Some FSA Survey Results

[davieG]

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtwWDKVjzDzlbvrtmJbdpMKRQX

 

 

National Supporters’ Survey 2023: more stats
Posted on 2nd August 2023

Earlier this year, we surveyed almost 10,000 football supporters to get their thoughts on the state of the game – the biggest survey of fans by fans since our last census in 2017.

Some of the headline figures on support for an independent regulator and views on VAR have already been reported, you can see those here, and now we can release the results of the census in more detail. Take a look below…

Who were the respondents?
Matchday and fan behaviour
Women’s game
Cost of living
Competitions
Other

 

9,675 fans filled in the survey, which ran online between 20th March and 18th April. Figures have been rounded to one decimal place, and certain questions allowed more than one response, or for respondents to prefer not to give an answer, so figures will not always add up to 100%.

 

Age breakdown

Under 18 – 1.4%
18 to 25 – 6.2%
26 to 35 – 12.8%
36 to 45 – 16%
46 to 55 – 18.8%
56 to 65 – 24.7%
Over 65 – 19.3%

 

Gender breakdown

Male – 83.8%
Female – 14.5%
Non-binary/other – 0.7%

 

Who do you support?

63.9% support only one men’s team
16.7% support more than one men’s team
4.2% support only one women’s team
2.6% support more than one women’s team
21% support both a men’s and women’s team
1.5% described themselves as general football fans without a particular team

 

Match attendance

60.4% attended at least 15 home matches last season, while 9.4% attended none
67.4% attended at least one away match last season, with 11.7% attending 15 or more.
65% held a season ticket (3.1% of whom shared it with friends/family)
11.1% of season ticket holders are either probably or definitely not renewing for 2023/24

 

Matchday and fan behaviour

Almost half of fans (48.6%) live within 15 miles of their home team’s stadium, while one in ten (10.8%) live more than 200 miles away. 
Two thirds of fans (65.7% agreed with the statement that swearing and bad language was part of watching football. 
Opinions on drinking within sight of the pitch are split – 39.2% are in favour of a ban, while 44.8% are opposed. 
Roughly 1 in 5 fans have experienced either racist, homophobic or sexist language at the match, the same proportion as in our 2017 survey.
29.7% have heard other language they consider offensive from a supporter. 
Two thirds (63.3%) were confident that their club would deal with a report of discrimination appropriately, up from 55.6% in 2017. 
The numbers reporting having seen unfair/unnecessary treatment from police and stewards has almost halved since our 2012 survey. The proportion who have witnessed bad policing behaviour has fallen from 32.4% to just 16.7%, while for stewarding that number has fallen from 46.6% to 25% in the same timeframe.
A third of fans (33.1%) have been in the vicinity of a smoke bomb/flare being discharged, down from 37.3%. 
There’s no consensus on whether fan behaviour is improving, however – 36.3% agreed that the standards of behaviour have deteriorated in the past few seasons, while 31.8% disagreed.

 

Women’s Game

Around a quarter of our respondents indicated that they supported a women’s team, and there were a number of topics that we were keen to get their opinions on when it comes to the women’s game. 

Four in five (80.7%) agreed that more money should be distributed from the men’s game to support the growth of the women’s game
Just over a quarter (29.2%) agreed that women’s teams should be independent from their men’s equivalent
Support for VAR in the women’s game was less than half (45.5%), with a third (33.1%) against. 
Almost half disagreed that there was sufficient coverage of the women’s game in the mainstream media/on national TV, with only a third (35.9%) agreeing that the coverage was adequate. 
Three quarters (74.2%) agreed that women’s teams should be allowed to stream their games even during the 3pm blackout.
Only one in ten (10.4%) thought the women’s league cup had lost its relevance to fans. 

 

Cost of living

16.1% of our respondents are attending more games in recent seasons, while a quarter (26%) say they are attending fewer.
Of those who are attending less, the main reasons cited were: work and family commitments (30.9%), high ticket prices (30.3%), inability to access tickets (22.8%), a change in financial circumstances (21.9%) and feeling disillusioned with football in general (17.9%).
Two in five (40%) fans said the rising cost of living has impacted on how much they are able to spend on football, and fans are overall spending less – 31.9% have reduced their typical matchday spend, as opposed to just 17.4% who say it has increased.
There was strong support for an away ticket price cap in the EFL – almost nine in ten (88.2%) were in favour, and similarly in the FA Cup with 83.3% in favour. 
There was also majority support, however, for lower league sides being able to raise ticket prices for cup matches against top-flight opposition – 51.8% were in favour, with 21.9% against. 

