The Trust have been running surveys after each home game so far this season, and reporting any concerns to the club. As part of this process, as soon as the club receive the feedback from the survey, it is immediately passed on to each of the relevant people to allow the maximum amount of time to action the concerns from supporters.
As part of that, a number of key concerns have been raised repeatedly by supporters to the club via the Trust. We fed this information back to the club and fourteen minutes after emailing the club, we were invited down to discuss our findings:
Toilets
There were a number of concerns raised about the toilets around the ground. It was noted that one of the Gents’ toilets in the Pearl Street Stand has been closed, there was a lack of locks on the toilets in the Female toilets in the same stand, and there were a few complaints about the smell of the toilets in the Main Stand.
There was an electrical fire in the toilet in the Pearl Street toilets on the morning of the Peterborough game which led to extensive damage. The club managed to get the urinals opened in time for the Walsall home game, but were unable to open the cubicles. Replacements parts have been ordered that will arrive later this week, and they should be fully operational in time for the Barnsley game. The toilets will still need to be repainted, but that will happen sooner rather than later.
Public Address
Concerns have been raised about the quality of the public address system. In areas around the ground, it is incredibly loud, whilst in others it is inaudible. The majority of those expressing concern stated that they found it difficult to hear themselves due to the loudness of the tannoy.
Following comments raised in pre-season, the club have fully soundtested the volume levels of the tannoy system. The volume has been adjusted in all three home stands, with the Pearl Street and Main Stand having their sound turned down, with the Sandy Lane speakers being turned up. There remains a further problem with the sound levels in the Willbutts Lane terrace, and the club are looking at bringing out an engineer to deal with this in the next few weeks.
Smoking
A number of complaints have been received regarding the smoking area in the Dale Bar. Whilst it is available before and after games, smoking is banned at half time when supporters walk through that area to reach the Dale Bar.
The main issue comes from the Football League insisting upon fully non smoking stadia. The matter will be taken to the Board of Directors, and will be discussed in greater detail at the next Trust meeting with the directors.
Rubbish Bins
There is a lack of rubbish bins in the Sandy lane end.
Bins have been returned to the Sandy Lane terrace and were present at Tuesday’s fixture with Walsall. The club are also looking at increasing the number of bins around the ground to improve the cleanliness of the ground.
Kiosks
Several supporters have raised the recent price increases at the kiosks, and the lack of stock available. A number of issues have been raised regarding the Peterborough game, and the lack of cold drinks that were on sale at the Sandy lane kiosk in the last two home games.
There has been no price increases on any food items at the kiosks. Food items have remained at the same price for the past four seasons, and this has led to the club being championed on TV recently as having the cheapest pies in the whole of the 92 professional clubs. Furthermore, the club are extremely confident that they will retain this award this season. There has been a change in price in one item that was introduced at a trial price at £2.50 last season and has now reverted to its normal price of £3. The only price increases have come for the Hot Chocolate and Bovril. In both cases, this has been as a direct result of price increases by suppliers.
The club were alerted to a fault with the cold drinks machine in the Sandy Lane kiosk at the Peterborough game. The machine is owned by Coca-Cola, who were called out to fix the machine. Unfortunately, they were unable to do this in time for the Coventry home game. Despite assurances that the machine had been fixed, the same problems occurred on the day of the Walsall home game. The club have insisted that this is being addressed and will be fixed before the Barnsley game.
The club have admitted that bottled water should be available in all kiosks, and will ensure that this will happen from the next home fixture. They had been on sale in two out of the three stands, but the club will ensure that this will happen in all stands in time for the next fixture. Equally, they were concerned at reports of stock running out early on a matchday, and will look to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
Turnstiles
There has been issues with queues entering the ground at the Sandy Lane end of the ground. Normally there are three out of the four turnstiles open – one for adult, one for concessions and one for under sixteens. This invariably leads to lengthy queues at the adult turnstiles. This is increased further during Cup games where season ticket holders cannot use either of the other two turnstiles. Several supporters missed the kick off at the Coventry game due to queues when there was less than 2000 supporters in attendance.
The issues tend to come with the late comers to the game. The club have stated that any supporter concerned with queues can avoid this problem by purchasing tickets for the game either at the ticket office or online. Supporters with tickets can use any turnstile on a matchday and avoid any queues. For the bigger games, the club will do their best to ensure that there are two adult turnstiles available. The club have asked supporters to do their bit to avoid the queues by either purchasing tickets in advance or arriving earlier to avoid congestion in the few minutes approaching kick off.
Away turnstile
An issue has been raised by an away supporter regarding adults and children being separated at the away turnstiles due to having to go through different turnstiles. Can anything be done to prevent similar situations happening again?
The club are very clear on the official website about this “Separate turnstiles apply to Adults and Concessions but the club recognises that some adults may wish to have their children go through the same turnstile, to accommodate this club requests that the adult purchases a ticket for their child from the ticket office.” This information is provided to all League One clubs before the start of the season, and it is sent to all clubs preceding their game at Spotland. However, the club recognise that this information is not always passed on by other clubs to their supporters. The stewards at the Willbutts Lane turnstiles have been briefed with regard to this. However, on the day when this was an issue, the club were using contract stewards at that part of the ground. The club will make sure that anyone stewarding on that part of the ground is fully versed in the club’s procedures to ensure this does not happen again.
Blackpool game
Whilst it was not flagged up as part of the matchday survey, we discussed the ticketing arrangements at Blackpool that led to a number of Dale supporters not being able to gain entry to the away end due to it being sold out. As things stand, the only fixture that could possibly lead to something similar this season is the fixture at Fleetwood. Whilst at the meeting, Fleetwood were contacted and informed of what happened at Blackpool. As such, they have stated that they can accommodate up to a maximum of 1,350 Dale supporters at this game. The game is not being made all ticket for Dale supporters, but tickets will be on sale from the club for this game soon. As part of the advance sale of tickets, the club have said that they will ensure that Dale supporters are all kept up to date with how many tickets have been sold throughout the period when they are on sale to avoid any late panic.
The club have thanked all supporters for their feedback so far. In addition to things being actioned with each survey, the club will be holding Family Excellence / Customer Care meetings throughout the season. This will be football specific and will involve all aspects of the club meeting to discuss what improvements can be made with the club. The feedback from this will be utilised as part of those meetings.
Furthermore, the club hold monthly Stadium Operation meetings. These meetings are as their name suggests to discuss all matters related to the stadium and will include everyone that uses any aspect of the stadium such as the Football Club, Football in the Community, the Bars and Rochdale Hornets. Again, the feedback from these surveys will be taken to these meetings with a view to improving all aspects of the running of the stadium, whether that be from a maintenance or a H+S perspective.
Average ratings from survey:
Ratings based on 1=Poor 2=Unsatisfactory 3=Satisfactory 4=Good 5=Excellent