Carling Cup: QPR at Chelsea

After visiting British Mick, I took the same bus (#295) I had on Sunday afternoon back to Stamford Bridge for Chelsea’s Carling Cup match against Queens Park Rangers (QPR). This time I left earlier so I would not be late for the match which probably meant I would need to pay for my ticket.

Obtaining Tickets
At first I thought I would check to see if tickets were available for the match at the main ticket office. However, when I approached the security guards at the box office they said the match was sold out unless you were a season ticket holder or member. I am not sure why Chelsea has this rule but it makes no sense to me. I was willing to pay for a ticket but they did not want to sell one to me. The rule was not going to keep me out of the match – it just keeps ticket prices higher on the secondary market since ticket touts know you have to buy through them rather than the team.

Instead I went to negotiate with the ticket touts along Fulham Rd. The first tout wanted £70. The second tout wanted £40. I could see there were more touts who had extra tickets so I walked up the entrance to the Fulham Broadway tube station since that is where I bought my ticket for the Arsenal at Chelsea match I attended last year on November 30, 2008. Most touts wanted £35 to £40 and the occasional tout wanted £60. I would ask what face value was and they all replied “It’s sold out to you.”

Next I found a fan trying to sell his two extra tickets to a tout. One rule of trying to buy tickets on the secondary market – ticket scalpers become angry when you get involved in their negotiation. In fact, it downright pisses them off. At this point, rather than worry about this rule, I butted into the negotiation with my usual statement – “I am going to the game and will pay more than what the tout is offering.” It is never much more but the fan with the extra tickets always listens. However, this time the tout (who the fan was negotiating with) was not pleased with my move. He started screaming “you are going to get us all nicked, do you want to get us all nicked?” Nicked is British slang for arrested.

Then I somehow got into only negotiating with him. After my move, he said he would only sell me a ticket for £100 – a tactic to threaten me. However, with multiple scalpers standing in the area I was ready to move on. I gave him a final offer of £25 which he did not accept initially (remember all these negotiations take place in the matter or minutes if not seconds). He asked for £30 which I said no to and began to move onto another ticket tout. He accepted my offer of £25.

This was one of my tougher negotiations for a game that was not sold out – the main reason being that Chelsea was not selling tickets on the day of the game. If Chelsea was selling tickets I would use their price of £19.50 as my negotiating leverage and force the ticket tout to sell for less than that (unless I was looking for a specific seat then my negotiating position is compromised).

Pre Game Dining
Since I bought my ticket 45 minutes before the match was scheduled to begin I thought I would grab a pint at one of the pubs outside of Stamford Bridge. However, the bars that were near the stadium were both completely packed and extremely hot (So-Bar) and for Chelsea supporters only (Café Brazil). Although since my ticket was in the Chelsea supporters section (Matthew Harding Lower) I was able to enter both pubs. However, rather than enter either pub, I decided to enter the stadium and bought one of the pint and pie meal deals Stamford Bridge offers.

The Game
My ticket for the match was different from where I normally sit in the upper deck. Instead, I was in the Chelsea supporters section four rows from the field, just left of the goal. To my dismay about a quarter of the upper deck was empty from the tickets Chelsea would not sell. Attendance at the match was 37,781 – 4,000 people less than the other two matches I have attended at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea defeated QPR 1-0 behind a 52nd minute goal by Salomon Kalou. Joe Cole, who set up the goal, played in the match after returning from an eight month break after rupturing his cruciate knee ligaments.

The most annoying part of sitting in the Chelsea supporters section was that they chanted “If you hate Tottenham stand up” the entire match and would stand for the next minute or so. This caused some fans in the section to start chanting “If you hate Tottenham sit down.” The chant must come from a historical dislike of Tottenham since Tottenham is not a threat to Chelsea anymore.

Post Game Train
After the game I took the tube immediately back to the Kennington area as not to be stuck in Chelsea after the game as I had been in Arsenal the night before. On the train ride back there were two girls and their father (Chelsea fans) who were drunker than most of the fans I see post game around Wrigley Field. They sang the entire way until I got off at Embankment to change to the Bakerloo line.

I met Big Chris at the Grand Union (a short walk south from the Lambeth North tube station) for a pint before heading back to his place to go to sleep to get up early. Big Chris and I discussed the possibility of me staying three more days at his place when I returned – Thursday, October 1, Sunday, October 4 (we were going to the Arsenal match together that day anyway) and Tuesday, October 6. He said that would be fine so I was set for my stays in London.

