We were pleased to welcome 15 supporters to Exeter City to take part in the club’s first Supporter Experience Roundtable.
The meeting, which was held in the boardroom at St James Park, was hosted by Clive Harrison, Supporters’ Trust Trustee and Director of Supporter Engagement, Richard Knight, Supporters’ Trust Trustee and Supporter Liaison Officer and Carrie Gillam, ECFC Chief Commercial Officer.
Supporters were asked to apply to take part, with 15 being selected to provide a cross section of age groups, stands they attend matches in, Season Ticket holders, those who pay on the gate, Supporters’ Trust Members and non-members.
Clive explained "We are very proud of the level of supporter experience we provide at St James Park and we are looking to continue to provide these high standards as attendances grow.
"Results from recent EFL Family Excellence Awards and the Supporters’ Trust survey, conducted last year, have been very positive, however, there is no doubt that as crowds grow, meeting the expectations of all supporters becomes more challenging."
Clive added: "With this in mind, the Roundtable was designed to allow the club to better understand supporters’ own experiences and to explore ways that it can improve the matchday experience and overcome the challenges that are presented by a full stadium."
The meeting began with an introduction covering the club’s positive Family Excellence Award record, the largely positive feedback from the recent Trust Supporters’ Survey, together with an explanation of the challenges that come with increased attendances.
Three groups were then formed to consider two pre-selected subjects, Growing Attendances and our Capacity to Deliver, this covered Bars and Kiosks, variety of food etc and Pre-Match, Half time and Post Match Entertainment and Supporter Experience Activities. The groups were then allowed to individually select their own topic for discussion.
The meeting was very constructive with supporters’ feedback received on over 50 points covering the Family Room, half time and post-match entertainment, kiosks, bars, the Fan Zone, media output and retail alongside some more general items.
This information will now be fed into the Supporter Experience Committee who will consider the actions required to implement as many of the ideas received as possible.
Clive said: "I would like to thank the supporters who attended, they contributed in an extremely positive and constructive manner. The views gained will enable us to further improve the matchday experience for all supporters.”
There will be another opportunity for supporters to take part in a second roundtable event in April, with details to follow.
Supporters who attended the event commented:
Attended the Supporter Experience Roundtable event last night up at SJP. Would just like to thank Clive and his team for such a well organised and professional presentation. As supporters from various age groups, we openly discussed many issues concerning our match day experience and hopefully our input will go some way to improving what the club currently offers. Well done ECFC for allowing us to voice our opinions.
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A really interesting evening. Lovely to meet other fans and share ideas, and good to have the opportunity to contribute to our club community. Lovely cake too! Many thanks.
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An excellent evening tonight, so well organised and wonderfully presented. I hope you got as much out of it as we all did.
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It was an interesting and enjoyable meeting, it was great to hear the various ideas from fellow supporters.
What you said last night was exactly what I would've said - it's good and actually quite important to get the direct thoughts of "ordinary" supporters.
Future meetings like this would be worthwhile in my opinion.
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Many thanks again for inviting me to be part of the group. It was an enjoyable, informative and thought-provoking group and I would love to be involved in future groups.
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I really enjoyed the evening and Charles (son) asked if Gary (Caldwell) made the cake as it was yummy!!
I will email you over the weekend with some other ideas I had jotted down.
Thank you again for the opportunity to be part of the meeting.
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It was a really interesting evening and it’s good to know that the information you gathered will be useful.
I would be very happy to be involved in further events like the one on Thursday in the future if I can be of use. It was a well-structured evening and it was really enjoyable. Thank you for your hospitality.
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Many thanks for the invitation to the Supporters’ Experience Roundtable - I enjoyed the evening, especially meeting the other fans and directors, and would happily volunteer again in the future.