Walsall FC Supporters Survey

Walsall FC Supporters Survey 2012
Walsall FC Supporters Survey

2011/2012
Conducted and analysed by Darren Rhodes
Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The first section will deal with demographic data (age/gender). Then we move on to home attendance and factors underlying support for Walsall FC. The next section looks at why people come to games, and conversely why they do not come to games. We will then look at perceptions from the club from a pricing point of view. We then move on to a principal component analysis and correlation analysis telling us about the relationship between questions (variables) within this survey.
Methodology
The following survey adopted an online survey methodology, inviting supporters from various social networking sites and upthesaddlers.com to complete a brief 22 item questionnaire. The questions chosen were adapted from the official football league survey but also tailored to meet the current social perceptions of Walsall F.C. The questions were not biased or leading: all responses were equally weighted with positive or negative answers. This survey (n = 216) actually achieved more responses than the official football league survey (n = 169). Data was reduced to 196 due to individuals not filling out 80% of the questionnaire.
Nominal/Categorical Data & Demographics Age of Respondents

25 20 Percentage (%) 15 10 5 0 Percentage (%) 100.00 90.00 80.00 70.00 60.00 50.00 40.00
Gender Response
30.00
20.00 10.00 0.00
Under 16
16-24
25-34
35-44 Age Group
45-54
55-64
Over 65
Male Gender
Female
Attendance
The following two questions examined how often people attended matches and how individuals travel when they do..
80 70 140 120 100 50 Frequency Frequency 0 Games 1-5 Games 6-10 Games 11-15 Games 16-20 Games 21-23 Games 80 40 30 20 10 0
60
60
40 20
0
0 - 20 Miles 20-40 Miles 40-80 Miles 80-100 Miles 100+ Miles
How many Home games do you attend per season?

