As the club wants everyone who visits the stadium to have the best possible matchday, ahead of the new campaign, every supporter who had attended a fixture at Molineux last season was emailed and invited to take part in an online survey to express their feelings and help improve the fan experience.
Dave Wood, fan services manager, said: “The survey provided the club with lots of useful information, feedback and suggestions to help shape matchdays moving forwards.
“We have already begun to implement many of the suggestions raised by supporters and remain committed to implementing a matchday experience that can be enjoyed by fans of all demographics.”
And while the survey showed fans were unanimous on certain aspects of the matchday experience, there were other areas where supporters had differing views and tastes as to what they enjoyed or would like to see more of at Molineux.
Goal music
The aspect of matchday which caused the most amount of healthy debate among supporters during the 2021/22 season was goal music.
Initially introduced during the behind closed doors fixtures that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, ‘L’amour Toujours’ also paid homage to the club’s Europa League run where the song was adopted following the trip to Barcelona where Wolves faced Espanyol in the last 32 of the competition.
After discussions with the players, who enjoyed the song being played after scoring in the behind closed-doors fixtures, the music was continued at their request throughout 2021/22. The club has received a range of mixed feedback on goal music last season, with some supporters enjoying it and others not.
The survey results reflected that feedback, with 55 per cent of fans stating they enjoyed the current goal music and 45 per cent of fans stating they didn’t. In addition, 60 per cent of fans said they would not be in favour of using a different choice of song for goal music. Due to this feedback, L’amour Toujours has been and will continue to be played after goals are scored at Molineux during the 2022/23 season.
The use of goal music will be reviewed once again next year and decisions will be made based on fan feedback.
In-stadium entertainment
Supporters gave more unanimous feedback when it came to the pre-match flames and light show, with 94 per cent of fans enjoying the events which help build the atmosphere ahead of kick-off. From the thousands of responses, 91 per cent of supporters thought the light show added to the pre-match atmosphere, and 82 per cent felt the pitch side flames did the same.
The club will work with the matchday experience focus group to ensure that these displays stay fresh and continue to add to the pre-match atmosphere.
New in-stadium aspects have already been added to a Molineux matchday for the 2022/23 season, with the introduction of a ‘Fan Cam’ and the lucky seat competitions where a seat in the ground is selected at random and the supporter who is located in that seat can win prizes courtesy of Nando’s.
Another new addition to the half-time entertainment is the AstroPay ‘O What a Shot’ game, which has given supporters the chance to grace the hallowed turf of Molineux and take a shot from 18 yards out to be in with the chance of winning cash prizes.
Charlie Johnson, marketing manager, said: “With regards to everything the club does on a matchday, it is all carried out in consultation with our matchday experience focus group which is made up of supporters from various backgrounds.
“We meet with them an average of three times a season and they have been extremely important in everything we have done. It was their decision to introduce a Fan Zone outside the stadium on matchdays as well as rebranding the subway. We’ve had meetings with them about the pre-match routine and we’ve worked with them on crowd displays and the banners that were installed around Molineux during the games played behind closed doors.
“Any ideas we do have, we make sure we run by them. We have a very active WhatsApp group where they can suggest anything to us and also give us feedback on the spot. If there are any changes that are taking place on matchday, such as if we wanted to change the music, we make sure they are aware first.
“Ahead of this season, one of the areas the focus group wanted to improve was our interaction with fans both pre-match and at half-time, and we’ve already implemented new aspects to our matchday experience inside the stadium, including the introduction of Fan Cam, lucky seat and the AstroPay game. We’re hoping to meet with the focus group again during the winter break and review how the new aspects have gone and how they think we can change it and improve.”
Molineux Fan Zone
Another popular addition to matchday in recent seasons was the introduction of the Molineux Fan Zone, which is housed permanently before and after every first-team match at the stadium next to the Sir Jack Hayward statue in the Wanderer Car Park, behind the South Bank.
Hosted by MC Dicky Dodd, the Fan Zone helps to build the atmosphere ahead of kick-off, while resident DJ Edd Cooke also keeps crowds entertained. There are several food and drink outlets are available, competitions for supporters to take part in and former players head down to meet supporters and answer their burning questions.
From those supporters who took part in the survey, just under 35 per cent of participants had visited the Fan Zone since its launch back in late 2019. The Fan Zone received plenty of positive feedback, with comments saying they enjoyed the atmosphere, the interviews with former players, and the food, drink and live music, while more than 87 per cent of supporters said they would visit the Fan Zone again.
Junior supporters
As the club is inclusive to all and wants the matchday experience at Molineux to be as welcoming as possible to people of all ages, another area which the survey focused on was the experience of junior supporters.
From the hundreds of responses of adult supporters who have accompanied a junior supporter to a matchday at Molineux last season, an average rating of their experience came out as 7.28 out of 10.
The games for young supporters in the Fan Zone and Wolfie and Wendy’s interaction with fans were praised in the survey, while supporters felt there were still improvements to be made, especially when it came to the food availability within the Family Area concourse.
This is an area which the club acted on over the summer, with the introduction of a specialist section of the Billy Wright Lower Stand concourse called ‘Wolfie’s Sweet Treats’ which has increased the range of treats available for junior supporters.
Johnson added: “This season, one of the big areas where the matchday experience focus group have asked us to do improve was in regards to the Fan Zone and especially around our junior fans.
“We are currently in the planning process of bringing a bigger junior element to the Fan Zone later this season. We have submitted planning permission on lots of exciting new features which we hope will make the matchday experience even better for our young supporters.”
Other matchday aspects
The survey also covered other areas of the matchday experience for supporters included travelling to the stadium, parking, arrival times and branding, all of which will help guide the club to aspects of the matchday experience which could be improved as the season progresses.
Russell Jones, general manager of marking and commercial growth, said: “For us as Wolves fans, watching the team play at Molineux is a something we all look forwards to, and we know how coming to the stadium for a matchday plays an extremely important role in all our supporters’ lives and that is why we’re constantly looking to improve the matchday experience.
“We have worked very closely with the matchday experience focus group during the past few years and they have played a key role in many of the changes and improvements we have made, whether that is outside or inside Molineux, on a matchday.
“I want to thank everyone who took the time to complete our matchday experience survey, as getting feedback from those who attend Wolves home matches is the best way that we can make matchdays at Molineux as special as possible for everyone.”
A full breakdown of the results of the matchday experience supporter survey:
