Working on final touches to the book and editing video today,keeping myself company with Gol TV’s broadcast of Arsenal’s weekend match against Wigan.  The last match that will ever be played at that lovely 93-year-old ground.

If you don’t follow British football, this is more than a little like tearing down Tiger Stadium. 

I’ve
only been a fan for the last three years or so, catching the bug from
watching the games with a British friend here in Los Angeles.  And I
only saw a single game in person, an otherwise rather ordinary affair
against Southampton that ended in a 2-2 tie.  But it was still a fantastic day, and I cheered my lungs out with the people nearby.  The place was packed,
and if you can imagine the tradition and atmosphere of
Wrigley Field — complete with nearby train stop and residential North
London neighborhood butting right against the stands — combined with
the all-day tailgating vibe of November football in the American midwest,
that’s what it felt like, albeit with fish & chips from a
stand on the corner instead of hot dogs.

Starting next year,
they’ll be playing a short walk away in a fancy new stadium which will
be bigger and rounder and bring in more cash.  But from the looks of things it might just feel like the
new Comiskey instead of the old.  

I’ll still cheer for Henry
and Reyes and Pires and Cole and the rest, of course, especially a week from
Wednesday, when they play Barcelona in Paris for the European title.  (Do not expect me to blog much next Wednesday.)  But I can only imagine how many more long-term fans might be thinking that it
may never be the same.

Then again, it never has been, of course.  Time does what it does…