Last Summer CAS Trust conducted what we think may be the biggest Fan survey of its kind attracting 2,252 responses

Our aim was to find out more about you, Charlton Supporters. The survey was the first collaboration between CAS Trust and CAFC with the survey being publicised via Charlton's email database as well as the trusts own outlets. It was further backed by jointly offered prizes for a free draw for those who agreed to take part, including from CAS Trust a 2013-14 season ticket, and the club a new signed first team shirt. The occasion made history on two fronts therefore we believe. For details of our latest free prize draw click here.

To subscribe to our weekly bulletin click here, you can also join CAS Trust if you like it's only a fiver.

So what of the results?

With the Valley Asset of Community Value campaign in full swing, the survey results quietly saw the light of day alongside an insightful interview with CAS Trust member Martin Simons, in "the Valley Pride of South London special edition" of TNT.

Rather than leave it there we've decided to publicise the results here too, some may think the results aren't that earth shattering, but the survey as well as all of the above have helped us the Trust learn more about what fans want and where they are coming from - literally. From this we can decide our priorities, and continue our work with grass roots Charlton groups like Supporter Branches and even Valley gold all of whom are benefiting from the data we captured with your consent.

Results

CAS trust survey number three was gratefully supported with promotion from CAFC and was by far the biggest yet. With over 2250 responses we think it may be one of the largest football fan surveys around?

Many of you may ask what is the purpose of these surveys?

Primarily we want to get a better idea about CAFC’s fan base generally and what fans’ views are on the big issues that affect us today, and what you think a trust should be doing. this helps us tailor what we do and can also help with marketing .

Although we offered some great incentives this time around we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to take part Who, how, What, When & Where?

Before looking at the answers you gave let’s examine who answered which gives a good indication of the fan base overall…

Ticket Type

• 55% of you were season ticket holders,
• 15% regular walk up fans
• and nearly 30% go occasionally often through borrowing a ticket or buying special offers.

Length of Support

• 50% of respondents say they have been going to the Valley since before we left in 1985.
• Just 7% first started going when we played at Selhurst.
• 19% first visited in the years before we were first promoted to the premier league.
• 15% came along when we were playing at the top level.
• 8% have started going since after we were relegated from the premier league.

Membership of other groups

• nearly 20% of respondents are Valley gold members
• with another 8% wanting to know more.

We have passed their details across to Wendy perfect who runs the admin for Valley gold.

Geography

We asked you for the first two digits of your postcode and there is an in

teresting mix across the whole of the South east:

• 22% dartford
• 18% Se london
• 10% Bromley
• 8% tonbridge
• 7% rochester
• 4% canterbury
• 2% redhill
• 2% Brighton

Web Use for News about Charlton.

• 2% don’t use the web and over
• 90% of fans use CAFC.co.uk.
• But the interesting stat here is that Charlton Life is used by 28%
• and that the CAS trust website usage is up from 6% to 9% in just three months - it is now at 13%

Your Views

We asked your opinions about three main areas:

1.Improving match day experience: there was strong support for having more drinks outlets, more trained bar staff and a wider range of drinks. there was less interest in being able to pre-order half time drinks and keeping the bars and catering outlets open after the match.

2.How should CAFC move forward ? the interesting thing here is that while a massive 90% of fans believe that we should offer Chris Powell a new contract and a large majority believe in investing in the academy, fans are much less sure about spending big on a few new players. in fact allowing for possible 5-10% error the fans are almost neutral on this, whereas they do believe in attracting new investment.

3. What should CAS Trust prioritise ? respondents were broadly positive about all of the things that the trust is looking to do and, once again, building the relationship with the club comes out near the top.

This is happening every month and the club recognise that the trust is expanding all the time – from 100 members to 800 now and from a network of 1,000 fans on email and twitter to over 4,000 … and growing!

While the trust have been active in researching CAFC finances and those of other championship clubs we are determined to do more than that. We are actively looking at how we can help the club with surveys and campaigns around raising the gates and improving services to make it better for fans and to improve revenue which can only help the club.

Finally Over 65% of fans think that they should have some choice when a new kit is decided upon which is something else the club might consider to help fans feel more involved.

There were many, many comments left by fans and we have written to a number of them individually. Nearly 100 responded by joining up! So you can see the general message evolving: we listen to you and pass that on to the club… more fans subscribe and join the trust… we get bigger numbers on our website and surveys… and the club listen more… together we can crack this and look to make tangible improvements to your experience and hopefully to the club’s bottom line which needs to improve each and every year. Once we engage further with the club we can ask more pointed questions about Saturday afternoon and we might even point the microscope at ourselves and ask fans what they think of the trust. Update we have just launched a feedback survey which already has over 200 responses

 

by Kevin Messere

 

To subscribe to our weekly bulletin click here, you can also join CAS Trust if you like it's only a fiver.

Click here if  you want to take part in our latest Free Prize Draw and Have Your Say on how CAS Trust is doing and what we do in the net year. There is still time to add your name to our Asset of Community Value campaign for the Valley.