Jonny we did do a survey a few years back, in fact it was organised by a pasionate Leigh fan(Barrie i think) who was actualy a Professor at the University of Manchester and the results were analysed at the University then presented to the then board of directors with the majority conclusions from the survey. I don't remember much being done with the information gained from the survey but if i remember correctly Steve (starbug) was part of the board at the time so maybe he can shed some more light on the subject. Personaly i thought there was some valuable information gained from that survey, i just hope it wasn't wasted .

Cheers Ste, maybe i'll wait to see what Steve's got to say about it.

Quote FredParky="FredParky"thats the one he is talking about Leigh ran out to 'Entry of the Gladiators' by Julius Fucik (can't write that after one or two) for donkeys years www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0CyOAO8y0'" You are right Fred THAT IS ITS TITLE , it was played at my beloved Tower , for years ,when i was a lad in the early 60s , Leighs nickname was the COMICS , was it because they came out to this music? As for a Survey im still getting used to jonnies polls, dont complicate things further.

Quote FredParky="FredParky"thats the one he is talking about Leigh ran out to 'Entry of the Gladiators' by Julius Fucik (can't write that after one or two) for donkeys years www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0CyOAO8y0'" You are right Fred THAT IS ITS TITLE , it was played at my beloved Tower , for years ,when i was a lad in the early 60s , Leighs nickname was the COMICS , was it because they came out to this music? As for a Survey im still getting used to jonnies polls, dont complicate things further.

In the 2004/5 season I chaired a working group of fans who were tasked by Allan Rowley to indentify areas in which the club could improve and,if feasible, undertake some of these projects ourselves.

We had a small group of people involved, including Leyther Matt and Woolrab .In my view , we put forward a number of interesting ideas to the club--Mike Callaghan was the point of contact.The working group operated in a professional manner and we had agenda and minutes for each meeting.Unfortunately, the lack of resources within the club meant that the suggestions did not get the attention they deserved.

We carried out a large scale questionnaire survey at an Halifax home match and followed this up by questioning people on a Saturday at the Spinning Gate.The results from the questionnairs surveyed were subject to detailed analysis and a report was written and given to Allan Rowley.I presented the key findings to a LISA meeting at which Steve was present.

The essentials of the study can be found in the following paper:

Dale BG,van Iwaarden j,van der wiele T and Williams ART.Service Improvement in a Sports Environment: a Study of Spectator Attendance.The paper was published in Managing Service Quality in 2005 ,volume15,number 5 ,pages 470to 484.

Barrie Dale

My recommendation, if we're going to do a survey would be to keep it focused and short. People are likely to answer a short survey with more considered answers.



Focus on one facet of an issue and try to probe for solutions for that.



As an example we could focus on the clubs PR and media coverage. Find out how, when & how often people hear about us, how they hear about other clubs, if they are likely to seek out info on the club, if they use the website, if more info would make them more likely to attend, etc.



Just one example of what we could do. Just make sure that it isn't something that only people dedicated to the club would fill out.

Yes thats the one i was talking about, we had quite a few people working together didn't we. Didn't Mike Callaghan leave around about the time the analysis was completed and presented ?.

Be better to survey people that dont already go to games I'd have thought. Need to find out why they dont go and what would encourage them to support their local club.

I remember the survey being done , but I also remember many of the conclusions not being very specific , ie preferred match day and time , also as has been suggested , there are two distinct sides to things , fans who do attend , and those that don't



So an actual fans ( attending ) survey will only tell you preferred options , and those vary quite considerably , the information you do want is age , location and ST or individual ticket options and the like , hence my ' ticket book ' suggestion



As jonny suggested , it would also help with looking at transport to stadium options , but the problem again is that the move to the LSV and subsequent changes in peoples pre and post match habits are now set , and therefore hard to change



So we then come to the problem of getting more fans , how do you ' survey ' them ?



You come up with the age old issue of is it worth trying to tempt back Ex fans , or concentrate on new ones



To me the ' Ex ' is exactly that ' Ex ' , any energy trying to get them back is a complete waste of time , they might return , but only until you have one , what they consider ' bad ' result , and that will be the last you see of them , you cannot rely on either a winning team or playing fantastic RL , as quite simply that is beyond your control



So for me it is the 90 percent of our ' population ' that have never set foot inside the LSV or watched LRLFC play before that we need to target , how you ' survey ' them is a very difficult one , the only logical way is to get them into the stadium to watch a game , and then ask the questions



Where having details of your existing customers is important in this instance is having a point of contact that allows you to explain what you are doing and why you are doing it



Ultimatly the point of contact with the 90 percent who are potential customers/fans is the community dept , it is how you use that which will decide what our future will be , we tried at Hilton Park , we dedicated part of the Hilton stand as a ' family ' section , we had fans arguing with us that " I always sit here , I'm not moving " , so fair enough , we left them sat in the middle of a load of screaming kids , they put up with it then grudgingly moved over to the next section 20 feet away





Now the LSV is a completely different situation , it is very simple to have dedicated areas for different types of fan , be they long term diehards , or families on a free ticket incentive , but as I said , communication is the key , if you don't get the message across , you will be criticised , and incentives will be abused , which then causes more resentment



We all want the same thing , a club to follow

I thought MC left at the end of the 2006 season (during Bensongate) whereas the survey was during the 2004 season?

Yes basically exactly 5 years ago , I went the week before

One of the biggest reasons when I have asked mates who don't go anymnore is that they are working doing extra jobs to make more money or their shifts conflict with games. Not saying it's true for everyone but peoples working practices are not monday to friday anymore.

Which means we could play each game on a different day of the week and it still wouldn't suit everyone.