Community looking to improve fan experience with the help of supporter groups
Do you attend matches with a group of friends totalling more than 10? Or do you watch Shrewsbury Town in action from another country? If so, why not consider setting up an officially affiliated Shrewsbury Town Supporters Club?
Shrewsbury Town in the Community will be leading the way to get more fans involved, with funding available to assist fan clubs throughout Shropshire and to improve the fan experience.
“I presented to the Supporter’s Parliament the idea of affiliated supporters clubs. This is by no means stepping on the toes of current supporters clubs and we made that clear, but we are looking for groups of supporters of 10 or more, who come in on a mini-bus for example, to affiliate to us as a group.
"There are benefits for affiliating such as signed merchandise, the different information they can get and admin support from the club and ultimately what we are after is data collection.
"If we are doing ticket promotions we can go to those areas of Shropshire and make sure that the word is getting out there that there’s matches on here and trying to get those groups to grow will obviously grow the supporter base furthermore.”
As part of the project Shrewsbury Town in the Community is hopeful of setting up a steering group which would work closely with the club to make sure fans are getting what they want.
“Feedback is massively important, so having a steering group for the affiliated supporter’s clubs would be great. This could be in the format of a meeting on a matchday either here in the FanZone or in the hub to make sure that we are doing want the fans want really.
"Whether it’s something within the FanZone, whether it’s something within their own supporter’s clubs, whether it is fans forums within their local pub in Bridgnorth or Bishops Castle, it’s about making sure we are hitting all of Shropshire and further afield as well.
"When you go onto social media there are lots of Shrewsbury fans around the world and with iFollow changing for this year it’s something we can link in and if perhaps a group of 10 people come from Germany for one game then that’s great.”
The project is being run by Shrewsbury Town in the Community and Jamie is excited about being able to work with the core group of Town supporters for the first time.
“It’s the first application for funding that we’ve had that is directly for the fans that are here. A lot of it is about secondary spending and trying to create a fan for the future, which is obviously very important, but this scheme is about directly supporting the current fans and trying to make their experience of Shrewsbury Town better.”
If you want to set up an affiliated supporter club or become a member of the Supporter Club steering group please visit https://www.shrewsburytowninthecommunity.com/affiliated-supporter-clubs/