4
How far do you travel to each home game?
Reasons for going or not going to games

What is the main factor for you purchasing a season ticket?
120
100
80 Frequency
60
40
20
0 No Response Cheaper than separate Gives priority access for Guarantees me a ticket It enables me to sit in To demonstrate loyalty tickets cup matches for every match the same seat to the club
It appears that there is no central reason that suggests why people purchase season tickets, but given the spread of the data it can be asserted that individuals personal situation gives rise to why they purchase a season ticket.
In terms of price, do you consider Walsall FC to offer a match-day product that is?
90 80
70
60 Frequency 50 40 30 20 10 0 Excellent Value for Money Good Value for Money Fair Value for Money Poor Value for Money Very Poor Value for Money
The data here show a lovely normal (Gaussian) distribution in response to the above question. This again suggests that people do in general think that the price of the match-day product is fair but this could actually be improved (but it is also not too bad).
Why do you not go to games anymore? Why do you not purchase a ticket?
18 16 14 12 Frequency 10 8 6 4
2
0
Can't go to every Don't want to go to game every game
Family commitments
I don't feel appreciated by the club
Jeff Bonser
Poor on-pitch performance
The club and the 'rent' situation
The poor relationship between supporters and club
Too expensive
There appears to be a trend of reasons (highlighted in yellow) towards the chairman and fan-board relations that account for most of the variability for why people are not attending Walsall FC games anymore. 7
If you attend games why do you think people are not attending?
60
50
40 Frequency
30
20
10
No Response
Economic Recession
No idea or opinion
People have become People have stayed disinterested with the away due to Jeff Bonser club
Poor on-pitch performance
This graph shows that perceptions of people who attend games believe that the reason why people are not attending is due to poor on-pitch, disinterest with the club and the chairman. The club should stop using the economic recession as a reason why people are not attending as it seems this is not the case.
Which of the following describes your match day involvement with Walsall FC?
80
70
60
50 Frequency
40
30
20
10
0
No Response Non-attending supporter Not involved in any Occasional match Professional Regular match way described attender (1-10 games involvement with the attender (10 plus per season) club games per season) Season ticket holder
This graph further demonstrates that many of the respondents to this survey are season ticket holders or regular match attendees.
How much do you agree that Walsall FC plays an important role in your familys life?
70
60
50
Frequency
40
30
20
10
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neither agree or disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
There is a trend here to suggest that people generally agree that Walsall FC plays an important role in the family life of some individuals, but it is also interesting that others disagree (but not as much). 10
As a supporter, how valued do you feel your opinion is to the board of the football club? On a scale of 1 10:1 represents extremely devalued. 10 represents extremely valued.
60
50
40 Frequency
30
20
10
0 1 - Extremely devalued 2 3 4 5 - No opinion 6 7 8 9 10 - Extremely valued
This histogram clearly shows a massively skewed negative distribution with a huge percentage of people believing that their opinion is not valued at all by the Walsall FC board. 11
How would you describe the relationship between board of Walsall FC and the supporters?
70
60
50
Frequency
40
30
20
10
0 1 - Very poor 2 3 4 5 - No opinion 6 7 8 9 10 - Very Good
Again, confirming the results of the above histogram; there is a massively skewed negative distribution showing that supporters say that the relationship between the board of Walsall FC is very poor. This must be addressed. 12
As a supporter how involved do you feel with how the football club is run?
80
70
60
50 Frequency
40
30
20
10
0
No Response Club communicates Club communicates Club has outstanding Listened to but my No involvement at well but doesn't use well to supporters club-supporter action's seem all - very poor my action and uses ideas relationship. devalued or ignored relationship generated from my between clubactions supporter No real opinion
This graph shows a spread of results that again show that people think that the relationship between the club and the supporter on the street is poor and not good enough (highlighted in yellow). 13
Do you think Fans Focus meetings are important and should continue more often than they do presently?
80
70
60
50 Frequency
40
30
20
10
0 Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
This histogram shows that people overwhelmingly agree that more fans focus meetings should take place more often than they do now. The last one was in July of last year. That is far too long and this needs to be addressed in order to strengthen club-fan bonds (as shown in the results of this survey).
14
In your own experience and opinion, how much do you agree with the statement: The Chairman of Walsall FC values my support
100
90 80
70 60 Frequency 50 40 30 20 10 0 Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
Here we have a question that indicates that many people think that the chairman of the football club does not value the support of Walsall supporters.
15
How would you describe the current performance of Walsall FC in League One?
100 90
80
70 60 Frequency 50 40
30
20 10 0
Vastly Overachieving
Achieving more than expected
Achieving as expected
Underachieving more than expected
Vastly underachieving
This histogram shows that supporters generally think the team is doing ok or underachieving. The football club should be trying to better itself each season and at current the club seems to be going backwards or stagnating which is shown in these results. 16
How would you describe the match day atmosphere at Walsall FC?
100 90 80 70 60 Frequency 50 40
30
20 10
0
Extremely good Good No real opinion Poor Very poor
These results show a negative trend to the view that the match day atmosphere at Walsall FC is not good enough and needs completely addressing, refreshing and improving. 17
How would you describe the match day package at Walsall FC? Including team, stewarding, match day announcer, food available etc
80
70
60
50
Frequency
40
30
20
10
0 Very good Good No opinion Poor Very Poor
This graph shows a general central distribution of results, indicating that peoples personal perceptions of the match day package of the situation probably manifest in a whole host of reasons why individuals think the package is good or poor. 18
Individual differences and component analyses

