Fan Engagement: Reviewing 2023/24

When we launched our 2023/24 Fan Engagement Plan, we set out our aim to build a strong and trusted relationship with fans, ensuring that each one of you feels truly valued and proud to support Manchester United, no matter where you are in the world.

A challenging season on the pitch finished on a high at Wembley for both our men’s and women’s teams, bringing home both FA Cups.

It has also been a challenging year for the club off the pitch with lots of change, but 12 months on I am delighted at the progress we have made and the vast range of fan engagement initiatives we have delivered.

The video below shows the depth and breadth of the activities we have delivered this year and I thank all my colleagues who have worked incredibly hard to make this happen.

We are in a much stronger place today than we were when we first launched our plan, and I am confident and excited about where we will be in another year’s time. Within the first 48 hours of the formal completion of his investment, Sir Jim Ratcliffe along with Jean Claude-Blanc and Sir Dave Brailsford met with our main fan bodies and expressed their commitment to continuing and strengthening our work with them. They have also met with fan reps again since then.

WORKING WITH OUR FAN GROUPS AND FAN BODIES

At the heart of our strategy has been working with our fan bodies – our Fans’ Advisory Board (FAB), Fans’ Forum (FF), our Official Supporters’ Trust (MUST) and our global network of official supporters’ clubs (MUSCs).

I, along with our Director of Fan Engagement, personally attended all eight formal meetings with our FAB and FF this season and I want to thank them all for the significant contributions they have made, and for providing the challenge and collaboration needed to improve how we engage with our fans.

As a direct result of fan-led initiatives from the above bodies we have:

• Raised over £1.2m for the MU Foundation through our fan-friendly ticketing options (where we allow fans to donate their ticket to the MU Foundation as well as reselling it to the club for a full refund)
• Returned the Stretford End to general admission seating from August – delivering on MUST’s ‘Reclaim the Stretford End’ initiative
• Introduced a new dedicated section for youth (16-25) supporters with a special season ticket price of just £16 per game
• Increased our safe-standing provision to all corners of the ground, giving fans more choice about how they watch the game
• Subsidised the price of FA Cup final tickets for our young (U16) fans – making that special day in May a more affordable occasion for our next generation of supporters.

Our FAB continues to lead the way and we are proud to have used our experience and learnings to support other Premier League clubs who have set up with FABs this year. We continually strive to improve and to inform this we ran two effectiveness surveys this year to help us improve. The latest survey told us that we are strategically aligned, discussing the right topics, sharing a good level of detail and information and give sufficient time, effort and resource to make FAB a success.

The report from the Co-Chair to our Board highlighted that communication is a key challenge, due to the FAB being set up to discuss commercially and strategically sensitive topics. This was echoed in the effectiveness survey. During the season, updates are provided to the Fans’ Forum as to what we have discussed and are communicated to the wider fanbase, and we will consider how to make the work of FAB even more transparent, while maintaining the confidentially to have the in-depth strategic discussions.

The report also acknowledged that the FAB could be more diverse and representative of the wider fanbase. This summer we will add two new roles and will encourage applications from all parts of our fanbase.

We have strengthened our Fans’ Forum this year – adding some new roles which have also made it more diverse and representative. This will in turn help increase diversity on our FAB in future years as two of the FAB roles are elected from the Fans’ Forum reps.

Our Fans’ Forum remains an integral part of our fan engagement approach and we were pleased to work with them to revise our policy on minimum game usage – something they told us fans felt strongly about and we agreed to a phased approach with annual reviews: a sensible and pragmatic result.

We continue to work with other recognised fan groups and once again collaborated with the Manchester Munich Memorial Foundation (MMMF) and Munich58 group to ensure we marked 6 February in a fitting manner. We also worked with fan representatives as we paid our tributes to the late, great Sir Bobby Charlton, ensuring fans had an input into how we approached this difficult time.

GROWING AND REWARDING OUR SUPPORTERS' CLUB NETWORK

Our global network of official supporters’ clubs is something we are rightly proud of, and it has been great to see the significant increase in activity to help support and grow this important part of our fanbase. This year we have:

• Increased our number of official supporters’ clubs to over 300
• Welcomed our first-ever clubs in: New Zealand, Tanzania and Czech Republic
• Welcomed our first-ever clubs for youth supporters (already over 2,000 members) and for members of the Armed Forces.
• Launched a dedicated website where we engage directly with clubs, sharing information and receiving their user-generated content to include on club channels
• Delivered a huge range of supporters’ club-specific events, including six Warm-Up events, fan press conferences, new player signing content capture, anniversary celebrations and much more

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

We have worked tirelessly to deepen relations with fans and to grow and support all parts of our fanbase. That is why I am particularly proud that we have been recognised with two industry-leading awards this season. First, we won the Football v Homophobia Professional Club Award for our work with Rainbow Devils (our official LGBTQ+ supporters’ club) and our partner adidas on promoting allyship and inclusivity in football. And last month our work on getting more fans involved and engaged in the women’s game was recognised at the Women’s Football Awards where we picked up the Best Fan Engagement Award, two very important areas of the game that we will continue to champion.

This season, we have also worked with our older fans, including some who are suffering from dementia, to run a series of ‘reminiscing sessions’. These are important and really enjoyable sessions where our older fans get together and share memories over a cup of tea.

This, along with our Warm Hubs we run throughout winter – giving fans a warm and safe space where they can eat, drink and meet others – are important parts of our fan and community work and have made a real difference to those who attended.

REWARDING YOUR LOYALTY

We have the most passionate and loyal fans in football, and it is only right we look to reward you wherever we can. This year, among other things, we have:

• Welcomed over 200 supporters to play on the Old Trafford turf, including fans who contribute to matchday culture by writing/selling fanzines, organising coach travel, running supporters’ clubs or contributing to improving the atmosphere at Old Trafford
• Told your incredible stories across our content, with more than 3,000 pieces of fan-first content across our channels, including the ‘One Love’ docuseries, profiling different supporters and fan groups all over the world
• Given young fans the opportunity to lead the team out – including two U16 season ticket holders at the FA Cup final
• Subsidised coach travel for MU Women away games and for the men’s fixture at Crystal Palace on a bank holiday Monday
• Invited nominations to the annual Ian Stirling Fan Award – won by Joe Glanville from our Malta supporters’ club

LOOKING FORWARD

Despite all the brilliant work detailed above, and in the video, I am determined we will do more. We need to continue to build trust between you and your club, and we are committed to doing so. We will set out our approach ahead of the start of the new season when we publish our 2024/25 Fan Engagement Plan.

We are committed to consulting with fans on key heritage items including the potential redevelopment of our ground. The ongoing regeneration project for the Old Trafford area and the redevelopment/rebuilding of Old Trafford stadium will be the biggest and most important project we work on for many years. That is why we incorporated fan representation on the taskforce which is looking at the feasibility of options, and why we are committed to involving fans and fan groups throughout the programme.

As Manchester United’s Nominated Board Level Official (NBLO) responsible for fan engagement, you have my promise that I will continue to champion and focus on ensuring fans are always at the heart of our club and our decision-making processes. We are fully supportive of the enhanced focus on fan engagement under the Premier League’s Fan Engagement Standard and will continue working with them, and our fellow clubs, to improve and strengthen the standard.

When the club, players and fans come together we really are an unstoppable force (as we saw at Wembley on 12 and 25 May). Thank you for your incredible support and I look forward to seeing you all next season.

Collette Roche,

Chief Operating Officer and NBLO for Fan Engagement.

Find out how you can contact us, here.