 

Competitions

36.2% of respondents believe the FA Cup has lost its relevance to fans, while that figure rises to half (50.7%) when asked about the League Cup.
There is no support for moving the FA Cup to midweek – only 7.1% of fans were in favour of a midweek competition. 
There is still strong support for replays – 69.5% of fans believe they are an important aspect of the FA Cup, while only a third (38.8%) believe that if both clubs agree in advance that they should be allowed to avoid a replay and go straight to extra time and penalties. 
Half of respondents (51%) were in favour of playing the League Cup semi-finals over one leg rather than two – a third (32.6%) preferred keeping the two legged format.  
Only a quarter (26.1%) were in favour of abolishing replays in the FA Cup. 

 

Other

The majority of fans (59.1%) support the retention of the 3pm blackout to protect lower league clubs.
Just under half of fans (46.9%) agreed with the statement that their club cares about them and their views.
Less than half of respondents (45.1%) agree that clubs value away fans and their impact on the game.
One in five (19.9%) fans believes that goal music helps the atmosphere at matches.  
Three quarters (73.1%) are concerned about the amount of gambling advertising and sponsorship around football, and two thirds (66.2%) believe that gambling sponsorship in football should be banned. 
Around two thirds (63%) of fans favoured a direct-to-consumer Netflix-style app for watching Premier League games over subscribing to multiple broadcasters. 
Three quarters (75.4%) said that the supporters groups at their club do a good job of representing fans and their interests.
Only a quarter (26.6%) agreed their club was doing enough to cut down on the climate change impact of their activities. 
Less than a quarter (22.9%) said that the standard of refereeing at games they watch is acceptable. 
Half of respondents (52%) agreed there are not enough women in senior positions within football.
Almost a quarter (22.5%) agree that clubs competing in Europe should not enter the League Cup.
Only one in ten (11.5%) fans are in favour of the expansion of the men’s World Cup from 32 to 48 teams.

 

[Vacamion]

4 minutes ago, davieG said:

The majority of fans (59.1%) support the retention of the 3pm blackout to protect lower league clubs.

 

Who did they ask, a meeting of the Premier League and FA?

 

I really struggle to accept this statistic is representative on this point.

 

 

[davieG]

1 minute ago, Vacamion said:

 

Who did they ask, a meeting of the Premier League and FA?

 

I really struggle to accept this statistic is representative on this point.

 

 

???? 9675 Fans who filled in the Survey.

[Voll Blau]

2 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

Who did they ask, a meeting of the Premier League and FA?

 

I really struggle to accept this statistic is representative on this point.

 

 

It's a worryingly slim majority.

[PAULCFC]

The age breakdown is pretty shocking!Pricing the future supporters out of attending.

[davieG]

Just now, Voll Blau said:

It's a worryingly slim majority.

The whole thing is questionable because 9675 fans is really small.

[Voll Blau]

Just now, davieG said:

The whole thing is questionable because 9675 fans is really small.

I took part as I do every year, but I don't think the FSA are the best at promoting it.

[davieG]

Just now, PAULCFC said:

The age breakdown is pretty shocking!Pricing the future supporters out of attending.

That's matchday prices, forced memberships and appalling matchday attendance constraints 

[davieG]

Just now, Voll Blau said:

I took part as I do every year, but I don't think the FSA are the best at promoting it.

Me to.

[davieG]

2 minutes ago, PAULCFC said:

The age breakdown is pretty shocking!Pricing the future supporters out of attending.

More to do with who complete d the survey rather than match attendees.

[PAULCFC]

1 minute ago, davieG said:

More to do with who complete d the survey rather than match attendees.

Yeah agree,but you would have thought more under 50's(unlike me!)Would have filled the survey in.

[coolhandfox]

Around 834,724 fans attend football on 1 weekend.

 

So it's a sample size of about 1.2% 

 

Total waste of time.

[Vacamion]

26 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

Who did they ask, a meeting of the Premier League and FA?

 

I really struggle to accept this statistic is representative on this point.

 

 

 

24 minutes ago, davieG said:

???? 9675 Fans who filled in the Survey.

