Lewes FC win fan-engagement award! – Lewes Community Football Club

Lewes FC win fan-engagement award!


Lewes FC win fan-engagement award!

Club news

Written by: Jack

We were delighted to win ‘Best Fan-Engagement by a Club’ at the Football Business Awards 2023!

It’s a huge privilege to have won being up against some incredible nominees that were, American Express Shirt Buy Back – with Brighton & Hove Albion FC and Hope & Glory PR, Aston Villa FC / Crest Consultation, Brighton & Hove Albion FC, Everton FC, Pafos FC, Plymouth Argyle FC / Stadima.

This is what the Football Business Awards had to say on our nomination:

Lewes FC is the first football club in the world to split its resources equally between male and female teams. Doing football differently and committing to gender equality has attracted engaged and supportive fans locally and worldwide.

Lewes Women is one of top attended women’s clubs nationwide and Lewes Men is one of the top 10 most attended men’s team at that level nationally.

The innovative and quirky match day experience has contributed to The Dripping Pan being voted Britain’s best football ground and have led to increasingly higher attendances (up 367% for Lewes Women 82% for Lewes Men over the past 5 years).

Not only does Lewes FC offer a creative and exciting match day experience, but it also enables fans to become owners of the club. Lewes FC is 100% fan-owned, with 2400+ owners in 40 countries, each of whom own a single share.

There has been a doubling of owners since 2017, trebling of ownership revenue and 97% retention rate. Fan owners enjoy an array of exclusive perks, such as the Lewes FC Owners App where games are live streamed; games have been watched in up to 27 countries at any one time.

We are lucky at Lewes to have a fantastic Fan & Engagement Officer, Shrey Nilvarna, who had this to say following the award: “The award personally means a lot to me. This is the culmination of countless hours of effort put in by the the volunteers, the staff and the management.

“This club and this town is really close to my heart. We got this award by beating some big names which makes it sweeter. Personally, to come to the country, find my place in Lewes and to be able to achieve this means a lot.

“It hasn’t been the easiest of journeys but the love and support this town has shown is incredible. This one is for all the owners and fans. You are the best!”

Below, is some of the comments from the judges.

“Really impressive fan engagement for a club at this level especially around the way the women’s team has been embraced.”               

“Excellent effort from a small club with big ambitions, building loyalty and a sense of belonging.”

“The work done to understand the fan demographic for men and women is excellent as are the matchday unique offerings and the fan ownership model which appears to work very well.”

We couldn’t have done this without you the fans, so thank you all, and we look forward to welcoming you back to the Dripping Pan soon!