Arsenal have confirmed that the club’s first two games of the 2016/17 season against Liverpool and Leicester have been moved for the purpose of live TV coverage.
The Gunners will now kick-off their season in front of the Sky Sports cameras on Sunday 14 August at 4pm before facing Leicester at the King Power at 5.30pm on Saturday 20 August, a game that will be carried by BT Sports.
Arsenal’s home match with Chelsea on 24 September will also be broadcast by BT Sports and is now a 5.30pm kick-off.
The live TV selections have now been made up to the end of September 2016 and on paper that should mean no more date changes. But you know, you can’t really trust the TV companies not to meddle again.
A full list of all the fixtures selected for TV broadcast can be found on the Premier League’s website.
Terrible news for us aussie gooners…
Work on Monday is going to be torrid with a 2am kickoff to start the work week. Definitely a sick day on the cards. I can already feel the sore throat kicking in…
I’ll take it here in the US though! 12:30 PM kickoff on a saturday rather than 8:00 AM? Yes please.
Still, I respect your struggle. Going to bed at 4 is worse than getting up at 8.
Good for the West Cost too! Sorry to my Aussie/APAC friends.
I stopped renewing my red membership because of this continous shit from broadcasters. This makes for terrible planning for foreign visitors who has to make travel arrangements.
Even makes it terrible for those of us who live overseas and just want to watch games live. 7 hours difference is a bitch.
Sometimes the cynic in me thinks the TV companies do re-scheduling deliberately in order to mess with the fans.
Any advice on ticket availability or best way to get tickets for the Leicester match? First time traveling over from the US and I would really like to make it to a game. Trying to figure out if I have a better chance of finding something on the Ticket Exchange, or buying from someone once I’m over there.
Join Arsenal USA and get in touch with the ticket contact for your local branch. Foreign supporters clubs get a small allocation of tickets between the gold and silver levels. The application deadline is usually eight to ten weeks before the match. I get my tickets through Arsenal Canada whenever I go over. It’s very convenient.
This highlights everything that’s wrong with the current away credit scheme – how on earth can overseas supports clubs be consistently getting away tickets? I’m assuming they’re buying tickets for every game, thereby amassing 40+ away points, then selling on to whoever applies from their membership base? If that’s the case I’m joining one of these supporter clubs, I spend good money travelling away to scrape together a few points and it’s still nowhere near enough to go to places like Villa or Stoke even. I know fans in London do the same, it stinks too, but the fact it’s… Read more »
Just to clarify, overseas groups are not consistently getting away tickets. I looked into this and Arsenal America only provides a limited number of tickets to home games. There are no away tickets available to overseas supporters groups according to the contact I talked to at Arsenal America.