Chairman’s Fan Advisory Board update

Good afternoon Clarets,

N.B. This update was first published across our social media channels a couple of weeks ago, but I have made some changes with additional information that has since come to light.

Thanks again to those who submitted questions and queries to be posed at the first Fan Advisory Board (FAB) meeting of the 2024/25 campaign. I tried to broach as many of the popular themes as possible and hope this write-up provides some answers that fans are looking for. Apologies if any issues slipped through the cracks and let me know if you’d like anything followed up in the September meeting of the group.

Before we move on. Yes, I like the third kit. No, I don’t like the monochrome badge and yes, I wish the fans had been consulted. Without any further ado, to the questions.

Have we stopped reciprocal away ticket pricing?

No. Burnley FC have offered reciprocal £30 ticket pricing for all 23 fellow Championship clubs for the coming season – just as was the case with our last Championship campaign. 13 clubs have accepted this offer to date, two clubs have declined and there is an expectation within the Championship that a price cap will be accepted by a majority of clubs in the near future.

What is the reasoning for stopping the Tickets for Troops scheme, as well as Blue Light card tickets?

The Tickets for Troops scheme was brought to a halt by Burnley FC quite a while ago, this is not a new thing. The decision was made because the take-up was very low and with tickets set aside, it often led to spare seats going to waste on matchdays. The Club is clear that it still supports local veterans and this can be seen in the work of Burnley FC in the Community. In terms of the Blue Light discount, I note there is a Facebook post advertising this in July 2015, but as far as the Club is concerned, this discount has never been offered.

What is happening with the Ticketmaster issues?

Some of the teething issues with Ticketmaster were exclusive to Burnley FC, however, many were linked to nationwide problems resulting from the CrowdStrike outage. The Club are confident that all issues – including choosing whether to post or collect tickets – have now been resolved. I should note that fellow Clarets Trust board member Joe Skinner raised an issue with purchasing disabled tickets for away fixtures and the ticket office will be looking into this.

Are there plans for season tickets to be addable to mobile phone wallets in the future?

Per an email from Burnley Football Club:

Season Ticket holders can now download tickets to their smartphone for each fixture. You can do this by following the instructions on the below link. Please note that once a ticket has been downloaded the physical season card won’t work for that fixture.

Link: https://www.eticketing.co.uk/burnleyfc/Common/CustomPage/Index/5

To note, all home fixtures for walk-on supporters are digital – but a physical copy can be requested if required.

Have the Club taken onboard the genuine concern regarding the high prices of walk-on tickets?

Short answer, yes. Has that brought about a decrease in pricing? No, not as of yet. For those who have seen it, I hope the small clip of a previous FAB meeting in Mission to Burnley (S2, E1) shows that we do our best to hold the Club to account and represent the views of the wider fanbase. So let me tell you, on this point, strong views were expressed by FAB members, raising the struggles of the local community in the cost of living crisis. This is not a topic that is going away and I hope the FAB will continue to push back if and when ticket price increases appear unjustified.

The Club weren’t blind to the backlash on social media regarding the £55 Portsmouth tickets, be rest assured. For the sake of clarity, around 42 of 700 walk-on tickets for each category A game are priced over £50 and these are for the seats designated as the most premium (based on location). Half of the walk-on tickets are priced at under £40. I’ll leave you to debate whether this pricing is fair or not, but those are the details.

Are there plans to introduce the Ticket Exchange for the Cricket Field Stand in the future?

As it stands, the Ticket Exchange system does not extend to the Cricket Field Stand due to long-standing issues with the behaviour of a small minority of supporters in this area. The priority is ensuring fan, player and staff safety and this is also the reason why walk-on tickets are not available in this stand. However, the Club knows this is a gripe for fans and will be reviewing the policy in the coming season, but noted that any Ticket Exchange for the CFS would have to be monitored closely to ensure that there are no fan behaviour issues, which only serve to punish the vast majority of well-behaved supporters in that area.

