Today’s company visit was to Arsenal at the new Emirates Stadium, which they moved to in 2006 after outgrowing the old stadium at Highbury. Highbury has now been redeveloped with housing built around the original pitch. The apartments were marketed to members who wanted to have the same view from the seat as they held on their season’s ticket. The new stadium was developed on an old waste depot and includes affordable housing for London’s “key personnel” – firemen, nurses and so on - who can no longer afford London’s steep housing prices. The stadium tour began in the Diamond Club, Arsenal’s top tier of membership – the annual fee is £25,000 and members must commit to a minimum 35 year contract to demonstrate their allegiance. We were also shown through the corporate suites, the dressing rooms, the press rooms and the tunnel onto the pitch. I am a North Melbourne supporter and also a Melbourne Cricket Club member so it was interesting to compare these state-of-the-art facilities to what we have in Melbourne - the Diamond Club was on a completely different scale, even compared to the Long Room at the MCG. We finished in the largest of several retail stores at the ground, where the group enthusiastically contributed to Arsenal’s revenue!
We returned to London and I headed into the city to catch up with a couple of Ernst & Young friends. I had the address of the Global EY building (as opposed to the London EY building), Beckett House, and a scratch map I had copied from the website, but as it was already pitch dark at 5pm, I wasn’t sure I was at the correct address until I was right outside – there was only a small ‘Ernst & Young’ sign at ground level, and no neon illumination at all, which made me realise that there is really not much neon in London at all, in stark comparison to Hong Kong.
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