Stadium managers are surprisingly downbeat about just how attractive empty stadia can be to visiting tourists. Generally speaking, they underestimate the strong brand values that English football still possesses around the world – the key consequence of this is that visiting football fans in particular and Anglophiles in general like to experience the unique atmosphere of English football stadia.

Yet few stadium managers make the development of a quality stadium tour product that reaches beyond their immediate fan base a priority. Real
fans are by definition a finite group and their engagement with the club and its stadium already developed (although not necessarily in a
coherent way). Potential fans, vaguely interested fans or just tourists who have barely heard of your club or stadium are potentially limitless. The value of attracting them to visit your stadium is enormous:

• They provide genuinely new revenues by paying for their tour.
• They are almost certain to visit your shop while at the stadium.
• They are likely to visit your restaurant or cafe.
• They are likely to be inspired, excited and therefore responsive to creating a longer term relationship with your club (by becoming a
  member for example).
• If you have captured their personal details (and their permission) you will be able to learn from them about their experience and gauge the
  likelihood of them becoming a longer term source of revenue.

So, beyond the obvious need to develop and run quality tours with interesting guides, what else should you be thinking?

• Your tours must be marketed online not just on your own site but also with affiliates and partners (unofficial blogs often have significant
  traffic and are always hungry for revenue possibilities).
• Your tours must be bookable online as well as at the stadium itself, at local tourist offices and travel agents and of course by phone.
• All the external sources of custom must be cohesively and effortlessly managed to ensure optimum capacity management.
• You must possess the tools to easily experiment and innovate – different times, different days, premium tours (with ex players).

We think this represents modest effort for potentially large rewards.