Tom Gorringe has hailed the team effort behind the scenes at Bristol Rovers after the club made it into the top 10 in the Fan Engagement Index for the first time.
The index, created by Think Fan Engagement, grades Premier League and EFL clubs on dialogue with fans, transparency and governance. The first rankings in 2018/19 placed Rovers a lowly 83rd out of the 92 clubs with a zero rating for transparency, which served to be something of a reality check to decision-makers at the Mem.
The following year, they rose rapidly to 18th in the table and last year saw them reach 11th. In this year's rankings, published earlier this week, Rovers share 10th place with Championship side Reading.
The top end of the rankings features several fan-owned clubs, including first-placed Exeter City and third-placed AFC Wimbledon. Bristol City are 22nd and Everton are the top Premier League club in 23rd, while Newcastle United, Rotherham United and Hartlepool United make up the bottom three.
Gas CEO Gorringe is proud of the work that has been done by his staff to improve connectivity with the fanbase, which has seen the relationship with Bristol Rovers Supporters' Club improved and fan representatives Helen Wigmore and Stephen Lamble have joined the board.
The club also took the step last month to publish a summary of board minutes, which gave fans an insight into the latest matters behind the scenes and revealed plans for a new stand at the Mem.
"After the first rankings came out, it was a full review of how we were operating, how we were communicating with supporters, transparency and the club operations and a review of how we can engage more and do things properly," he told Bristol Live.
"We've been on a bit of a journey and made quite a lot of changes and each year we have seen incremental improvements in our scores. Last year, we were really pleased to have moved right up to just outside of the top 10 and this year, we've snuck in on alphabetical order.
"There have been loads of individual changes, lots of stuff people won't realise, lots of stuff that people might notice. A lot of it is about interaction. We're trying to be as open and transparent as we can and we try to communicate everything that is going on at the club regularly.
"We've taken that one step further this year by publishing the board minutes publicly, which I think has been well received and has given an indication of how we operate as a football club and what items were being discussed. It gives all supporters that insight.
"There have been quite a few changes, a lot of work has gone into it and, ultimately, we want to be an open and transparent club that is engaging with the fanbase and having a dialogue on ways we can improve and looking to plans into action to do that. It's a really important metric for us to gauge where we are and how we are operating.
"There is a lot of hard work that goes into it. Ultimately, what this takes is a big team effort of everybody pulling together and looking at the way we're operating and trying to find ways to do things better. I think that is what has led to this point.
"If you look at the rankings, the top handful of teams are all fan-owned and if you are fan-owned, you have a real advantage because a lot of the metrics are things that happen ordinarily in your day-to-day governance. It's a lot harder for clubs that aren't fan owned to really make a dent into the top 10, so for us to be in that group and be mentioned publicly for it, it's really positive to be recognised in that way.
"It is something we want to continue with and keep progressing and keep improving our scores year-on-year."
Kevin Rye, owner of Think Fan Engagement, named the Gas as one of the clubs in the EFL has embraced improving engagement with supporters.
“The Fan Engagement Index was created as a positive way to make clubs take Fan Engagement more seriously, with an ambition to place it at the centre of everything they do," he said. "I’m not convinced we’re there yet, as can be seen by too many clubs still not – publicly at least – meeting fairly basic standards of engagement with their fans.
“But we know huge change is possible. You only have to look at Swindon Town under Clem Morfuni and Rob Angus to see it can be done. It’s not a matter of size, it’s a matter of willingness. They chose to embrace fan engagement at the heart of their business model, and it’s paying off. The same can be said of clubs like Bradford City and Bristol Rovers. Both were languishing towards the bottom of the table in 2018/2019, but now they’re comfortably amongst the best twenty clubs in the country.”
Gorringe recognises the club can still improve in this regard and he says staff will focus on continuing their work to improve communication.
"We're going to have to review the results," he added. "Members of our team have been in discussion with the guys that run the index to get a real understanding of what we can do better.
"Ultimately, a lot of it is about not just communication of things we're doing right but also sharing that. There are a lot of good things that we do day to day naturally in all of our roles across the club to make it better.
"What we don't do is shout about it or publish it somewhere where it is publicly accessible, so we need to do a bit more of that, but the main thing really is to continue to review how we're operating and all of our performances critically and look for ways to improve."
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