Matchday Experience Survey results

The club’s Supporter Liaison Officer, Dave Collinge, recently organised a survey and asked fans:

 “What needs improving at Blackwell Meadows on a match day, away from the 90 minutes on the pitch?”

Dave has collated the findings, and the survey results are shown in the chart below.

KEY FINDINGS

The key findings were as follows:

• Just under a third of fans (or 32 per cent) viewed the outside catering as the service that needed most improvement;
• 16 per cent described bar arrangements;
• 15 per cent reported car parking issues; and
• Importantly, 20 per cent cited “other reasons” and were able to explain their response.

OUTSIDE CATERING

The problems with outside catering are corroborated by findings from the twitter poll and the Uncovered website.

Outside catering is clearly an area of risk as it is a service that is very important to many fans including those who attend on an irregular basis or simply for big games.

The survey doesn’t explore the precise reasons for this vote so a more detailed survey has been prepared. This will be available in the near future.

However, some fans have mentioned the long queues, food quality and customer service. Many have asked for a burger van such as we had at Heritage Park, while one fan suggested that we form a catering partnership with a local farm shop or organisation.

OTHER

A fifth of respondents (or 20 per cent) suggested that there were “Other” reasons for the poor matchday experience.  These respondents were asked to record their reasons.  The overwhelming majority of these respondents described poor viewing/sightlines for standing spectators as the primary reason for a poor matchday experience.  Others also describe a poor standing view and lack of cover against the elements.  Some respondents requested extra toilets.  A couple of disabled supporters have also expressed their disgruntlement with the matchday viewing experience.

BAR

16 per cent of respondents thought that the bar was the facility that needed most improvement.  Some have complained about access being denied to football on TV when rugby football is being played.

Access to the Thomas Watson lounge has also been mentioned by some respondents.    Some have suggested whether a queuing rail couldn’t be introduced to split the queue into 5 lines (similar to airports).  One respondent suggested a bottle bar for speed.  Others suggested DRFC should not wait until the half time whistle to open up the bar and instead prepare popular pints before half time to ease the congestion.

PARKING

Around 15 per cent cited car parking arrangements as the area in most need of improvement.  Car Park pass holders sometimes don’t get a parking place.

It takes a long time to get out of the ground, an observation made by away and home fans.  Some pedestrians complained after the  Salford game that cars were let out too early endangering people leaving the ground on foot.

SOCIAL MEDIA

8 per cent of respondents described social media as the service they thought was in most need of improvement.  The social media platforms (ie Twitter and Facebook) were described as boring, unresponsive, with poor written expression and they failed to utilise commercial and digital marketing opportunities.  A social media review is currently in progress.

SIGNAGE

Although not one of the categories, for some fans lack of signage has compounded feelings of not belonging at BM.

The main findings of the survey are already under consideration by the Darlington FC board and the Darlington FC Supporters Group board.

Thanks to everybody who took time out to complete the survey, and thanks to Dave for organising and collating it.