Fixing the Foxes: Improving the relationship between Leicester City and its supporters
Posing the biggest of big questions to our writers this international break, we asked what needs fixing and how to do it. First up, an off-pitch focus on why and how to improve and repair the fan relationships with the club.
Enter the biggest of the big questions we’ve had. Personally, I’m actually not as concerned about the on the pitch stuff as the off. After the Rodgers relegation season, while we perhaps don’t have the same level of quality in the playing squad, and coaching, there is at least some fight and effort.
Off the pitch feels like a different story though. The word ‘disconnect’ has rarely been used so often by football fans as in the last decade, coming to a head in the last three years. The community, working man feel of football has been pushed out for a while, but its acceleration feels stark.
There was something that stuck with me recently when Sky Sports pundits bemoaned a poor atmosphere and blamed it on the performance during the Manchester United v Chelsea game. But that’s hardly the truth. Sure, an energetic, goal filled performance keeps the cheering in the stands. But it doesn’t help the price of the tickets, that TV deals have helped drive up, a cost that a lot of parents wanting to take their kids will now have to weigh up.
That's also ignoring the massive irony of Sky being a big part of the issues in modern football. Not everybody is thrilled or able to get out to the randomly timed kick offs they use to maximise the amount of games they can show.
Some clubs have attempted to keep the bond with the fans and keep them front and centre. Luton is a good example of a club that genuinely feels together and where fans are valued.
To fix something, you have to focus on one thing so my contribution would be for us to focus on repairing the club’s relationship with fans. Emphasis on the word fans. Not customers. It's time Leicester City realise our worth for more than what's in our wallets and do some course correcting before there is no next generation of fans.
There are things that could be done to improve this that aren’t material, difficult changes either. Listening and acknowledgment would be a great start. Between the Foxes Trust and Union FS it’s two fan groups with a strong voice and numerous members. But both struggle to get their messages heard, or face tip-toeing around so as to not become ostracised. The messages they’re trying to get across are representative for large swathes of the fanbase too.
Any critique or questioning of policies around ticketing, the relocation for season ticket holders debacle, the cost for physical tickets, the becoming a member and the match day ticket prices is met with a vague statement at best and absolute silence otherwise.
How long have Union FS been asking to just have a conversation about safe standing only for the club to brush it off until well, this week really, on the convenient statement that it’s tied to the stadium development. You know, the development that’s been very quiet, understandable with finances and the unplanned (their word, not mine) relegation. Meanwhile, other clubs have rolled out safe standing and it’s becoming more normal.
This isn’t the only example where our fans are pointing out how behind the curve we are for fan experience. You probably regularly receive an email this season after the home games asking you to rate your matchday experience.
One example landed very quickly after that Forest defeat, you may have wanted to hold that one, but that’s not the reason I haven’t filled one in. It’s wondering if it would have any impact or if they’re sent to be used as an example of them collecting feedback. Listening to what fans want hasn’t exactly happened often or been a key strength of the club recently.
The truth is that the match day experience is not that great. Other clubs have dedicated areas, fan zones, or squares to encourage fans to turn up earlier, gather, see friends and family and soak up some atmosphere pre-match. A better choice of food options, I could go on but given the outcome should generate money, it seems like something the club would be more focused on. Again, this seemed to be tied in with the stadium expansion.
There’s a reason we all went on and on about how much we enjoyed the trip to Deepdale earlier this year. It felt like the away days of old, a real nostalgic throwback. So much of what was enjoyable had nothing to do with the on pitch events either. It reminded us all of days where we fell in love with Leicester and football.
Leicester weren't the only club who introduced price hikes this year. It impacted members and match to match paying fans more but even season ticket holders saw an increase. Fan consultation on these points appeared to be minimal and when feedback was provided, the excuses wheeled out ranged from the standard inflation to ‘well other clubs are doing it'.
Wouldn't it be great if we copied other things clubs are getting right instead of just price oriented things. Joining the handful of clubs who resist betting sponsors for example. Letting Union FS do an actual campaign for mental health day, see Norwich City, instead of just a token message on the big screens that didn't offer resources or support.
Even consistency in the messaging would be helpful. On the one hand the club wants you to know that paying £25 for a physical season ticket is to offset the environmental impact. But you can't enter the stadium without two people thrusting paper clappers at you that inevitably end up on the floor. Hardly fits the first message.
Some transparency would be appreciated too. To be realistic, we’re not likely to get an open book scenario. Love it or hate it, the modern football club is a business looking to turn a profit. Unless you’re part of the inner circle, you’re not getting those details. Most fans actually don’t want those details. The only reason it even comes up is because of the zero public accountability we get, particularly when things hit crisis mode.
This may not be a popular thing to flag up, as it’s something done by our M69 rivals Coventry City, but watching how their sacking of manager Mark Robins happened, the subsequent souring of opinion and outrage from their fans and how owner, Doug King, has chosen to address it has been fascinating with my Leicester hat on.
We haven’t been in a position where sacking a manager has truly upset the majority of our fanbase for a long time. However, our comparable tipping point for fan patience was the manner of our relegation, the admittance that the club had no provisions for that scenario and the consequences of that financially.
Back to Coventry, Doug King opted to publicly speak about his decision, joining the BBC for a fan forum on Monday. It wasn't my plan to listen but living in a divided household meant it was going on.
He was in person with a live audience, and it was broadcast live, including local journalists, and King took questions for an hour, not just on Robins sacking but the direction of the club, recent results and recruitment. It’s still available to listen back and regardless of it being Coventry, it was a genuinely interesting listen.
Can you imagine that having happened for us, anybody willing to step up and face those types of questions? The questions weren’t vetted and some of them were pretty brutal (not rude to the man but questioning the choices).
Nothing seemed to be off the table and he didn’t refuse to answer any of them even when one or two fans used their questions to tear into his previous answers. He outlined his decisions, the thought process and his viewpoint and while it may not have changed the minds of some fans, he was clear on his position and his vision for the club.
Fair play to him for fronting up and doing that. It’s the sort of accountability and questions we dream of having the chance to ask. He also appeared on TalkSport where Simon Jordan pressed him again. It put me in mind of that relegation season where we left Brendan Rodgers or players to face the tough questions, or even last season when Enzo Maresca was the one left to pick up questions on PSR and points deductions.
Bear in mind that our club committed to conducting a full review and audit for the relegation and while we were told it had concluded, nothing was really shared in terms of the results or what action had been taken. You’d like to think as a minimum we’d plan better financially for the possibility of relegation but we don’t know.
Perhaps this is in part what the Fan Advisory Board will deliver. The first meeting minutes do have reference to safe standing, albeit still not until 2025/26. Union FS and the Foxes Trust will continue to push the club and their joined up efforts lately have been encouraging but the club could be a little more forthright in certain aspects.
We're not the only club missing a lot of these points or getting it wrong but it all seems a little short sighted. A lot of us that go to matches aren't excited at the prospect of getting up and going down to the King Power right now.
That malaise isn't new for some either, it was the same last year when things felt much rosier and we won a lot. There's a certain flatness. Like reflecting on a young romantic partner who seemed incredible at the time but you run into them and wonder why they had you so spellbound. The joys of modern football.
But if the current crowd is disillusioned and feeling priced out, then they're not bringing their kids or their nieces, nephews, kids they teach and so on. And those kids likely aren't picking Leicester City or maybe football at all when there are so many other things competing for their attention and money.
If football clubs don't get savvy soon they're not just pricing out the next generation, they're going to miss out on a portion of them entirely.
