On Thursday 11th September, two members of the Foxes Trust board (Jamie Barnard and Sarah Hubbard) attended the ‘Your 90 Minutes’ session on men’s home game atmosphere.
Alongside representatives from the Foxes Trust, there were 15 supporters in attendance and Jim Donnelly (Supporter Liaison Officer), Imogen Ward (Head of Fan Engagement), Louise Hollingsworth (Supporter Engagement Manager) and Ash (Events & Operations Manager) present from the Club.
The session started with a discussion on matters pre-match. Those present agreed that digital ticketing had been surprisingly smooth and that, although many had arrived earlier at the stadium in anticipation of issues, there had been very few. The Club asked if there needed to be more noise on the approach way to the stadium and those in attendance felt this didn’t matter. The Club also asked if there should be more signage around what’s happening at the stadium on a matchday and consensus was that this wasn’t majorly important but couldn’t hurt – better information before the day of the game on what was happening could also help.
Those present feedback that light shows and fireworks pre-match don’t really add to the atmosphere at all. If the Club were to keep them, they should only be for night matches.
The main suggestion that came from the group was for the Club to turn the music off in the final 10 minutes before kick-off (with the exception of ‘When You’re Smiling’ immediately before kick-off) and after full time. This had been implemented at Manchester United and some present felt that the loud music over the PA before the game stifled the ability to create an atmosphere by chanting.
An extensive discussion focused on the Club’s request to Union FS that tifos should be covered under the Fan Engagement Framework. Those who were present from Union FS explained that they had been asked to submit tifo designs for consideration by other fans and that tifos were being restricted to just the corner section of the stadium rather than the entire South Stand as has been done for over a decade.
They explained that they were reluctant to do this because bringing designs via the Fan Engagement Framework would ruin the magic of revealing the display (designs could be leaked) and logistically this would cause challenges as materials have to be ordered and made weeks in advance of the match where the tifo is displayed. The Club explained that the directive to bring tifo plans into the Fan Engagement Framework was an attempt to be democratic, act upon complaints from some in the South Stand about not being able to see the players walking out and to act on accessibility concerns from disabled supporters at the front of the stand.
It was suggested to the Club that if they wanted to democratically assess fan sentiment on tifos then they could run a survey to the ~8,000 fans in that stand and see what the feedback was rather than responding only to those who complain. On blocking the view of disabled fans at the front of the stand, the UFS representatives had a suggested solution of allowing a banner at the front of the stand to be where the advertising hoarding boards are if the Club tweaked how they sell advertising time on the boards (i.e. selling 5 minutes less time to allow for the holding up of a banner) as apparently this had been done at Middlesbrough. There was pretty much unanimous consensus in the room that UFS should not have to bring tifos into the Fan Engagement Framework and those present valued them.
The Foxes Trust shared findings of our End of Season Survey where 3,214 fans had responded and 82% felt chanting positively adds to the matchday experience whilst only 12% felt the atmosphere today was loud and lively enough. The Trust encouraged the Club to engage directly with supporter groups, such as Union FS, outside of the Fan Engagement Framework to discuss how improvements could be made. We were told that the Club had not had any meetings with Union FS on this since survey results were shared on 11th July but that a meeting was planned (no confirmation on what is due to be discussed however).
There was a discussion about safe standing. Some shared it had already made an impact on atmosphere, others that it had not been done in a way that changed the dynamic in the stadium today as standing was only implemented where people were already standing rather than dedicating a whole new end to safe standing to get all those who sing and stand together. The question was asked of the Club what would need to happen for safe-standing to be further expanded and the response was that these sections would need to keep selling out.
The recent atmosphere at matches being described as ‘toxic’ was discussed. Some present were unhappy about the language and abuse they are hearing at matches. Others felt that people had a right to express how they felt. An interesting point of discussion was that this often gets labelled as Union FS led whereas they only occupy part of the singing section and others in there are also starting chants as they see fit. Everyone agreed that the situation was not being helped by the lack of communication from the top of the Club.
Next on the agenda was clappers and whether fans wanted to keep them? The majority said ‘no’ and that they had had their day but appreciated children liked them as a momento. A suggestion came that the Club could produce posters for children to take home rather than clappers. If they have to stay, they should be on a collection basis. Free beers on special occasions were also discussed – the idea was raised that rather than giving out free beer (which is a nice gesture every now and then) the club could provide free away coaches like Stoke City do. There was not consensus on this – a regular away attender liked the idea of a free coach, another fan made the point that only a small number of fans would benefit from this rather than ~30,000 with a free drink.
The Club asked for feedback on the Fan Zone. It was felt that it had been launched at a bad time (in winter) and it would be good to have an indoor space longer-term. Consensus was that it was a good offering for families but not appealing to other demographics. Suggestions to get different types of fans going there included offering beers from local breweries, having Leicester bands play music, decorating the Fan Zone with murals/LCFC-related images and opening the Fan Zone post match on early evening kick-offs (and promoting this to demographics that aren’t just families) to encourage those heading back into the city or other pubs for drinks to stop on the way. Leicester Tigers and Notts County were given as good local examples for the Club to look at.
Fans present didn’t have much to share on the new catering provider. Many seemed not to know that his had changed but it was raised by one fan present that a bottle of water had cost £3.10 and this is too expensive. The Club representatives were not aware of this but said they would take a look at the pricing being used to understand more.
The Club concluded the evening by explaining that notes from this session would be passed into the Fans Consultative Committee and Fan Advisory Board for discussion so that ideas could then be implemented to make improvements. Those present would not see those notes but any changes would be covered in ‘You Said, We Did’ type communications.