have learned that the best ones come in conjunction with supporter representation and ideas), and encouragement to arrive early and get involved demonstrate that this has been on the agenda for a while.
It is hard to predict exactly how much of a direct change this will bring as most fans in the lower tier behind the goals routinely stand anyway. But the repurposing, and renaming, as “safe standing”, making it more official, does give an opportunity for people who want more of an old terrace feel to choose to be there (or not). So if more likeminded fans gravitate to those areas, it should be more vociferous.
Amy Lawrence
What are clubs hoping to achieve with safe standing?
Fans who grew up on terraces have been campaigning for this for a long time. The most radical change to fan culture came in the early 1990s, when the post-Hillsborough disaster requirements to replace standing on terraces with seats were introduced. At the same time, football made a conscious push towards gentrification after a period blighted by hooligan issues, and the injection of new income promoted a new world where comfort, safety, tourist-attraction and money-making intentions became priorities.
Then came the trend for new stadia, which tend to be designed in a bowl shape. Traditionally, grounds were rectangular, an extension of the pitch, and the ends which needed attacking or defending were tribal areas. It is why a lot of ends had their own names, their own character, their own identity. The idea of fans “sucking the ball in” to the goal at a specific end was keenly felt. But ends were subsumed into homogenous bowls and lost their charge in the process.
Because safe standing will be a defined area within the bowl that feels and looks different to the sides, it hearkens back to the traditional concept of ends. Clubs perhaps feel that it presents the opportunity for a modern take on the livelier atmospheres of old behind the goal.
Amy Lawrence
