The Shrimpers Trust is pleased to release the results from the January edition of its monthly survey for members on matters relating to Southend United FC and the Trust’s operations.

The Trust believes engagement with supporters is crucial to being able to represent fans’ views accurately, providing a mandate for the Board to make informed decisions, especially when liaising with other key stakeholders.

This is the third edition during the 2023/24 season after a break to allow supporters to complete a more wide-ranging consultation released by the Trust in the autumn, and then the club’s own supporters’ survey in December.

This edition included the following questions:

Q1 What is your current feeling about the future of Southend United FC?
Q2 Which of the following Shrimpers Trust events have you attended in the past 5 years?
Q3 What factor has the greatest influence on whether you attend a Shrimpers Trust event?
Q4 How regularly do you watch Southend United Ladies?
Q5 How likely would you describe yourself to watch a Southend United Ladies match if one was arranged to take place at Roots Hall?

All adult members were contacted by email on Tuesday 16th January 2024 with the five multiple choice questions for the survey, and were provided with seven days to respond with their answers. A follow-up email was sent to those members that had not provided answers by Saturday 20th January 2024.

With a record 577 respondents to the survey, from 1469 invitations, we have again been able to gain a good understanding of the feeling of Trust members about the questions posed in this survey. The percentage representation of adult Trust members responding to the survey remained at around 40%. Thank-you to everyone that participated in this consultation.

There was a clear indication that the majority of Shrimpers Trust members (over 98% of respondents) were optimistic about the future of the football club. Only 4 of the 576 respondents to this question were pessimistic in their outlook.

In relation to Shrimpers Trust events, there was a clear indication that there is work to do for the Trust Board to engage with what members would like in this regard, with 78.30% of respondents not having attended any of the current offerings in the past five years. There were three key themes in terms of the key factor influencing the attendance of survey respondents at Shrimpers Trust events. These were Distance, Date/Time and Interest.

Over 90% of respondents had never attended a Southend United Ladies match, with only 13 describing themselves as regular spectators. However, there was a clear indication that a one-off fixture at Roots Hall would be better-supported, with 261 respondents (over 45%) stating they would be likely to attend such a match.

Full results and analysis from this and previous surveys can be found by clicking on the appropriate link below.

We welcome any questions Trust members would like to set out to the fanbase, please do get in touch with us if there is something you’d like to see put to the members. We look forward to continuing this process and diving deeper into what makes us tick and what we want to see for our club, furthering the long tradition of vocal, informed supporters of Southend United.