This year’s results paint a far more negative picture than those from 2022. Just seven cent of respondents said they were extremely or very confident in the owners’ long-term strategy for the Club.
Respondents also expressed unhappiness with the Club's transfer policy, academy/homegrown player policy, and approach to managerial appointments. We repeated the question from last year seeking to understand fans’ attitudes towards ENIC. The most popular response to that question was – like last year – that ENIC has done a good job on the business side, but more focus needs to be given to the football side. But the level of support for that view has dropped sharply from last year and there has been a large increase in the proportion of respondents who want to see a change of ownership. There is no one unified view across the whole fan base, but what is clear is that the vast majority of fans share serious concerns that need to be addressed.
Ticketing has been identified as our number one priority campaigning area for 2023-24, based on responses from THST members and non-members alike. Several key findings have emerged in relation to ticket and membership pricing. While almost all Season Ticket holder respondents said that they had renewed for the coming season, many feel that their loyalty is being exploited by the Club. Just 22 per cent said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the price of their ticket while 50 per cent said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. One Hotspur members also expressed discontent – only 31 per cent considered their membership to offer good value for money. The erosion of concessionary pricing areas for younger and older supporters was also identified as problematic. Some 86 per cent of respondents aged over 65 years expressed agreement with our position that concessions should be linked to the person, not to the seat.
On a more positive note, 71 per cent of respondents who had used Ticket Exchange and 75 per cent of those who had used Ticket Share expressed satisfaction with those platforms. They are much preferred to secondary ticket agencies like StubHub that THST successfully lobbied against in the past.
We are already acting on the survey findings. We have just launched a call to action for fans to oppose ticket price rises. Please stand with us. We need to act now to show the Club that we will not stand back while our loyalty is taken advantage of.
The full results from the survey are presented in a handy report, designed by the excellent Justin Ford. You can download the report below. As well as detailed findings on ownership and ticketing matters, you will find plenty of insight into fans’ views on their match day experience, broadcast issues, priorities for the new Fan Advisory Board, and much more.
It has been a year of transition for THST, and one in which we have faced increasing calls to aggressively challenge the Club ownership and hierarchy. We are heartened by the support shown for our work – 67 per cent of Trust members said they were satisfied with our work over the last year, and 71 per cent felt that we enjoyed at least a moderate amount of success on the issues we have campaigned on.
Thank you to everyone who contributed, and to those who have supported our work over the past year. We will continue to advocate for fans over the coming season and will update you on the key issues and developments.
THST Board
9th August 2023

thst_annual_fan_survey_2023.pdf |