Arsenal Help Fan’s Autistic Son During His First Match In Heartwarming Fashion

arsenal helps autistic fan sensory room

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  • Arsenal made one fan’s first game at the Emirates one to remember.
  • The football club was bound and determined for the fan to have a great time at his first match.
  • Be sure to check out more sports stories at BroBible here.

A father decided to take his autistic son to the Emirates Stadium to take in the Arsenal – Leeds Carabao Cup fixture on Tuesday night. It marked the son’s first-ever live soccer match.

The Gunners walked away with a 2-0 win, but the father-son duo almost missed out on witnessing it until the club stepped in with an incredible gesture.

Dave, the father of the son, shared the story about their experience at the Emirates on Tuesday. His son was fired up to take in the game, as was Dave himself. A little mid-week father-son trip to watch Arsenal sounded great.

With the loud crowd noise, Dave’s son had seemingly had enough at about the midway point in the first half.

Seeing that his son wasn’t getting used to the noise, he decided it was time for them to leave. A steward saw them exiting the stadium, stopped them, and asked why they were leaving early. After explaining the situation, the steward then contacted someone else on staff and Dave and his son were being directed to the club level.

On the club level, Arsenal has a sensory room where Dave and his son could comfortably take in the rest of the match.

On Wednesday morning, after seeing Dave’s tweets about their experience, Arsenal tweeted a picture of Luke saying that he loved meeting the father-son pair.

According to Arsenal’s official website, the club opened its Sensory Room and Sensory Sensitive viewing room in September of 2017. The room is available for every fixture across all competition at the Emirates with tickets available on request without charge from the Arsenal DLT.

“The facility incorporates a match viewing room which has measures in place to create a safe, calm and comfortable environment with reduced sensory stimuli to experience matches as well as a separate Sensory Room which comprises of a range of specialist equipment which supporters can transition between as needed, all managed by specially appointed staff.”

Many stadiums around the globe now have sensory rooms available. Bridgestone Arena, home of the Nashville Predators, is just one of the latest facilities to introduce a new sensory room.

Mark Harris avatar
Mark is an associate editor and the resident golf guy here at BroBible. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris. You can reach him at Mark@BroBible.com.