The following section is a correlation analysis of all independent variables in the above study. A single star (*) indicates a significant correlation at .05 significance level, and two stars (**) an extremely significant correlation at .01 in a two tailed analyses. I conducted a principal component analysis, using eigenvalues over 1 in order to discover how many components in the data set could be grouped together in order to explain most of the data. The 13 components here reflect 13 questions that were scaled in data (non-categorical) and therefore could be used in the described analyses. The initial 13 components are basically 13 questions and are described briefly in the second table. Please get in touch with me if you wish to know more about this process and the variables. The Analysis produced the following principal component extraction:
Total Variance Explained Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Initial Eigenvalues Component 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Total 3.282 1.734 1.254 1.172 1.056 .839 .719 .663 .590 .529 .418 .401 .344 % of Variance 25.250 13.337 9.646 9.014 8.121 6.452 5.527 5.101 4.539 4.068 3.215 3.084 2.646 Cumulative % 25.250 38.587 48.233 57.247 65.368 71.820 77.348 82.449 86.988 91.056 94.271 97.354 100.000 Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings Total 3.282 1.734 1.254 1.172 1.056 % of Variance 25.250 13.337 9.646 9.014 8.121 Cumulative % 25.250 38.587 48.233 57.247 65.368 Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings Total 2.685 1.847 1.483 1.295 1.188 % of Variance 20.656 14.204 11.411 9.961 9.136 Cumulative % 20.656 34.860 46.271 56.232 65.368
So therefore, we can see that there are 5 components within the data that account for most of the data.
19
This next matrix shows the correlations between all of the variables in relation to a component:
Component Matrix(a) Component 1 Homegames TravelDistance1 AwayGames WFCFamilylife CustomerValuation1 RelationshipBoardfans1 PricePerception1 FanInvolvement1 FansFocus1 ChairValuesSupport1 TeamPerformLeagueOne1 Atmosphere1 MatchDayPackage1 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. a 5 components extracted. .478 -.052 .381 -.381 .778 .735 -.653 .662 .116 -.582 .010 -.384 -.501 2 .636 -.547 .489 -.476 -.037 -.164 -.113 -.068 -.222 .426 .172 .414 .294 3 -.134 .150 .024 .275 .153 .284 .251 .382 -.261 -.029 .750 .403 .177 4 .196 -.282 .168 .456 .047 .128 .161 -.059 .732 -.267 -.138 .321 .201 5 -.088 .599 .572 -.124 -.097 -.018 -.110 -.238 .381 .215 .256 -.027 -.102
So the next step is a bit intuitive but the aim of the game is to look at which variables correlate with which component in order to see what the component means. It can be suggested component 1 (which account for most of the data) correlates highly with (1) how fans feel they are involved with the club, (2) the perception of how fair the match day price is, (3) the match day package, (4) how the chairman values support but also hugely with how (5) the relationship between the board and the supporters and (6) how valued the opinion of a supporter is to the board. The last two correlate hugely (.778 and .735) but importantly correlate with no other component which suggests that the first factor is the RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CLUB AND THE SUPPORTERS. So
20
Walsall FC Supporters Survey 2012 this suggests that the number one reason for discontent or the factor which plays most part in the response of supporters to questions in the survey is the degree to which an individual feels the bond is between the board and the fan on the street.
Significant correlations
The following is a matrix of correlations. * = significant at .05 level, ** = significant at .01 level.
Correlations Away Game s .378(** )
Home games Homegames Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed 1
TravelDi stance1 -.358(**)
WFCFa milylife .268(**)
CustomerV aluation1 .280(**)
Relationship Boardfans1 .187(*)
PricePer ception1 -.356(**)
FanInvol vement1 .196(**)
FansF ocus1 .016
ChairValue sSupport1 -.119
TeamPerform LeagueOne1 .042
Atmos phere1 .060
MatchDay Package1 -.067
.000 196 .358(** ) .000 190 .378(** ) .000 190 -.002 190 1
.000 196 -.002
.000 185 .068
.000 185 .017
.011 185 .070
.000 186 .009
.008 185 .013
.833 182 .025
.107 185 -.078
.573 185 .036
.421 183 .148(*)
.370 184 -.105
TravelDistanc e1
.975 190 1
.366 180 .271(**) .000
.818 180 .207(**)
.352 180 .182(*)
.907 184 -.237(**)
.864 180 .131
.743 177 .101
.298 180 .021
.634 180 .060
.048 178 .077
.164 179 -.097
AwayGames
.975
.005
.013
.001
.077
.175
.773
.416
.302
.192
21

