Methodology
Sampling
The sampling frame was the membership of the MyFC brand community. This comprised
approximately 30,000 people, according to the MyFC website
(http://www.myfootballclub.co.uk/). Given the importance of member renewal in this inquiry,
the survey was performed at the end of the first season. A pilot of the research was performed
with volunteer MyFC members in the author’s personal community network. Although a few
suggestions made in the pilot survey were considered in the final questionnaire, no significant
changes were made after this phase. A link to an online questionnaire was posted on the MyFC
website accompanied by an invitation to take part in the survey. Three weeks later, the MyFC
‘Webteam’ also sent out the link and invited all members to complete the survey. Respondents
numbered 500, representing 1.6% of the population, with a minor degree of attritional missing
data (< 20 cases for all items henceforth described that were applicable to all respondents).
Observation of the MyFC website around the time of the research showed that club voting
involved around 1,000 members, with 50-100 members actively debating important issues on the
website forum. The response sample of 500 therefore represents a satisfactory proportion of
active participants.