The Football League's Enjoy the Match campaign has been shortlisted in the 'Best Promotion of Sport by a Governing Body' category at the 2009 Sport Industry Awards.
The full shortlist for this category is:
- British Horseracing Authority - Go Jump Racing
- ECB - TwelfthMan - Get Closer to England Cricket
- English Golf Union & the English Women's Golf Association - National Skills Challenge
- NBA - Growing the Game of Basketball
- The FA - The FA Tesco Skills Programme
- The Football League - Enjoy the Match
The winner will be announced at the Sports Industry Awards ceremony which will take place on Thursday 30th April. The event is Europe's largest and most prestigious commercial sport awards. The Awards recognise and reward the best that sport business has to offer in marketing, PR, sponsorship, new media, publishing, advertising and design.
The Enjoy The Match campaign was launched by The Football League at the start of the 2008/09 season and encourages even more families to attend matches at their local League club by creating a family friendly environment inside the grounds. This includes the eradication of abusive language and aggressive behaviour from family areas. Of The League's 72 clubs, 68 have already pledged their support to the campaign. Clubs participating in Enjoy the Match have been proactively stewarding family areas and displaying prominent signage to discourage anti-social behaviour. Additionally, clubs have played PA announcements, voiced by local children, before each match to encourage positive support.
Commenting on the news of reaching the shortlist, The Football League's Marketing Manager, David Malkinson said: "We are delighted to have reached the shortlist for what is always a very competitive category. This is a great endorsement of our Enjoy the Match campaign which is already having a positive impact on the family experience at League grounds and has helped to increase the attendances in family areas by 12%, compared to 3% across League Football as a whole."
To find out more about the campaign, visit www.enjoythematch.co.uk.