) WFCFamilylife N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre 196 .268(** ) .000 185 .280(** ) 190 .068 196 .271(** ) .000 185 .207(** ) 185 .240(**) 185 1 185 -.240(**) 185 -.137 186 .339(**) 185 -.138 182 .153(*) 185 -.070 185 .059 183 .087 184 .123
.366 180 .017
.001 185 1
.064 185 .633(**)
.000 177 -.366(**)
.061 185 .497(**)
.039 182 .052
.344 185 -.414(**)
.424 185 .024
.240 183 .231(** ) .002 183 .220(** ) .003 183 .250(** )
.095 184 -.298(**)
CustomerValu ation1
.000 185 .187(*)
.818 180 .070
.005 185 .182(*)
.001 185 -.137 185 .633(**)
.000 185 1
.000 177 -.255(**)
.000 185 .518(**)
.483 182 .128
.000 185 -.415(**)
.744 185 .100
.000 184 -.267(**)
RelationshipB oardfans1
.011 185 .356(** ) .000 186 .196(** )
.352 180 .009
.013 185 .237(** ) .001 186 .131
.064 185 .339(**)
.000 185 -.366(**) 185 -.255(**)
.001 177 1
.000 185 -.312(**)
.084 182 -.041
.000 185 .316(**)
.174 185 .018
.000 184 .300(**)
PricePerceptio n1
.907 184 .013
.000 177 -.138
.000 177 .497(**)
.001 177 .518(**) 186 -.312(**)
.000 177 1
.594 174 -.036
.000 177 -.384(**)
.816 177 .127
.001 176 .157(*)
.000 177 -.258(**)
FanInvolveme nt1
22

lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) .008 185 .016 .864 180 .025 .077 185 .101 .061 185 .153(*) .000 185 .052 .000 185 .128 .000 177 -.041 185 -.036 .629 182 1 .000 185 -.172(*) .085 185 -.115 .034 183 -.069 .000 184 -.055
FansFocus1
.833 182 -.119
.743 177 -.078
.175 182 .021
.039 182 -.070
.483 182 -.414(**)
.084 182 -.415(**)
.594 174 .316(**)
.629 182 -.384(**) 182 .172(*)
.020 182 1
.122 182 .078
.358 180 .200(** )
.458 181 .288(**)
ChairValuesS upport1
.107 185 .042
.298 180 .036
.773 185 .060
.344 185 .059
.000 185 .024
.000 185 .100
.000 177 .018
.000 185 .127
.020 182 -.115 185 .078
.292 185 1
.007 183 .142
.000 184 .017
TeamPerform LeagueOne1
.573 185 .060
.634 180 -.148(*)
.416 185 .077
.424 185 .087
.744 185 -.231(**)
.174 185 -.220(**)
.816 177 .250(**)
.085 185 -.157(*)
.122 182 -.069
.292 185 .200(**) 185 .142
.055 183 1
.818 184 .328(**)
Atmosphere1
.421
.048
.302
.240
.002
.003
.001
.034
.358
.007
.055
.000
23

N MatchDayPac kage1 Pears on Corre lation Sig. (2tailed ) N 183 -.067 178 -.105 183 -.097 183 .123 183 -.298(**) 183 -.267(**) 176 .300(**) 183 -.258(**) 180 -.055 183 .288(**) 183 .017 183 .328(** ) 183 1
.370
.164
.192
.095
.000 184
.000 184
.000 177
.000 184
.458 181
.000 184
.818 184
.000 183 184
184 179 184 184 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
N.B. What has not been mentioned before is that the teams current performance in league correlates with NO other variable indicating that this question has no relationship with why people are not attending games. There is a multitude of significant correlations in the above table; I think it is important for not one person to discuss these results (including the whole of the document) as statistics is all about interpretation. Some of the results are extremely transparent and show a real need to improve certain things at the club. But, I believe discussion and communication is very important. We are all Walsall supporters at the end of the day, and we should pull together in times like this. It is clear that something needs addressing. It is now up to the club and supporters to understand why people are frustrated and work together to achieve a better Walsall FC. If you wish to get in touch with myself (Darren) about any aspects of the study or if you require more information please contact me on the following email address: darren_rhodes@hotmail.co.uk
Thank you for all of the people who took the time to fill in this survey. This could not be done without you. I hope everyone involved with Walsall FC realises that is also true if we want to make a progressive and positive Walsall FC. We need to understand each other but most importantly talk.
Up the saddlers!
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Walsall FC Supporters Survey 2012