On this topic, the Club will be doing comms work to emphasise the importance of the Ticket Exchange system – especially given the small number of available walk-on tickets. The Club has been keen to reserve as many seats as possible for season ticket holders, but it is not uncommon for up to 4/5,000 season ticket holders to no-show games, which ain’t great.

Sorry, I forgot to raise the valid concern regarding selling all walk-on tickets in one block at the start of the season. This favours touts and the wealthy, to my mind. But if those ST holders who aren’t planning on attending make better use of the Ticket Exchange, hopefully, this will be one solution for fans who have missed out on purchasing walk-ons.

Does the Club accept that communication can be better when it comes to away fixtures?

Yes is the answer. We agreed that it is in the fans’ best interest for the Club to publicise the allocation given for all away fixtures when tickets are released. There was also discussion on better use of social media to publicise sale dates and sell-out status. I think it’s worth noting – as I didn’t realise – there isn’t much if any flexibility on away allocations in the Championship. Because most clubs don’t sell out their home fixtures, more often than not they will give Burnley the full allocation that is available and won’t financially punish us if we fail to sell out that number.

There have been initial discussions with that lot down the road… There is a confidence that we won’t be in the same situation as last time and we will get a healthy allocation. Obviously, nothing has been confirmed yet on that, but fingers crossed.

How can fans overseas follow games live this season? iFollow is said to have stopped domestically – presumably because of the Sky deal – but will it still be available to fans abroad?

iFollow was an opt-in service. Because Burnley use our streaming platform – Clarets+ – we don’t use iFollow for home fixtures. Obviously, iFollow was used by other clubs and this would be a way of watching our away fixtures in the past, but it is not yet clear whether iFollow will continue for international supporters. Domestically, iFollow has been squashed by the new Sky Sports+ deal that will see at least 20 games broadcast for each member of the Football League (I believe).

For our domestic supporters, the home games that are on Sky Sports cannot be streamed live on Clarets+. Despite the lack of live video coverage, all games will have live commentary available for international supporters on Clarets+.

For the international audience, per the Club website:

Each game will be available on a match-by-match basis and will be charged at £10 per game. We will share with you which games are available in your area as soon as the information is made available to us from the EFL.

If you require any support issues please contact burnleytv@streamamg.com

Basically, international supporters will be able to watch most games on Clarets+, I believe, except for the occasions when a relevant broadcaster has the rights to the game in your territory. There is no season pass available and instead, the Club are charging £10 per game on Clarets+, where the stream will begin 15 minutes before each game.

Would it be possible to add a few TV screens to the Bob Lord so that supporters without a view of the big screen can remain in the loop on substitutions etc?

This is on what was termed the ‘capital expenditure list,’ but it is lower down the list of priorities than other investments. 96% of Turf seats currently have an eyeline of the big screens, but the Club were keen to continue to make use of the LED strips to provide updates for those with restricted views.

What improvements have been made by Levy UK to improve catering on the concourses for the upcoming season? A layout change has been suggested for the Cricket Field Stand, which would see alcohol served outside and food served inside, therefore saving children from having to push past the beer queue for the toilet or a pie.

There will be new food items trialled in certain areas of Turf Moor through the opening months of the season, whilst reusable cups are being introduced as a permanent measure. To help with congestion in the upper tiers, additional beer lines have been opened and this situation will be monitored to see how it goes. Unfortunately, the upper tiers are not large enough to house mobile ordering units (which are in place downstairs), but an additional mobile dispensation unit (for beers) is being placed outside the Cricket Field Stand, in the hopes of reducing congestion inside. This extra unit was not planned to be in place for the first game of the season.

Now, for the bad news. There are going to be price increases. Again, this is something the FAB has expressed concerns about for many months now. This is a result of cost increases by the suppliers and is hopefully something that can be addressed once certain legacy contracts come to their end… After displeasure was expressed at yet more cost increases, the Club confirmed that for some items – pies, for example – the cost increase is less than the increase in cost from the suppliers. In effect, the Club has swallowed some of the cost increase. This is bad news though, there is no getting away from it.

