Swansea City has been awarded the prestigious 'Football League Family Excellence Award' for 2010.
The award recognises the experience the club provides for young fans and families.
It's the fourth consecutive season the club has won the award. In fact, the Swans are one of only 17 clubs who have achieved this prestigious award every year since it was launched in 2007.
The award is based on an independent assessment of the family experience at all 72 League clubs, commissioned by The Football League, during the 2009/10 season using 'mystery shopper' families.
In announcing the award, Football League Chairman, Lord Mawhinney, said: "The Football League Family Excellence Award provides a benchmark for clubs to work towards and ensures that they are doing all they can to attract and retain family groups as supporters.
"League clubs are working hard to make the family experience the best it can be."
Swansea City vice-chairman, Leigh Dineen, said: "Since our move to the Liberty Stadium, the club has implemented a number of initiatives to encourage youngsters to support the Swans today, tomorrow and for the long-term future.
"We have worked hard to attract and retain youngsters and their families. We are fortunate to be able to play our football at a family friendly stadium and it's important to guarantee all our fans a great experience.
"The children of today are our fans of the future. It's important that local youngsters and their families support their local club and the Family Excellence Award will only help encourage them to sample the unique atmosphere of the Swans at the Liberty Stadium.''
The club's new Swans4Schools initiative proved a major factor in the award.
Nearly 10,000 local school children cheered on the Swans at the Liberty Stadium for free during the 2009-10 season as part of the initiative, with over 3,000 parents joining them at a reduced rate.
The aim of the Swans4Schools project is to make it a real family affair at the Liberty by offering every primary school child in south west Wales the chance to watch the Swans for free.
The Swans also wanted to give the Swans players every chance of success in the Championship by packing the stadium for every game, while also encouraging our local children to support their local football club in a safe and friendly environment.
Every primary school that takes up the offer also has the opportunity to raise substantial funds for their school through subsidised adult tickets and exclusive signed merchandise.
So far, the schools have raised over £30,000 between them from the initiative.
The initiative has proved so popular that it was extended to include local Junior League football clubs where nearly 3,000 youngsters (in addition to the 10,000 children from the local primary schools) from 120 teams have already been given free entry to selected midweek games.
The club has also fully embraced the 'Enjoy the Match' campaign which aims to ensure parents can take their children to matches in a family friendly environment. It focuses on removing abusive language and aggressive behaviour from the stadium, with particular emphasis on the club's South 'Family' Stand.
The Swans have proactively stewarded the stand and displayed prominent signage discouraging anti-social behaviour.
The club's ticket pricing policy was also praised. Young supporters in the designated South 'Family' Stand can pick up a season ticket for just £50, or watch individual games for just £4.
The club can now continue to use the Family Excellence Award logo on all its club material.
Football League Supporters Survey 2010
It's official . . . fans watching the Swans at the Liberty Stadium enjoy the best matchday experience throughout the whole Football League.
Results from the official Football League Supporters Survey propelled Swansea City and the Liberty Stadium to the top of the Championship list for matchday experience (plus best in the Football League), pre-match and half-time entertainment, pitch view, supporter safety and efforts to attract young fans.
Swans supporters also felt the most valued by their club throughout the Championship.
The club and the stadium also rated highly in match atmosphere, stadium cleanliness, stewarding, toilet facilities and communication with supporters.
The only major low point from the survey saw fans highlight the problems with the stadium PA system.
But fans will be pleased to hear that a complete overall is currently being carried out and the PA system will be fully functional for the start of the new campaign.
The Football League Supporters Survey is an independent report aimed at investigating fan attitude towards their experience across key areas including stadium facilities, ticketing, club products and overall matchday experience.
A total of 36,822 supporters took part in the survey across all 72 clubs.
The survey highlighted that female fans attending Swans games has increased from 16% in 2008 to 23%.
Fans under 16 also increased from 5% to 11%, while the club's pro-active ticketing policy attracted 4% more low income supporters than in 2008.
Fans also highlighted the main factors behind their decision to buy a season ticket as demonstrating club loyalty, guaranteeing a ticket and the same seat.
The survey also revealed that 50% of fans source their club information via the official website; 29% unofficial sites and 9% through the local paper.
A breakdown of the club's fan base also highlighted the reason why they started supporting the Swans in the first place - with 76% stating it was their local club; 42% due to parental influence; 34% for the matchday experience and 25% because of a friends influence.
Swansea City chairman, Huw Jenkins, was delighted with the results.
"It just shows how far we've come as a club,'' he said. "The survey results prove that we are doing a lot of things right at this football club.
"We have an excellent working relationship with the stadium and it's a pleasure to watch Championship football here.
"While the survey proves that our fans also enjoy their matchday experience, we've also had nothing but praise from away fans and club officials when they visit the Liberty Stadium.
"But as a club we never rest on our laurels and we will continue to work hard to improve every aspect of the club - on and off the field.''
Andrew Davies, general manager of the Stadium Management Company, said: "We are pleased that the Liberty Stadium has featured so prominently in the Football League's Supporters Survey and that supporters feel so positively about their stadium.
"The results are encouraging, but we are mindful of the areas in which we need to continue to improve. We look forward to working with supporters to achieve this over the coming season.''
Cllr Chris Holley, Swansea Council Leader, said: "This is fantastic recognition for the Liberty Stadium and Swansea.
"The whole point of the Council building the stadium was to provide first-class sports facilities and to attract leading acts such as Pink, whose recent concert was a massive hit in Swansea.
"The stadium also provides an economic boost for local businesses with restaurants, hotels, bars and taxi firms among those who reap the benefits of having large crowds attending sports and music events in the city.
"Football supporters are very familiar with stadiums across the UK and their recognition that the Liberty is the best in certain areas is a real feather in the stadium's cap."
Selected survey results
Matchday Experience
Overall matchday experience - 1st
Matchday programme - 5th
Match atmosphere - 2nd
Entertaining football - 1st
Standard of food & drink - 9th
Pre-match & half-time entertainment - 1st
Stadium Facilities
Clear sight lines - 1st
Safety for supporters - 1st
Clean, well maintained stadium - 2nd
Stewarding - 4th
Toilet facilities - 3rd
PA quality - 22nd
Website & Communications
Efforts to attract young fans - 1st
Official website - 5th
Communications with supporters - 2nd
Do you feel valued by the club - 1st
