Background
In January 2024 Swansea City Supporters’ Trust were delighted to publish our full report on the Matchday Experience at Swansea City, which we kicked-off in October 2023. All our previous updates which included a link to the full survey report are available to access on our Trust website HERE
The project was established to better understand the experience of supporters in and around the stadium on matchdays and identify positive changes that could improve this. Almost 1000 supporters responded to our survey with the results providing a clear and strong case for changes to be made.
We promised to take the next steps with the support of the club to form a joint working group that will own these findings and others that are identified.
We are pleased to advise this group made up of a combination of Club, Trust and supporter representatives are now fully up and running and they held their eleventh meeting at the Swansea,com Stadium on Thursday 21st May 2026.
This meeting gave everyone an opportunity to review progress to date and revisit some of the key recommendations arising from recent meetings and fan surveys.
The project is now known as the Matchday Experience Working Group – MEWG – and the full group is currently made up as follows:
Paul Meller (PM) – Swans Trust
Dave Dalton (DD) – Swans Trust
Chris Golledge (CG) – Swans Trust
Tony Sharpe (TS) – Swans Trust
Hayley Ford (HF) – Swansea City
Kev Johns (KJ) – Swansea City
Harriet Williams (HW) – Her Game Too
Lee Joseph (LJ)
Paul Joseph (PJ)
Thomas Hughes (TH)
Craig Fulford-Astley (CFA)
Jamie Ranford (JR)
Apologies were received for this meeting from:
Chris Golledge (CG) – Swans Trust
Katie Doyle (KD) – Swansea City
Kev Johns (KJ) – Swansea City
Lee Joseph (LJ)
Thomas Hughes (TH)
Craig Fulford-Astley (CFA)
Ian Davies (ID)
Jamie Ranford (JR)
Harriet Williams (HW) – Her Game Too
Meeting Notes:
1. FEB MINUTES, ACTIONS & MATTERS ARISING
Feb Minutes approved.
Matters arising:
Club Tours being reviewed – looking to expand tours at the stadium to include hospitality and other areas and will also be discussing the option of tours of Fairwood
2. INVITED GUEST
Jonathan Jones – Swans Principal Safey Officer
- PJ raised issue of barriers outside NW corner restricting egress post-match. JJ advised barriers are only there to assist if corner is to be blocked off after game for containment purposes on police advice. This can happen at short notice. JJ indicated there was no reason for the barriers to be closed otherwise and will address this situation for next season.
- JJ also explained the rationale behind whether away fans are contained post-match. Priority is to get fans onto buses and away from the stadium asap so that surrounding roads can be opened. If departure is taking too long a call will be made to hold away fans. It is a dynamic situation with decisions made on a match-by-match basis dependent on circumstances with away fan attendance varying every game.
- When guiding away fans to the stadium on match day the club rely on intelligence from police spotters monitoring away coaches and where they are stopping on route to assist arrival process.
- JJ was asked about matchday stewarding and whether there were different guidelines for different stands. The position is the North stand = 100% search, rest of stadium NE/E normally 100% search for projectiles. South & West random search based on demographic. If an individual draws attention to themselves then they are likely to get searched. It is at stewards’ discretion and what they are briefed on pre match. (48-hour pre match there is a briefing everyone attends, SMT hold a briefing on the morning of the game, followed by a stewards’ supervisor briefing). It all depends on the risk category of the game plus any intelligence received. There has been an increased search policy since the UK threat level was raised and this includes those going into hospitality. The club have the right to refuse entry to individuals who refuse to be searched – happened twice last season. If an individual has a concern about being searched e.g. medical condition they should ask to speak to a stand supervisor. Where there is a legitimate complaint, the steward will be given feedback and additional training.
- Safe standing review after 2 years – generally working fine. The main issue within the ground is fan migration around the seating not the safe standing. Fans are generally happy and it works better than rail seating.
3. FAN ADVISORY BOARD (FAB)
HF shared that the Club is looking to bring about a change to the fan engagement structure for the 2026-27 season with further details to be released in due course
4. CLUB BADGE
HF invited those present for initial thoughts and consultation on a proposed minor change to the club’s primary badge, which would involve removing the text from under the Swan. This was received positively by those present.
HF will circulate the proposal to the MEWG members who were not present to provide further feedback via survey and email. Further thorough consultation with other supporter groups and ST holders will take place in the coming weeks.
There was no further business and the meeting ended at 6:50pm
If anyone would like to consider getting involved or submit any questions for the MEWG please send us an email to supporters@swanstrust.co.uk
And don’t forget that that Trust are in regular contact with all departments within the Club as well as holding various meetings with senior managers where we routinely raise issues we receive or are aware of.
If anyone would like us to raise anything affecting them, please don’t hesitate to let us know by emailing us at supporters@swanstrust.co.uk
We will then discuss it with the Club as appropriate.
Swansea City Supporters’ Trust
16th July 2026
