The future of the Italian stadiums: an empirical analysis

Italian stadiums have always been associated to unsafe, dirty and uncomfortable places for people. Due to this bad perception of the stadiums, many people prefer to watch the game at home or in some bars with a maxi screen.
Parents are scared to bring their children to the stadiums. In the Italian stadium the frequency attendance of children is very low. The structures don’t have any services or products that could host any type of children (in the questionnaire the voice “facilities for fans to bring children” was ranked 2.06 out of 9). It is important to completely re-think the Italian structures in order to increase the frequency and length of customers’ visit and stay in the stadiums.
Through the analyses conducted seems that the general average attendance to the stadiums had a slight decrease during the years. The respondents explained this decline in terms of high distance to the stadium, not comfortable, old and unsafe structures.
In Italy, in the next years it will be important to change these stadiums perceptions. New stadiums may be based on a “family-business” model where different segments can be satisfied during the weekends; a polyvalent stadium that could increase families’ presences and the “business” of the clubs.
From the study of each cluster of fans found in the analyzed sample, it is possible to suggest approaches and plans that clubs could use to attract and keep current and new customers.
- Actual satisfaction: Peppery fans
This cluster of population is formed by people who gave medium satisfaction values to the services/ products of the current Italian stadiums. These people are quite satisfied with the actual stadiums atmosphere (fan safety, behaviour of the people around you and match atmosphere). This cluster, includes people have an above frequency range attendance. Hence clubs could do only a few things to attract more this type of fans. People in this cluster usually possess an annual subscription to the stadium. Clubs should create more fidelity programs to increase the annual subscrition in order to boost their revenues. With some little modification to the actual stadiums, members of this cluster would be very happy of these renewal and may increase their already high attendance.
- Actual satisfaction: Slowcoach fans
The fans in this cluster don’t like the Italian stadiums. They don’t go to the stadium because they perceive stadiums as unsafe and uncomfortable. They prefer to stay at home with the family or do other things (shopping and sports). This cluster is also formed by many old people and housewives. People in this cluster expressed low level of satisfaction with the “stadium product” and have a low level of attendance.
But with some new comfort, services and products, this fans may increase their annual frequency. New stadiums could increment the attendance of children, women and families. Family and children could visit the mall and shop before and after the match. When the match starts the father with the children could go to see the game while the mother could visit other shops or have a massage in the fitness centre outside the stadium. Teams should work on this cluster because they can increase the current customer base. It would be important to create some promotion, packages and discount for increasing the willingness of this cluster to visit the stadium. Clubs could create some fidelity programs like selling ticket packages; packages with the ticket of the game, some discount for the peripheral services and other benefits for the children of the family.