Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 5:58 am
Steve Borley discusses away day experience
The Premier League has alerted top-flight clubs to an alarming slump in away attendances and voiced fears that a key element in making English football so attractive to foreign TV audiences is being diluted.
Despite a record occupancy rate of 95.3 per cent at grounds last season, the number of away supporters going to games dropped by nine per cent, a trend which is worrying Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.
Research has shown a huge factor in the Premier League’s worldwide popularity is the atmosphere generated by a healthy number of away fans attending games and its annual general meeting two weeks ago included a discussion about how to improve the match-day experience for visiting supporters.
The floor was dominated by the story of top-flight newcomers Cardiff who, according to director Steve Borley, have completed a truly extraordinary transformation from being regarded as one of the worst experiences for away fans to one of the best. His testimony was compelling enough to prompt the Premier League to recommend that its clubs adopt some of the practices now common at the Championship-winners.
“They said clubs should invest a certain amount of money in trying to make the away-day experience better for fans,” said Borley, who revealed that the other executives present had been “busily making notes” as he spoke. “The Premier League is trying to sell a product worldwide. It wants to see atmosphere, it wants to see supporters. It doesn’t want to see empty seats, and it wants to encourage people to travel away as well.”
That was precisely the rationale behind Cardiff’s radical rethink in their approach to visiting supporters when they moved into the Cardiff City Stadium in 2009, after the average away attendance at Ninian Park had sunk to around 300.
Today, the matchday experience for those travelling to south Wales is arguably the best in the country, prompting predictions of a 3,000 sell-out in 90 per cent of their games next season.
That experience begins the moment fans are directed to their own secure and free car park next to the stadium, where they are greeted by a liaison officer who guides them into their section of the ground. Cardiff even encourage visiting clubs to supply a handful of their own stewards to assist with this, as well as stewarding of the game as a whole.
Once inside the stadium, supporters are met by posters on the walls welcoming them, letting them know how many miles they have travelled and wishing them a great day. They are allocated a separate waiting area where televisions show highlights from their own club’s matches, while a games console is also provided for them to use.
The catering includes food they would enjoy at their own clubs and concessions staff are all decked out in shirts donated by the visiting team, shirts that are passed on to travelling youngsters after the game.
There is a noticeboard on which fans can write comments and suggestions, much like a visitors’ book at a hotel.
The overwhelmingly positive response has been a revelation for a club plagued by football banning orders while it was at Ninian Park.
“Fifteen years ago, quite often you’d be paying more out in police charges than you’d be taking on the gate!” joked Borley, who said 16 of Cardiff’s games last season were police-free, underlining the fact they have won Family Club of the Year twice in the last three seasons. “Gone are the days when you turn up the ground and you’re faced with people with riot gear on.”
But with Financial Fair Play beginning to bite both at home and abroad, can clubs afford to transform their facilities for away fans? “Everything in there is simple and doesn’t cost you a fortune,” Borley said. “You could go and spend a million quid on something and not achieve a fraction of the impact this sort of thing makes.”
Indeed, it has even allowed Cardiff to offer discounted tickets to away supporters, “to make sure that we fill the area”.
Prices for visiting fans is one of the big complaints of those who marched on the Premier League’s London headquarters on Wednesday to demonstrate against the rising cost of watching football.
Scudamore met representatives of the protest group and conceded that away attendance had become a worry. Borley added: “People are waking up to the fact that away supporters are just as important as everyone else
The Premier League has alerted top-flight clubs to an alarming slump in away attendances and voiced fears that a key element in making English football so attractive to foreign TV audiences is being diluted.
Despite a record occupancy rate of 95.3 per cent at grounds last season, the number of away supporters going to games dropped by nine per cent, a trend which is worrying Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.
Research has shown a huge factor in the Premier League’s worldwide popularity is the atmosphere generated by a healthy number of away fans attending games and its annual general meeting two weeks ago included a discussion about how to improve the match-day experience for visiting supporters.
The floor was dominated by the story of top-flight newcomers Cardiff who, according to director Steve Borley, have completed a truly extraordinary transformation from being regarded as one of the worst experiences for away fans to one of the best. His testimony was compelling enough to prompt the Premier League to recommend that its clubs adopt some of the practices now common at the Championship-winners.
“They said clubs should invest a certain amount of money in trying to make the away-day experience better for fans,” said Borley, who revealed that the other executives present had been “busily making notes” as he spoke. “The Premier League is trying to sell a product worldwide. It wants to see atmosphere, it wants to see supporters. It doesn’t want to see empty seats, and it wants to encourage people to travel away as well.”
That was precisely the rationale behind Cardiff’s radical rethink in their approach to visiting supporters when they moved into the Cardiff City Stadium in 2009, after the average away attendance at Ninian Park had sunk to around 300.