Carling Cup: West Brom at Arsenal

After booking my rooms for the next week, it was time to eat lunch as I had a few hours until the Arsenal Carling Cup match at Emirates Stadium. I walked a few blocks from Big Chris’ house and ended up at The Three Stags. I ordered the hamburger and a couple of pints before walking over to the Imperial War Museum located on Lambeth Road. To my surprise the admission was free so I spent a couple of hours catching up on my World War I, World Cup II and subsequent wars knowledge.

After the museum I walked back to Big Chris’ place to take an afternoon nap and get ready for the match. On Saturday afternoon, Timmie Hampton mentioned I should meet him and a couple other “Arsenal boys” at Pinchito Tapas – the same bar I met them at 10 months earlier for a Champions League match between Arsenal and Dynamo Kyiv.

The London Tube
I bought my day travel card for the tube (£5.60) and got on at Lambeth North. Pinchitos Tapas is located by the Old Street Tube Station so I took the Bakerloo line to Elephant & Castle and changed to the Northern line.

Pre Game Dining
I arrived at Pinchito Tapas (located at 322 Featherstone Street), a Basque tapas bar in Islington, around 5:30 pm and did not recognize anyone I was supposed to meet. So I waited and ordered some sangria. Around 6:15 pm, Timmie Hampton showed up – I had met him twice before. Once, at a restaurant watching Arsenal at Celtic in a Champions League playoff on August 18 and second, the past Saturday when we met for lunch at the St. Pancras Grand. We discussed what anyone would discuss who did not know each other well – work and football (more specifically Arsenal). Tim ordered a bottle of red wine. After another 30 minutes, Tim’s buddy Peter showed up.

At 7:10 pm, we had finished the first bottle of wine and I thought we would get on our way. The match kicked off at 7:45 pm. Instead Peter suggested we order another bottle. The second bottle was ordered and I figured we would just show up late. However, what I had not remembered from my prior visit was that the reason the Arsenal boys choose this bar is that it only takes 15 minutes from leaving the restaurant to getting to your seat – the plan is to take the Northern City Line from the Old Street tube station to Arsenal, which is part of the network rail line rather than the Northern Line. This train goes directly to Drayton Park – the closest train stop to Emirates Stadium.

We were done with the second bottle at 7:35 pm and off to the train we went. I was in my seat by 7:50 pm.

Obtaining Tickets
Since I thought we might be late to the match (which I was right), I bought my ticket after the Arsenal match on Saturday from the box office for £20. I thought all seats were supposed to be £10 but those were only for the lower level. The upper deck was all £20. This decision saved me valuable time rushing to the box office or trying to find a ticket Tuesday night since we were late. As we walked swiftly from the Drayton Park train station to the Emirates we passed a couple of ticket touts offering tickets. Arsenal does not include Carling Cup matches in their season ticket which allows the general population to buy tickets for the match at cheaper prices.

The gate I was supposed to enter had an extremely long line. However, the line that was actually long was for people who had bought tickets through Ticketmaster. Since I bought my ticket from the box office I could enter immediately.

The Game
The Carling Cup is the only tournament not included in a full season ticket for Arsenal. The reason being is that Arsene Wenger plays a junior team with an average age of 20 years old. A few seasons ago, Arsenal fans complained about paying so much money for tickets when the regular starters were not playing. Thus, Arsenal removed the games from the season ticket package and began charging only £10 or £20 for tickets.

There were some empty seats at the top of the stadium but the game was mostly full. The attendance was 56,962 which is 3,000 less than the other games I have attended.

Arsenal won 2-0 as Sanchez Watt scored in the 68th minute and Carlos Vela scored in the 76th. Jerome Thomas from West Brom was red carded in the 36th minute after a confrontation with Jack Wilshere.

At halftime I finally ate dinner since we did not end up ordering anything at Pinchito Tapas. Arsenal has a meal deal where you can buy a pie and a pint for 50 pence less than it would cost if bought separately. Also, remember you can buy beer during halftime of matches between England teams.

Post Game
After the game I met Timmie Hampton and Peter at the Public House on Islington Park St. As I arrived I met a new Arsenal boy, Mark, who I believe is the oldest of the bunch since he recently retired from the Royal Mail.

By the end of the evening, the tube had stopped running since we were out passed midnight. Since Tim and I were the only ones left, we hopped in a London cab back to Tim’s place and I figured out how to take the bus back to Waterloo Station from there. If you don’t want to get stuck taking the bus or a taxi for a long distance be sure to leave before the underground stops running.