Proposal 5: Increasing match day experience and average attendance
Match day experience can be increased by embracing positive things (gains) and by
detecting and improving supporters' pains (obstacles, problems, etc). The most efficient way
to detect pains is with repetitive qualitative and qualitative research (survey and open
discussion).
Quantitative research and qualitative research were already done on
zonadinamo.com (link
below) with the following main outcomes:
Positive:
1. 94.8% of supporters who visited the match at Maksimir stadium were satisfied with
the experience immediately after the game
2. eTicketing works great (the issue to resolve is to enable access to the stadium
without a printed ticket - introduce ticket readers)
3. View from stands is good
4. Public transport works great
Negative:
5. Entering the stadium is painful because of long queues (NOTE: Already improved to
some point)
6. Stadium cleanliness is terrible
7. The club store on the match day is not good enough because long queues
8. Food and beverage offerings on the match day are not good enough because long
queues
Action plan tasks:
1. Improve stadium cleanliness
2. Open more stadium gates when it is needed (half of them are currently not used)
3. Expand stadium shop
a. Maybe some kinds of containers or something like those “temporary wooden
houses”.
4. Increase the number of food and beverage courts in the stadium.
a. Queues can be reduced with the introduction of online ordering.
b. Some clubs offer pre-ordering “lunch boxes” (a couple of hours or one day in
advance). This way you can offer various, healthy and unhealthy options
Full journey with result interpretation and discussion can be found on (NOTE: If needed, I
can also share journey questions and more detailed results).
https://www.zonadinamo.com/discussion/comment/283228
Proposal 6: Aftermatch dialogue with supporters
Do after-match interviews with supporters and ask them about their experience, what should
be improved, what they enjoyed, etc. The club will receive valuable feedback vital for
improving the matchday experience and supporters will feel valued (increased emotional
connection). The tone and brand behind this proposal is “Club care about you”.
The club should also use those interviews as unique content that can be promoted on social
media. Just collect supporters' suggestions, complaints, etc, internally discuss solutions, and
present solutions/results to the public. This will raise public awareness about positive change
and it will raise emotional connection. After improvement, It would be great to do a video
interview with supporters and show the general public that things are improving.
Proposal 7: Club dialogue with the supporters
The club needs to establish one council group for each fan base segment because each
group has its own needs. Fans could apply to participate in the council group for specific
segments and afterward, the club should select (maybe draw) a couple of fans out of the
candidate pool.
Membership in this council group would last at most two years. The reason is because new
people bring new ideas.
Note: Ultras have established hierarchy and for this reason, I would make an exception in a
way that they would decide by themself who is going to represent them and what they want
to discuss.
Fan base segments:
1. Families: The most important group for the future, they would probably like to
discuss comfort, entertainment for the children, safety, cleanliness of the facilities, etc
2. Regular fans: They go to the matches also to see friends, bond, escape from
real-world problems, and so on. They would probably like to discuss issues with
beer and food queues, view of the pitch, etc.
3. Students: Similar to regular fans, they are often more on a lower budget. Also, they
like to have more vivid entertainment (e.g. DJ in the fan zone), food, and beer that is
not so pricey etc.
4. Elderly: They would probably like to discuss access to the stadium, having seats in
the areas reachable by not too many stairs, maybe to have an elderly area closer to
the pitch etc.
Guide:
1. Establishment of different council groups (described above)
2. Monthly meetings
3. Possibility to attend meetings remotely
4. Club presidents should attend meetings at least once, or twice per year.
5. The club captain should be present at least once per year to create two way
a positive connection between supporters and players