New initiative gets underway
The first meeting of the new ‘All Together Town’ initiative took place at Canalside on Thursday evening.
The Club held this initial fans meeting, open to all supporters, to discuss the new programme in further detail, explain the next steps and hear more of the Club’s plans to recruit a Supporter Liaison Officer from the fan-base.
Facilitated by Mark Bradley of the Fan Experience Company and attended by Town’s Board members Ann Hough, Sean Jarvis and Nigel Clibbens, the meeting focussed on the objectives of ‘All Together Town’ and how it could work before going on to the match day experience at Town’s home games, following up feedback from an initial fans survey, run in association with club partner Ask Insight, in late 2012.
That survey had identified hot topics and key areas for improvement in particular on home match days, which included issues such as the quality and price of food and drink, stewarding, parking, match day entertainment and atmosphere. Now, with the return of shares in the John Smith’s Stadium to the Club, it is more a hot topic than ever.
The possibility of more home fans – not just families – sitting behind one of the goals at the John Smith’s Stadium was also revisited.
Around 50 Town fans attended in person and contributed their thoughts on the night and, in a first for Huddersfield Town, the meeting was streamed live on the internet, with another 424 views from 292 unique viewers via the Club’s live broadcast on UStream.
Following the meeting, the next agreed step is for a survey to be sent out to supporters that will help prioritise the most important match day issues to be addressed. This will happen before Friday 27 September.
All supporters can assist with the compilation of the survey by emailing their thoughts, questions, issues and things they believe should be covered to AllTogetherTown@htafc.com.
Huddersfield Town’s Chief Executive Nigel Clibbens said:
“The Club is calling on as many fans as possible to get involved. We have a vocal and passionate set of fans who are active on fans’ forums, such as ‘Down at the Mac’ and Twitter; this is the chance for them to help make a real difference.
“This initial meeting was the start of the Club’s latest commitment to fan engagement. There were some good, open discussions about a wide-range of topics relating to the home match day experience and now the next step is to compile the first survey on the match day issues, which will give us real information on the priorities of the Club’s fan-base.
“However, for the ‘All Together Town’ initiative to be a success it is vital that a really wide range of fans come forward and take part. As we said ahead of the meeting, it is important for us all to remember that views differ right across our fan-base. We know a topic high on the agenda for a family in the Fantastic Media Stand may not be a priority for, as an example, a fan sitting in the Britannia Rescue Stand. We want more, different voices to be heard in a way that results in positive progress and improvements.
“We want to be able to target, prioritise and bring about changes in a structured and transparent manner after initially listening to the valued opinions of a cross section of Huddersfield Town fans.”