 

 

Maybe they asked them, a skewed question.

 

Something like:

 

"One of the way of supporting Lower League football would be maintaining the 3pm blackout. Do you agree with supporting Lower League football in this way?"

 

I know my anecdote carries less weight than 9675 surveyed fans, but I'm one of those people who, if I don't know you well, will try and talk about football and I've never met anyone, ever, that does not want to get rid of the 3pm blackout.

 

The recent reporting of an increase in streaming piracy brought out a storm of criticism of the 3pm blackout, and I did not see a single response, among the hundreds I scrolled through when I couldn't sleep at 5am today, backing the 3pm blackout.

 

I just can't fathom that response statistic. I really can't.

 

 

 

 

Edited 4 August 2023 by Vacamion

[Globalfox]

26 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

 

 

Maybe they asked them, a skewed question.

 

Something like:

 

"One of the way of supporting Lower League football would be maintaining the 3pm blackout. Do you agree with supporting Lower League football in this way?"

 

I know my anecdote carries less weight than 9675 surveyed fans, but I'm one of those people who, if I don't know you well, will try and talk about football and I've never met anyone, ever, that does not want to get rid of the 3pm blackout.

 

The recent reporting of an increase in streaming piracy brought out a storm of criticism of the 3pm blackout, and I did not see a single response, among the hundreds I scrolled through when I couldn't sleep at 5am today, backing the 3pm blackout.

 

I just can't fathom that response statistic. I really can't.

 

 

 

 

I filled out the survey and I support maintaining the blackout so that’s one. If you believe in live football attendance and many I go to games with do you support the blackout. Professional football is becoming a supplier of TV episodes and the live game will die. I agree I am surprised how few fans completed the survey.

[Vacamion]

18 minutes ago, Globalfox said:

I filled out the survey and I support maintaining the blackout so that’s one. If you believe in live football attendance and many I go to games with do you support the blackout. Professional football is becoming a supplier of TV episodes and the live game will die. I agree I am surprised how few fans completed the survey.

 

 

Thanks for responding.  

 

Yes, you are one 

 

I go to games where I live (Scotland) as I don't have the means or the availability to follow City in person (I know, bleddy Plastic), so I depend on broadcasts / streams to follow my home town team.

 

I used to pay for Sky, BT and Amazon (I dropped BT after we stopped getting into Europe).

 

I would gladly pay a subscription to watch all City's games, but it just isn't available legally in the UK, because of the blackout.

 

The blackout isn't protecting lower league football, it is protecting the investments of Sky, BT/TNT, Amazon and their shareholders.

 

Look at the responses to this tweet. It's pretty universal condemnation (hundreds of responses) of the current state of affairs:

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, apologies, threadjack over...

 

 

 

Edited 4 August 2023 by Vacamion

[davieG]

4 minutes ago, Vacamion said:

 

 

Thanks for responding.  

 

Yes, you are one 

 

I go to games where I live (Scotland) as I don't have the means or the availability to follow City in person (I know, bleddy Plastic), so I depend on broadcasts / streams to follow my home town team.

 

I used to pay for Sky, BT and Amazon (I dropped BT after we stopped getting into Europe).

 

I would gladly pay a subscription to watch all City's games, but it just isn't available legally in the UK, because of the blackout.

 

The blackout isn't protecting lower league football, it is protecting the investments of Sky, BT/TNT, Amazon and their shareholders.

 

Look at the responses to this tweet. It's pretty universal condemnation (hundreds of responses) of the current state of affairs:

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, apologies, threadjack over...

 

 

 

No need to apologise all aspects of the survey are for discussion.

[Vlad the Fox]

So much disruption throughout the season as games are moved for tv wouldn’t it be great if the supporters groups could get together and at least push that all first games of the season kick off 3pm Saturday. There’s nothing like the first game, day out with friends oand/or family on the Saturday being ****ed over by the game being moved to Friday or Sunday. Would also be good if they started to demand a set number of Saturday kick offs.

Edited 4 August 2023 by Vlad the Fox

[Daggers]

97% of fans think Jon Rudkin is doing a good job

 

309% of fans think the Foxes Trust’s position of calling the booing of Brendan Rodgers “stupid” was awesome. 

 

Great survey. Really great. Very enlightening. 

Edited 4 August 2023 by Daggers