The fourth season of our podcast (https://fanexperienceco.com/podcast/) features interviews with guests from eight of the EFL’s most fan-centric clubs (with the final one – featuring Richard Knight from Exeter City – out this week). This claim of fan centricity is substantiated by the fact that, at last season’s EFL Family Excellence programme, they all scored a Gold Award.

So what? I see you shrug.

In fact, the thirteen clubs who achieved a Gold Award for the quality of fan experience have seen, since the pandemic, an average attendance increase of 16%.  For clubs not achieving an award, there is little to no growth.

There are always anomalies, of course, since clubs expect a boost in attendance upon the achievement of sporting success. However, there are only ten promotion spots available for EFL clubs so your odds of glory are about 7/1 (the same as the chances of relegation).

But if clubs use feedback from fans (and our expert input, of course) to continuously improve experiences, attendances will rise whatever happens on  the pitch. If this is built upon by a senior team’s vocal commitment to it and if they have a clear fan experience strategy, the club will thrive.

The problem is that fans are usually never more than the second most important thing for clubs (and, in my experience, often fifth, sixth, seventh or not important at all).  Right now, we’re seeing UK clubs (who purport to have Fan Engagement Plans) fast-peddling backwards from huge proposed season ticket price increases.

On a personal level, I bought tickets for a game two months ago. When I checked my bank statement, the club had debited the cost of the tickets twice. In spite of several calls and emails (including a promise that the money had been refunded) they’ve still not resolved the situation. When I inevitably make a formal complaint, I drain the club’s time and resources. It sounds a lot like the customer service world of thirty years ago, but that level of service wouldn't be tolerated now in any other industry.

But when the club takes fans seriously, my problem becomes an opportunity to improve.

Yet how many national association or confederation strategic plans have the word ‘fan’ in them?

For every fan engagement or fan experience vacancy, there are ten social media team job opportunities. There are directors of operations, marketing and communications, but directors of fan experience or supporter engagement are in the hen’s tooth category of scarcity, and even those that exist often are often part of a wider role with at least two other key priorities.

Fan centricity is just not part of the culture and this is costing clubs a fortune in lost advocacy, attendance and, increasingly, revenue (when clubs have never been under more financial pressure).

This summer – via a series of Fan Experience Company 20^th Anniversary Roadshows - we will tell the story of how we changed football and how we have proved and continue to build the business case for fan experience.  We’ll also share the detailed analysis behind our now proven contention that the most effective way that a club can grow is to become fan-centric.

For more details of our 2025 summer schedule, email [email protected]