Does the Club plan on accepting applications to join the Fan Advisory Board at any point this season? There has been concern raised that non-season ticket holders should be represented.

It is possible, yes. There are open spaces on the FAB which can be filled and the FAB members recommended that applications be welcomed by the Club this season. For the sake of clarity, despite what the website says, not all members of the current FAB are season ticket holders. That error on the Club website is going to be fixed. Additionally, Burnley’s FAB was by far the largest in the Premier League, in terms of the number of members.

Does the Club think it was appropriate to adopt the monochrome badge design on the home kit without prior fan consultations?

Speaking from a Clarets Trust perspective, we polled our members earlier this week and found that only 7% were in favour of the change to a monochrome badge on the home kit, with 63% opposed. The rest were a combination of ‘I don’t mind’ and ‘Undecided.’ Equally, 68% of our respondents believed there should have been consultation before a change was made, with 12% believing it to have been within the Club’s right and 7% saying that this was fine, but further changes should require consultation (9% voted ‘I don’t mind’). Therefore, the official position of the Clarets Trust is that of opposition to the change, with a strong belief that the Club should have consulted fans before a change was made.

To their credit, Burnley FC have agreed that for any substantial (non-colour) changes to the official club badge, fan consultation would be a requirement. As for the response to this question at the FAB meeting, the Club clarified that after discussions with the Football Association, they were assured that no consultation was required of them for a change of colour to the official badge. This is the rebuttal, so to speak, but I would be doing the Club a disservice if I didn’t mention their belief in the new monochrome design.

It is not a change that has been made to spite the fans. The Club believes that the monochrome badge better represents the identity of Burnley FC as ‘the Clarets,’ whilst its simplicity offers them an advantage in breaking into new markets and furthering their global strategy. Thus far, only a handful of complaints have been lobbied to the Club and sales of the new home shirt went well.

The Club did agree to continue to assess fan reaction as the season unfolds, so the floor is open for feedback.

Closing comments

Some of the criticism of the FAB is justified. I have long been vocal about the need for greater transparency regarding meetings, opening a two-way dialogue and strengthening the link between Burnley FC and supporters groups – something that has weakened over the past couple of years.

However, I feel strongly that these issues are being addressed for the coming season and I do hope that this will instil some faith in the merits of the FAB among the fanbase. Though needless to say, the proof will be in the pudding!

I welcomed the introduction of a lengthy Q&A at the first FAB meeting of the season, which allowed us the opportunity to put forward all of these questions from supporters. That being said, the merits of the roundtable remain and a couple of areas stood out to me.

First off, the FAB has not been shy in pointing out the disconnect between fans and the Club during the last campaign. The turnover of our Championship-winning squad was ill-advised, the new players felt further away from the fans than ever and supporter engagement could have been improved. These points were all taken onboard by the Club and I was particularly pleased to hear that Scott Parker has been incredibly keen to see his players play a big role in the community.

Over the coming months, there will be opportunities for meet and greets with the players, an autograph pen will be introduced at Turf Moor for player arrivals and many of this season’s ball boys have been recruited from Burnley College. These 16/17-year-olds have been down to the training ground to perform their role in training and get some face-to-face time with the first team squad. These are the little things which were missing for me, last season.

Finally, I am proud of the determination of the Club and the FAB to make Turf Moor a more welcoming and safe community for female supporters. At the last meeting in the spring, there was incredibly moving testimony delivered by some of those in attendance and this problem was immediately made a priority by Alan Pace. It is not for me to repeat what was said, but this was a matter brought to light by the FAB and taken incredibly seriously by the Club. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to continue the dialogue on this subject and I am looking forward to the various plans being rolled out.

Reyt, if you’ve made it this far – been a quiet Wednesday has it? Thanks to everyone who got in touch with questions, I really hope you’ve been able to take something positive away from this. I’m always available at claretstrust@gmail.com if you want to discuss things further. The next Fan Advisory Board meeting is scheduled for early September and I’m all ears for thoughts, concerns or feedback. Let’s make this FAB work, eh?

UTC and kind regards,
George Poole