FA Premier League Fan Survey

With it being a slow news week, I thought some of you would be interested in checking out the Premier League Fans Survey which was released based on questionnaires received from fans during the 06/07 season. A few interesting tidbits in there.

http://www.premierleague.com/staticFile ... 487,00.pdf

A good summation from a TFI'er:

Premier League in General

1. The survey was conducted both on-line (for the first time) and by post, resulting in a 6% increase in responses.

2. The average age of the fans is getting slightly younger, although there is the same split of males to females

3. There’s been a slight improvement in the perception of ticket prices, for the first time in 5 years

4. The spend on merchandise and match-day food and drink has reached a plateau, possibly saturated. (ie we all have a limit on how much we can spend on a Saturday!)


Fulham in particular

1. We were 7th in the list of responses made, possibly showing that the average Fulham fan cares a little more (or just that we can mostly read and write)! Spurs and Man City were top of this particular table.

2. We were a mid-table 14th for ‘contact with the Community Department’. No surprise that Charlton were top, with Boro 2nd.

3. Only 4 other Clubs had a higher proportion of fans aged under 24 (we have 15% of our fan-base in this bracket, compared to the League average of 11%). Interestingly, 3 of the Clubs above us in this league were the 3 promoted from the Championship last year (Reading, Sheff and Watford) where the feel-good factor may have helped boost the figures. So this looks very promising for our future fan-base.

4. We were 17th in the table for female fans with 13% of our fans being from the fairer sex. The average for the league is 15%.

5. We have the 2nd wealthiest supporters in the league, after Chelsea. Our average wage is 50k per annum (and it’s not me by a long chalk!) and theirs is 51k per annum. I wonder whether Roman completed the survey to help boost their figures? Anyway, most of the London Clubs are pretty high, with Wigan fans at the bottom of the pile.

6. We have the 2nd highest ethnic diversity. Only Arsenal has more ‘non-white’ fans than us. I think this reflects well on all Fulham fans since everyone presumably feels unthreatened at Craven Cottage. It’s still only 8% of our fan-base that falls into this bracket though.

7. We have more newly recruited fans than any other Club in the Premier league. So I guess you could argue that we’re growing quicker than anyone else. Of those questioned, 9% had attended their first match in the last 12 months, compared to a league average of 1%. Again, I think this shows real credit to our marketing team, who seem to use every method possible to fill the ground. Let’s hope these guys soon convert to hardcore fans.

8. We’re pretty average with regards to distance travelled to Craven Cottage on match-day. Our typical fan travels 42 miles, with a league average of 47 miles. You guessed it - Man United and Liverpool were top with an average trip of 77 and 74 miles respectively.

9. The ‘sight lines’ at Craven Cottage are not too clever – we’re third from bottom above Portsmouth and Everton. We’re all in old-style grounds, so no surprise I guess. However, 15% of Everton fans thought their view was poor or very poor and 10% of Pompey fans. Just 4% of Fulham fans thought the same (that’ll be the front 2 rows of the Hammy End then!)

10. Some may be surprised to learn that we’re rated 10th for ‘atmosphere’. Pompey (yawn) and Reading were top with Boro and Man City bottom.

11. We rated well for ‘Attitude of Staff’ (2nd in the table) and ‘Do Staff listen’ (7th in table). Charlton rated best on these two measures, and Newcastle bottom for both measures too.

12. For ‘value of ticket prices’ the Club came 3rd, behind Charlton and Villa. I think the club has got these about right. Interestingly, the bottom four were all London Clubs – Arsenal, Spuds, Spam and Chels.

13. ‘Do you watch Premier League on TV?’ We were 5th from bottom of this table, above only Watford, Wigan, Reading and Charlton. That explains the running order on MOTD most evenings then!

All in all, I would think the ‘suits’ at FFC have plenty to be happy about here. We’re attracting new, younger fans, we have a good match-day atmosphere and the fans seem pretty happy with the staff. I hope they don’t focus on the ‘sight line’ issue too much - I’m sure most fans see this as a small price to pay for playing at such a lovely traditional ground. That’s about it. Any comments?

 

I thought I would place the ethnicity into context.

Within London 71% of the population is white, in Hammersmith and Fulham that figure rises to 78%. A lot of Fulham fans live in the M4 corridor and out into Surrey, as we go out into the SE of England 95% of people are white. When you have removed the sections of society that typically are less interested in football I think we have a reasonable representation across the ethnic spectrum.

 

Interesting survey Mike. Love to see where the team finished in new fans and fans under the age of 24. Get 'em to the Cottage and they'll be hooked. Get 'em when they're young and the vast majority will be fans for life.

 

Hi Joe,
We were 5th in the fans under 24 which is great considering we also have a large proportion of old fans as well. A great mix.