Chelsea Supporters’ Trust 2016 Membership Survey
About the Survey
This is the fourth annual Chelsea Supporters’ Trust Membership survey. The goal of the annual survey is to identify the issues that Chelsea supporters care about.
This survey was conducted from the end of the football season (16 May) to mid-June 2016. It was sent out to both the voting and non-voting membership. The overall response rate was 25%, with a 44% response rate from Voting Members.
A section about the potential temporary stadium move ahead of the new stadium development was included this year, to provide information about Supporter concerns regarding this issue. Some questions have been slightly reformulated to provide more consistent data and a question about Supporter Liaison has also been introduced.
SUMMARY
The results of the summary inevitably reflect the relatively unsuccessful 2015/16 season. For the first time, ticket prices and atmosphere, although still ranked highly, have been superseded by concerns about on-pitch success and related categories of youth player development, transfer policy and management stability.
Despite the on-pitch difficulties, satisfaction with Club administration is only slightly down on last year. It is disappointing to note that only 20% of respondents were aware of the Supporter Liaison Officer role at the Club and less than 5% knew his name or how to contact him.
CST members welcome the Away Ticket Cap agreed by the Premier League and over 60% said that they would now attend more away games. However concern was expressed that it would be even more difficult to obtain these tickets. Home ticket prices are still considered to be too high. Availability and location of juvenile tickets remain key concerns with regard to pricing, access and atmosphere and there continues to be a demand for a price category for young adults.
Although a move to a temporary stadium in any of the venues currently touted will not materially affect weekend attendance, most respondents consider that time and/or cost of travel will increase significantly. The primary opinion is that the Club should ensure that pricing takes account of this. There is a strong possibility that attendance of midweek games will be affected, particularly if the move is to Stratford.
About a quarter of respondents stated that the new European ticket collection arrangements were a factor in not attending away Champions League games. Although most agreed that the Club made the collection location convenient, the majority stated that the process ate into time for pre-match activities.
KEY ISSUES
Respondents were asked to rank in order of importance what they considered to be the five most important issues. The rest of the survey explores these key issues in greater depth.
The highest importance was given to On-pitch success, followed by some distance by Ticket prices, Stadium redevelopment and Atmosphere. Receiving the most votes overall were: Development of young players, followed by On-pitch success, Atmosphere and Stadium redevelopment.
Amongst Other issues raised by respondents, the most significant were:
- Transfer Policy
- Team Management Stability
- Club Management
- Touting & Ticketing
Ticket Prices have been the number one concern in the last three of the annual surveys but, although this is still important, this has been overtaken by On-pitch success. Stadium redevelopment replaced Stadium relocation from previous surveys and features in the top four for both highest importance and votes overall.
Download the full survey results as a PDF:
