Everton's vision to be more than a club

Everton's vision to be more than a club 
  

Ambitious drive of management to set Blues apart

Barcelona embrace the concept so seriously that it forms their motto.

‘Mes que un club’ – more than a club – is the notion that a professional football club can somehow have a wider impact in its community beyond the business of players competing in front of thousands of impassioned spectators every weekend.

That vision of a club which develops a greater, more profound significance for the people in its area is part of Robert Elstone’s vision for Everton.

It’s also what he feels sets Everton apart and makes the club special.

Unashamedly, a local focus aimed very clearly at making Blues on Merseyside proud of their club.

With yet another haul of accolades in the bag for the Blues’ ground-breaking Everton in the Community charity (EITC), Elstone believes that aspect of his ambitions is well on track.

While the Toffees chief executive insists that results on the pitch must always be at the heart of everything the club does, he is justifiably proud of their strides in helping Merseyside people.

Everton are ahead of the rest in the UK when it comes to their charity work, and while the plan is to get Roberto Martinez’s team into similarly peerless territory, the 49-year-old explains that bringing fans closer to their club is also a priority.

“I had the privilege of talking to the community team at a celebratory breakfast after one of our many awards recently,” says Elstone, in his modest Goodison office.

“I told them that for me the most important thing we can do is to grow our fan-base. If we’re successful, we will have built a great platform to grow our club.

“Of course, I’m always looking for ways to do that, and we all know that the most powerful way to do that is on the field; to have a great manager, great players, home grown players, players who win games in style.

“Aside from Roberto and his team, perhaps Everton in the Community can make a difference? Can make fans proud; can grow our fan-base? We think so.

“EITC is our way of telling the world what the club is all about. And I’m sure it’s succeeding in bringing Evertonians closer to their club.

“There are no boundaries to what they can do and where they can go. I want Everton on every high street, in every school. Our community team has a mandate to keep growing and keep dominating.”

Elstone recalls how his passion for community engagement stemmed from his early days in rugby league and working with sports without the scale and commercial pulling power of football.

“I’d done a lot of work across other clubs and leagues before I joined Everton,” he says. “My first foray into sport was in rugby league and community marketing there was very prominent and powerful which is why I was a big advocate of community involvement from day one.

“I inherited a solid programme at Everton with a good reputation. But I was keen from the outset to remove any constraints and challenge the team to cover the whole city. Our objective was always to grow the number of beneficiaries, participants, staff and volunteers.

“The arrival of Denise (Barrett-Baxendale, EITC chief executive) was the spark. I’d found somebody with the drive, expertise and determination to deliver a vision. I’m very grateful to her for that leadership. I’m grateful for her expanding that vision.”

Even in the build-up to a Merseyside derby, many Liverpool fans will admit their admiration for EITC, and Elstone believes the charity is a huge way to promote Everton in contrast to other clubs who target other fans and different objectives.

“I hope no-one thinks it’s tokenism or it’s just touchy-feely PR. It’s the central plank of our marketing strategy. It’s how we separate ourselves from our rivals,” he says.

“Many football clubs have a long history and a passionate fan-base, but no other club can demonstrate a truly genuine connection to its community like ours. It’s what makes us unique and different. It’s how we live and breathe being the People’s Club.”

His off-the-field vision for the club is built on four very clear and very solid cornerstones; ever-improving knowledge of the fan base, bringing fans closer to the club by being a better listener and allowing fans to participate, improving ways to buy from the club, and providing exciting and memorable matchdays.

“Our ultimate objective is success on the field – to be a regular contender for European football every season,” he says.

“To do that we have to be better than our rivals at developing, buying and selling players. And we need to provide the chairman and manager with the best possible tools to do that job and do it better than anybody else. But the focus on the four cornerstones is important too. Being better informed at every level, to be easier to buy from as a club, listening to our fans and engaging them – allowing them to participate and be more approachable. We want to be the best listeners in the Premier League.

“We want to give them the best match day experience too. We know that fans will judge the experience based on the result and performance of the team but maybe there are other elements? What we’ve had over the past two years is a team of people tasked with making match days better; with more opportunities to get involved; more opportunities for fun.

“I know the title ‘memorable match day’ feels a bit ‘American’ so forgive me for using that parlance, but we want fans to enjoy their experience at Goodison. To be entertained, feel welcomed, be appreciated.

“We regularly sit down and debate how brave we’re prepared to be. We look at other stadia and events and sometimes squirm at one or two things they do.

“And be ready, one of these days we might be too brave and fans will have to pull us back in and say ‘don’t do that again’ and if we do then we will backtrack. But we will keep trying things. We will keep pushing though because we want to make it special. It’s about making fans want to come back next week.”

Elstone is also keen to emphasise the importance of a club which is prepared to accept criticism from its supporters in order to improve.

“I’m trying to build a culture that embraces constructive criticism,” he says. “Like any organisation when it’s criticised there is a tendency to deal with it locally and keep heads down. I’m not saying that culture exists at Everton but we should seek out feedback more regularly and make it even easier for fans to tell us what they think.

“I was driving to work a few years ago and listened to the CEO of a budget airline on the radio who said the first thing he did was move the customer service department to the room directly outside his office.

“It was his way of getting a finger on the pulse of what was working and what wasn’t. That struck a chord with me.

“I’ve emphasised in blogs that I’ll meet fans individually with the only proviso, it needs to be constructive and in good spirit.”

The Barnsley-born former accountant is frequently happy to chat to fans he meets en-route to games.

“I’ve had a few good chats over the years,” he says. “As some fans know when I’m in London I tend to travel by train. I was sat at Upton Park a few weeks ago, with a quarter of an hour to go thinking I wasn’t looking forward to the tube ride back, and, lo and behold Leighton stepped up. The journey home was transformed.

“Chelsea, in the FA Cup, was probably the best. I was on the platform at Fulham Broadway doing what I so rarely have the opportunity to do – I was a fan and proud to be a Blue.”

Source: Echo