On the 6th September 2020, the Green Army launched an unofficial supporters survey, to engage supporters and collect their thoughts and concerns on Blyth Spartans going into the 2020/21 season.
After receiving 100 results, we saved them and sent them onto the club. We received a response from the General Manager informing us that the results would not be passed on to the Executive Committee and that ‘time and effort spent administering the poll has been spoilt (sic) by the inclusion of personal comments aimed at the Chairman’ and that the poll would need to be conducted differently before it was considered.
We are shocked that this email seems to imply that we should have removed some comments directed at the chairman. However, in the interest of transparency, we simply forwarded the club the full raw data obtained from the survey. Moreover, short of standing at the entrance to the Keel Row with clipboards, we do not see how we could conduct a poll differently to avoid ‘anonymous keyboard warriors’.
Since receiving this email, we have looked deeper into the responses from the survey to find the personal comments that appear to have caused offence. Yet, we were unable to find any particularly offensive comments, although some may not have been constructive.
As a result of the club failing to engage with us on this, we will be publishing a report based on the results survey in the near future. This will include the full results of the survey with our interpretations of what these supporter comments mean for the club and the future direction the club should take. In the meantime, due to interest in the individual comments from the survey by supporters on our Facebook group, we will now list these in full (submissions may have been edited for clarity).
How could the match-day experience be improved?
- More child friendly to encourage them (and their parents) to come to matches.
- Decent coffee.
- Decent players.
- More atmosphere, Tony Young was great at the start of the season then stopped
- Win a game…
- Make the speakers clearer. Updated match day playlists.
- More catering at better prices
- Invite different vendors to sell food and would like a real ale bar like FC United. The in-ground catering is poor, we need more choice at both ends of the ground. Also, sell pies in the ground instead of the clubhouse
- Improved tannoy system. Blyth mascot for interacting with the crowd and half time activities
- Decent beer.
- More atmosphere including more people joining in with the chants. Also, some new chants would be nice
- A few wins will certainly help.
- Better pints, half time entertainment, crossbar competition or something. The staff are great though
- Winning team obvs. Better choice of drinks in the club, better for watching live sport in the club
- A can bar and more diverse catering. We need to attract a younger core of fans ie ‘ultras’ section
- Better PA system, do the half time draw on the pitch, etc
- Ensure PA is Woking at all timed
- More range/ better catering inside the ground
- By doing literally anything that goes beyond a 90-minute football match
- Alcohol sales in the ground. Special match days along the lines of Non-League day
- Maybe a bit professional all round
- Unsure
- Could take down some of the wall on both sides of the FergySpace stand so we can see the full pitch
- Invite some of the local food traders from the local food markets.
- Winning a few games would help! Seriously I think it is okay as it stands. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix
- Better catering + toilets, more seats further apart, better terraces, better sponsorship catering
- Family area
- Bring the ground up to date. It’s still stuck in the fifties.
- Better toilet facilities
- More food options like Salford have.
- Half time entertainment
- Stalls & activities? Example FC United. Use plastic pitch area – Face painting for kids etc ?
- Catering- long queues at half time, a pre-ordering system where the hot food can be collected
- More fans attending
- Put some toilets behind the old stand. I might have a few pints in the clubhouse then.
- I love the clubhouse but it can sometimes feel short-staffed/too busy
- Win some games
- Offer a fans zone drinks food clubs must engage the fans and offer more than just football
- By replacing the Board with people who are prepared to invest in the club.
- Winning.
- More catering options
- If some of the money donated and raised actually improved the squad and won some games
- More food options and better quality food. Alcohol allowed in the ground
- more could be done to generate interest and get people through the door
- Fix the PA system, I been supporting for 50+ years and it is still atrocious
- The catering is nothing but shocking a new form of food and drink is needed.
- Having a team worth watching again
- Offer a fanzone with drinks and food. Clubs must engage the fans and offer more than just football
Any additional comments?
- Not sure how valid my opinions are as I’m an exile in Lincolnshire
- Win games will be a start. Definitely better bait.
- We need a new direction. Nobody is asking for millions lumped into the club. Need new ideas.
- Needs more updates via video from the board
- As a club, it feels like we are swimming against the tide until we eventually get relegated.
- Up the Blyth
- Looking forward to the new season.
- Some good communications, some poor communication. Still no clarity on Alun Armstong departure
- These are uncertain times in all walks of life. We need to ensure long term future club,
- Greater communication between EC and supporters is required.
- Better disabled viewing. My son’s wheelchair cant see over the top of the facility
- Live in Cheshire can get to a lot of away matches and only a few home games
- The run a steady ship to make sure we always have a club but should allow investment
- Unsure of Nelson as yet because we have seen very little of him
- The Exec are taking too long to sort out the share ownership and also any additional investment
- Supporters need to feel welcomed and most would like to be part of the club
- It’s going to take a long time to rebuild the team we had 2 season’s ago
- I visit when I can (live in London) and I really enjoy myself when there.
- We could push the fundraising pages to raise extra cash. Plenty of other clubs do
- The club needs energy and colour injected into it. Nothing changes and the strip is the worst ever.
- New owners need to be the right ones. Media team & club profile superb given our resources
- The board takes the supporters for granted, a loyalty scheme would help
- Poor transparency at the club. The board has set the club back years. Worst Blyth team put together
- The current committee seems happy with mediocre short term planning around survival.
- These are tough times so maybe better the devil you know but a bit of ambition and investment need
- The club is stagnating terribly
- The club was lucky that they didn’t get relegated last season.
- If season tickets made any real saving I would get one every year.
- Looking forward to the season, we kept Clarky too long to the detriment of the club. Good luck Nelson.
- Platten needs to go
- Compared to other clubs, including lower teams, Blyth are way behind the times in generating interest