Before I describe the main components of this strategy, let’s first acknowledge some obstacles. Change does not come easy to football clubs. Cashless purchase is only now beginning to trickle down the professional pyramid when, for most of us, it’s been a subconscious expectation for more than a decade now.  In fact, we recently undertook a fan experience assessment at an international match where the official supporter guide suggested that those using the official car parking services ‘should try to bring the right amount’.  If you’re going to embark on the strategy I’m about to outline, prepare for some difficulty.

We also need to sow the seeds of belief too. While many non-league clubs struggle from time to time, it’s not exactly heartening to greet the programme seller (a key first impression for a new fan) and be told ‘this club is dying on its knees’ (as happened to us a few seasons back when groundhopping in Derbyshire (and no, it wasn’t Derby County). To paraphrase that positive mindset motto: if you think you can do it, you can. If you think you can’t, you won’t.  We need to understand that one of the many negative outcomes of a subsistence or survival culture at a club is its impact on envisioning positive futures.

Another pre-requisite is an experienced and diverse skills base among the volunteers, for it is usually the case that organisations outside of football have more to show us than our own club’s past achievements. That word ‘volunteer’ will keep coming up too: an ability to inspire, recruit, develop and value the people who will do the ‘heavy lifting’ is fundamental to success.

However, one committed, relentless, stubborn volunteer can the difference between an era-defining uplift in facilities and a club’s demise. So, what are clubs doing? Which are creating links with local colleges and universities, where young students with a love of sport are looking for experiences that will help develop their business, marketing, media, communications and technology skills? For an example, look at how Ashton United has forged successful links with UCFB (the Football university).

Of course, the key principle underpinning any community engagement strategy is ‘valuing people’ and yet football has somehow managed to survive to this point by assuming everything else comes second to the importance of winning. Our work in Moldova (Europe’s poorest country) has faced this barrier. Fans generally don’t turn up to League games. They prefer European qualifying games. This culture has resulted from a preference of club owners to simply target 3^rd or 4^th place and to direct all funds to that aim. 

The result is that, when we began our UEFA Grow Community Development project towards the end of 2019, there wasn’t a ‘fan experience’ to speak of: no refreshments, no entertainment off the pitch, nothing for kids and pretty poor toilets too.  Remarkably, even though our project has happened almost entirely under the restrictions of the pandemic, attendances have doubled in just one year.  Why? Because we have focused the national association, the league and the clubs on it: principally through the creation of a CDO at each club (Community Development Officer). Remember that ‘heavy lifting’ I mentioned earlier.

This is based on our previous experiences of driving growth through engagement and is formed on several key principles, including developing club identity, engaging and supporting the local community and converting the match day into a community celebration.  We did the same in Estonia with similar results. Parnu Vaprus joined the project at the start of the season in which they were relegated to tier two and yet, in the two years since (without being promoted) they have broken their own attendance records, including setting a new home attendance record. Maybe it’s no coincidence that both countries have seen a club qualify for the group stage of UEFA competitions this season (Flora Tallinn and Sheriff Tiraspol).

So, what has this got to do with non-league football? Quite simply that the very same strategic principles apply.  Let’s look at identity first. Warning: this isn’t about designing a new badge, but fundamentally challenging the club’s raison d’être and doing something about it.  What would the locality lose if we weren’t here?  What could we gain if we re-aligned our identity with themes and hopes closer to the hearts of our community?

Followers of our work will know of our love of Lewes FC – the first club in the world to pay its men’s and women’s players the same – and Bohemian FC – a club who, even during the pandemic, were setting new retail records with third shirts devoted to welcoming refugees and addressing homelessness.  Both clubs, like most non-league clubs, are volunteer run. In their case, however, their function is not just to play good football and win things (which they rarely do), but to make lives better (albeit in different ways).  In Moldova, where high levels of poverty mean that animal welfare is in crisis, one of our clubs is beginning to step up.

So, let’s ask ourselves what our club is for? Because if it is only to win football matches, then that considerably narrows our ability to attract and retain new match-attending fans.

Community engagement can happen in many ways: but as well as supporting local needs and / or celebrating local identity, it should also have the end game of getting people to come to matches.  Many professional clubs miss this opportunity through running two separate businesses: the football club and the trust. At non-league levels we don’t have that luxury, so let’s ensure that everything points to Saturday afternoon.

Next, we must make sure that the people who come to check us out, come again.  My buddy Julian Jenkins used to tell the story of friends who’d taken their kids to their first game at the local pro club, because they were putting a big ‘family day’ on.  There was everything: funfair, magicians, entertainment, music, food: the lot.  And, to top it off, it was only £20 for a family of four. Bingo!

The kids wanted to come back, naturally, but they were disappointed to find nothing happening at the next game. Plus, it was £50 for a family of four this time.  Lesson learned? Of course, no non-league club has the budget to emulate the club in the anecdote, but the point is made. It is unlikely that the football alone will be sufficient to compel many new fans to return.  Over 20 years of working in football (at every level, men’s and women’s, here and across Europe) is that, for first time fans, cost is a much bigger factor in getting them to their first game than it is to make them come back. For the latter, experience is always the key factor.