Author: Darren Young
Is fewer and fewer EPL points completely missing the point?
What would be worse than the Premier League? Two Premier Leagues. That’s a joke by the way. But with a fresh wave of talk about a Premier League 2 hitting the airwaves, news columns and socials as I write this, it’s worth thinking about. After Leicester’s latest defeat without scoring, added to Southampton’s speediest-ever relegation […]
Read moreMake it Easy on Yourself
.. So sang the Walker Brothers back in 1965. 60 years later I find myself humming it a lot, since so many event owners are doing precisely the opposite to first time attendees. Extending the reach of your sport to new audiences is key to sustainable growth but if they don't come back after their […]
Read moreWhat would happen if we put the fan at the centre of our club?
Back in the late 90s I was a judge for the UK Service Excellence Awards. Sponsored by both Management Today magazine and Unisys, the aim of the scheme was to recognise customer-centric businesses: those designed around the needs of their ‘customers’. The rationale for inverting the traditional hierarchy (where the chairman and the board sit […]
Read moreThe Fan Experience Company Presents Attendance Data To Premiership Rugby Clubs
Mark Bradley presented on the Business Case for Fan Experience at a gathering of Premiership Rugby clubs in London on 5 March. As part of The Fan Experience Company's 20th anniversary celebrations, we will shortly be publishing results of analysis that prove beyond doubt that the quality of the fan experience is the key driver […]
Read moreThe Fan Experience Company Helping Women's Football to Engage Younger Fans
Fan Experience Company founder Mark Bradley attended a Two Circles workshop in London on 6 March exploring how to engage younger fans in women's football. The Fan Experience Company has not only partnered with elite women's football in England, but also supports attendance growth in Spain, Norway and Scotland. For a chat about how we […]
Read moreNicole Allison joins The Fan Experience Company
The Fan Experience Company are delighted to welcome Nicole Allison to the team. With her extensive knowledge of everything to do with women's football, Nicole joins to add expertise as our influence grows in the women's game. We work with the WSL and Championship in England, as well as Liga F in Spain and the […]
Read moreIs football becoming an ugly sport to watch?
Having recently spent quite a bit of time devouring the excellent books on football in the 1980s and 1990s by journalist Jon Spurling, I feel like I’ve gone for a long walk down memory lane, albeit with some pretty disturbing recollections amongst the nostalgia. So you’d be forgiven for thinking an article about inappropriate chanting, […]
Read moreGold - so why no rush to become more fan-centric?
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 […]
Read moreThe Fan Experience Company Return to Denmark
Fan Experience Company Director Mark Bradley was invited to Copenhagen last week to speak to 3F Superliga and NordicBet Liga clubs. Prior to the pandemic, The Fan Experience Company had three successful seasons working with the Danish Superliga in 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20. The subject at the workshop on 27 February was Fan Experience and […]
Read moreLet’s Be Frank, Would You Rather Watch Paint Dry?
Burnley v Brentford? This isn’t an actual game - not this season anyway - but a hypothetical match up, and not over 90 minutes but a whole season. And the question I’m asking isn’t who would win but which would you rather watch? It’s intriguing. One team is on course to beat every record going […]
Read moreThe Fan Experience Company Talk To Match Day Staff At Walsall FC
It was a pleasure to be asked to speak to the match day staff at Walsall FC on Saturday, ahead of their EFL League Two game against Salford City. The talk reminded staff of why fan engagement and the match day experience are so important and why the focus on fans, and families, began almost […]
Read moreDon’t Look Back In Anger
I was in Cyprus, waiting to do a presentation on fan engagement and experience to a bunch of sports clubs and professionals. Before my slot, and the coffee break, they had a guy from an MLS club. He spoke for about 15 minutes on some of the things they were doing with fans. It was […]
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