
There’s significant change too in the way fans are getting to the stadium, with the number of fans using cars to travel to home games falling from 43% who planned to drive when we asked about travel to the stadium a year ago to 29% who actually use their cars.
Satisfaction levels with the price (80%), quality (85%) and choice (79%) of food and drink inside the stadium are high, while there’s room for improvement on availability and standard of service – although ratings here are good, at 64% for both.
With fans sitting in new seats, finding out how happy they were was a key new question this time. While we found the vast majority of Season Ticket holders (80%) were happy with where they were sitting, we also found that 21% would definitely move if they could, with a further 31% saying they probably would move if permitted. A significant proportion (25%) said they wanted to move either to be near friends and family or because they didn’t like the people around them (23%). Watching your team is still a community activity.
Once inside the ground, satisfaction ratings with the atmosphere are also very high (84%) – testament to the work that went into creating such a fantastic arena. Opinion remains divided on visual displays of support and the introduction of musical instruments, although questions about specific initiatives tend to get higher positive responses.
There’s cause for concern on stewarding, with a fall in satisfaction ratings year on year of 11%, to 55%. This has to be seen in the context of the inevitable teething troubles as people get used to the new stadium, but we will be urging the club to address this early.
One area that does need to be addressed is standing, and we would argue that problems arising around the issue of standing have contributed to the drop in satisfaction with stewarding. It’s a positive thing that the Club has future-proofed the stadium to permit standing should there be a change in ground regulations, but this may have confused the message going out to supporters. Our survey found a wide level of opinions about what was and wasn’t permitted, although a majority, 67%, did understand the current situation in which persistent standing is not permitted. It’s a complex area, but one in which communication needs to be more effective. We remain willing to work with the Club on this important area.
All the findings from our survey are used to inform the work we do during the year. That work can be done more effectively if more people join. If you’re not a member, joining is one click away. If you are, please pass the link on to at least one non-member.
Look out for more stories in the coming days. You can read the full survey below.
THST Board
31 July 2019

thst_annual_fans_survey_2019.pdf |