Funding recieved to aid fan engagement
Shrewsbury Town in the Community have received £18,962 worth of funding to help improve fan engagementA large chunk of this will provide a new Fanzone, which is set to open against Bolton on Saturday, with the remaining money being used to improve links between Shrewsbury Town and its supporters groups.
Head of Community, Jamie Edwards, is hopeful that the money will allow the club to engage with everyone who supports Shrewsbury Town.
“A chunk of the funding is to look at how we engage with fans”, Jamie told ShrewsWeb.
“Starting up workshops, working with current fan and supporter clubs, increasing the number of supporter clubs around the county, country and the world with the internet, and then seeing who we are missing.
“So, not just the floating supporters, but also the migrants that have come into the country. Why are they not coming to watch their local club? Is it a language barrier that we can work on in terms of our marketing of matches? Or, is it a cost?
“It’s very much fan-led and part of the funding goes towards a volunteer fan engagement officer, which will try and link all of these clubs together. Linking all the different demographics that come to the club and working out what they want.
Jamie is hopeful of working alongside the existing supporters clubs in order to get the best outcomes for Shrewsbury Town fans.
“For me it is one of the most exciting funding applications that we have had agreed”, said Edwards.
“It’s not as much money as some of the other funding applications that we get, but this one is showing a strong partnership that we have with the football club and hopefully with the fans involved as well there will be a really good outcome to what we can do.
“Some of the more successful clubs in terms of the amount of fan groups they have make it a lot more flexible to be a supporters club. So, it’s about working with the existing supporters clubs and seeing if they can spread geographically across the county.
“For example, if we have a strong supporters group in Oswestry that already bring a coach to the games, can we fill that coach every week and get a second supports coach? If we have five or six of those supporters groups across the county, can we go to the travel provider and get a better deal for them?”