Today, the matchday experience for those travelling to south Wales is arguably the best in the country, prompting predictions of a 3,000 sell-out in 90 per cent of their games next season.
That experience begins the moment fans are directed to their own secure and free car park next to the stadium, where they are greeted by a liaison officer who guides them into their section of the ground. Cardiff even encourage visiting clubs to supply a handful of their own stewards to assist with this, as well as stewarding of the game as a whole.
Once inside the stadium, supporters are met by posters on the walls welcoming them, letting them know how many miles they have travelled and wishing them a great day. They are allocated a separate waiting area where televisions show highlights from their own club’s matches, while a games console is also provided for them to use.
The catering includes food they would enjoy at their own clubs and concessions staff are all decked out in shirts donated by the visiting team, shirts that are passed on to travelling youngsters after the game.
There is a noticeboard on which fans can write comments and suggestions, much like a visitors’ book at a hotel.
The overwhelmingly positive response has been a revelation for a club plagued by football banning orders while it was at Ninian Park.
“Fifteen years ago, quite often you’d be paying more out in police charges than you’d be taking on the gate!” joked Borley, who said 16 of Cardiff’s games last season were police-free, underlining the fact they have won Family Club of the Year twice in the last three seasons. “Gone are the days when you turn up the ground and you’re faced with people with riot gear on.”
But with Financial Fair Play beginning to bite both at home and abroad, can clubs afford to transform their facilities for away fans? “Everything in there is simple and doesn’t cost you a fortune,” Borley said. “You could go and spend a million quid on something and not achieve a fraction of the impact this sort of thing makes.”
Indeed, it has even allowed Cardiff to offer discounted tickets to away supporters, “to make sure that we fill the area”.
Prices for visiting fans is one of the big complaints of those who marched on the Premier League’s London headquarters on Wednesday to demonstrate against the rising cost of watching football.
Scudamore met representatives of the protest group and conceded that away attendance had become a worry. Borley added: “People are waking up to the fact that away supporters are just as important as everyone else
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:34 am
Make away games AFFORDABLE. Simple. Clubs could Subsadise fans travel on coaches for a start (bayern munich pay for fans coaches to go away) - then the home club can stop ripping fans off with ticket prices. Or was the meeting about how to encorage fans to carry on paying through the f*cking nose? rip-off Britain!
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 8:57 am
Treating fans with respect should be the norm but most clubs don't.
The main problem is ticket prices,far too expensive as city fans will soon find out and that's the reason for empty seat's plain and simple.
The main problem is ticket prices,far too expensive as city fans will soon find out and that's the reason for empty seat's plain and simple.
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 9:23 am
bluelikeyou wrote:Make away games AFFORDABLE. Simple. Clubs could Subsadise fans travel on coaches for a start (bayern munich pay for fans coaches to go away) - then the home club can stop ripping fans off with ticket prices. Or was the meeting about how to encorage fans to carry on paying through the f*cking nose? rip-off Britain!
Hear Hear.
Borley turning into David Brent if that report was anything to go by.
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 9:34 am
bluelikeyou wrote:Make away games AFFORDABLE. Simple. Clubs could Subsadise fans travel on coaches for a start (bayern munich pay for fans coaches to go away) - then the home club can stop ripping fans off with ticket prices. Or was the meeting about how to encorage fans to carry on paying through the f*cking nose? rip-off Britain!
Got to agree with this.
It seems to me in the British culture it is to shit on those below yet in the German society they seem to be more aware of their lower ruin ladder people. I've work within both cultures side by side and us Brits seem to take it up the arse from the management. Its all our fault for letting this happen.
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 9:40 am
Its all a bit gay I reckon, away fans being pampered....watching a game down the CCS is like watching dressage at the Olympics 
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 12:27 pm
Posters welcoming them? Games consoles? I can really see the jacks and a few other clubs respecting that.
Great idea all the same but I can see a few jacks taking home a ps3 lol
Great idea all the same but I can see a few jacks taking home a ps3 lol
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 1:05 pm
Getting catering staff to wear the shirt of the away team at the CCS is a f*cking joke
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 2:00 pm
Perhaps more time and attention needs to be directed towards how OUR fans are treated when WE travel to support OUR Club? All very well to welcome visiting supporters to C.C.S. but for too long now we have to put up with voucher exchanges,full bubble trips, early kick offs etc. All we want is to be able to travel without any restrictions and it's about time this was addressed.
Re: Steve Borley discusses away day experience
Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:04 pm
Mario Polotelli wrote:Getting catering staff to wear the shirt of the away team at the CCS is a f*cking joke
Dont forget they get the food they like at there home ground to sold at ours, better treated than us customer home fans
