My son has been an Arsenal since the age of 10. For years I promised to go with him to an Arsenal match in the UK but it never materialised. Last year my son turned 40 and i decided to surprise him with the Arsenal home game against Man City. I didn't really know where exactly I can buy tickets for the game but I found that they offer an variety of expensive Hospitality tickets on the Arsenal website ranging from £500 to £1800. As this was long overdue I decided to spoil my son and despite the super expensive price I decided to go for the best and most expensive and purchased 2 x £1800 (£3600 in total) Heritage Hospitality Tickets to this match, for both of us… just father and son once in a lifetime experience. The game was originally scheduled for a date in October 2022 but postponed due to the passing of the queen. Eventually the game was scheduled for 15 February 2023 and we hopped on the plane from Johannesburg South Africa, super excited to watch match of the season between the top 2 teams in the English Premier League.

To cut a long story short we were super disappointed with the outcome of these super expensive tickets of the Heritage Hospitality experience at the Emirates Stadium. To be brutally honest I didn't read the small print of what exactly this package offered but when one pays nearly four time the price of the basic hospitality package it would be reasonable to expect significantly more than an average meal and bad seat for the match. We indeed received a 5 course meal and 2 seats to the game. The 5 course meal was fair (had better) was served in a dining room with 100 other season ticket holders, they drew alcoholic drink but we don't drink so Diet Coke was the entire perk here… the seats were terrible for the prices we paid - far away from the pitch and not even close to the middle (somewhere between the goal line and middle line). Ah and I nearly forgot Ray Parlour (ex Arsenal Player from the 90s) came by to shake my son's hand just before we were about to leave after the match. And one last thing there was a magician as well who was supposed to entertain the people in the dining room. The dining room didn't even offer a private toilet and we needed to stand in the queue at half time for 25 minutes missing the first 10 minutes of the second half. An absolute insult to our intelligence and totally disrespectful to us as guests who travel far distance and a paid a fortune for this trip with a totally different expectation. If one looks carefully at the details of the package they basically provided what the small print stipulated but for £1800 a ticket they could have done a hell of a lot better to make this a once in a lifetime experience. For example … 1) a stadium tour a few hours before the match 2) a visit to the dressing room well before the match 3) take us and allow us to stand next to the players when they enter the pitch 4) give us an arsenal t-shirt and/or a scarf 5) offer us a visit to the Arsenal museum 6) invite us to an Arsenal training session the day before the match … none of the above would have been a major expense to the club but would have turned this to an experience worth £1800. What we got for £1800 was appalling - an average meal and bad seats. This is an absolute disgrace and poor reflection on one of the top soccer clubs in the world. We came all the way from South Africa for once in a lifetime experience and we both felt that we were conned.

I spoke to the lady in charge of hospitality during the match as well Bobby (who was my contact regarding the hospitality package) the day after the match and they both were hardly apologetic about this poor delivery for such expensive tickets, nor they made the smallest effort to make good. This would have never happened in America not even in South Africa.

So all I am trying to achieve with this post is to make sure that no other suckers in this world falls in the this hospitality trap of buying the £1800 heritage hospitality tickets (or any other hospitality package for the that matter) and expect a super experience - you ain't going to get it - ALL YOU ARE GETTING IS AN AVERAGE MEAL AND BAD SEATING AWAY FROM THE PITCH - don't fall for it. Buy normal tickets rather and eat anywhere for a fraction of the price. A lifetime experience you are not getting.

If no one buys ever again an hospitality ticket to an Arsenal match I will be super happy as to the outcome of this post.