Official: Family Stand Renamed In Honour Of Ann Swanson

By: Watford FC Staff

Watford FC is delighted to announce the renaming of the Family Stand to the Ann Swanson Family Stand.

A true off-the-pitch hero during the late 1970s and 1980s, Ann’s work as leader of the Junior Hornets and founder of the Family Enclosure meant she was the key driver in Watford FC becoming ‘The Original Family Club’.

Ann has also recently agreed to be the new patron of the Junior Hornets as part of the refreshed Junior Hornets offering, continuing to make a positive impact in young lives and in the local community.

The re-naming of the stand was announced at half-time during the Golden Boys’ Premier League clash at home to Brighton & Hove Albion (February 12), at which Ann was the club’s special matchday guest.

The Brighton game was chosen to mark the annual Trust Awareness Matchday, where we highlight the hard work and impact of the Watford FC Community Sports & Education Trust in our local community.

Read below to gain an insight into Ann’s tireless hard work and commitment to the club and community over the years...

Ann Swanson - A Pioneer

Ann was a member of the triumvirate that enabled a whole generation of Watford supporters to experience the tremendous smiles the club put on supporters’ faces of all ages during the late 1970s and 1980s.

At a time when football attendance was in the doldrums, facilities at grounds were dangerously inadequate and hooliganism was rife throughout the country and at all levels, Graham Taylor’s vision to make Watford FC a focal point for the entire local community was supported and encouraged by Elton John – but they had to have someone to turn the ideas and good intentions into action.

Under the broader stewardship of football’s first Marketing Manager Caroline Gillies, Ann Swanson was that true driving force.

Ann was born in Doncaster in 1936 and spent much of her childhood in Sudan where her father worked as an engineer. She went to school with the local children and can still speak Arabic. On her return to England, she ended up in north London and worked for the Metropolitan Police. She married Alan and left the police to start a family, having a son and a daughter.

In the late 1970s, Alan had started taking the two children to Vicarage Road to watch Watford, however one weekend he was unable to take the kids and asked Ann if she would go with them instead. She’d never been to a football match before and was initially hesitant, but she was eventually persuaded to as otherwise the children wouldn’t be able to go. Within minutes of arriving at the match she was completely hooked, and so they all began attending Watford matches as a family.

In 1980, there was an advert in a matchday programme; the club were seeking a part-time sales rep for the promotions team. Encouraged by her children, the role appealed so she applied and got the job without the need for an interview as she was recognised as a regular customer in The Hornets Shop.

As part of Graham Taylor’s ideas of making Vicarage Road a safe and welcoming place for families, free from the violence endemic elsewhere, someone was needed to coordinate the newly-established family areas. The plain-speaking, no-nonsense Ann – who knew exactly what families needed to attract them to games as her family had been attending games as a unit for some time – was seen as the ideal candidate.

GT gave her total backing to organise both the Family Terrace and Family Enclosure as areas that would encourage families to attend together and help youngsters form the habit of attending football matches for enjoyment and friendship, not as an excuse for wanton violence.

She totally transformed the way people attended football at the time; adults could only attend games in those areas with a child and, in time, children felt safe enough to head to games on their own. Stalls selling sweets and drinks were set up at the front of the family areas so snacks could be bought without missing the game. In the Family Terrace, adults had to stand towards the back so as not to block the view of small children. Bad language was not tolerated, not even by the players when they were in earshot of that side of the ground.

Eventually the scheme morphed into being not just about the home matchday experience. Family coaches were put on to away fixtures, one even ran to Kaiserslautern for Watford’s maiden away fixture in European competition.

A Christmas party was held each year for the children that were in the family areas. It was compulsory for all first-team players to attend, not that any of them would have ignored a request from Ann. Before a home match on a Saturday morning, she would take at least two of the first team to visit the children’s ward at Watford General Hospital to spend some time with the youngsters there.

Ann was also given the responsibility of running the Junior Hornets scheme and, instead of young supporters simply receiving a membership certificate and little else, it became a proper club with outings and events not just related to Watford. Trips to the seaside, watching television programmes being filmed, regular visits to Wembley for England games, tennis coaching with Jo Durie and a visit to the GB Karate team are just some examples – often with first-team players in attendance and always with members of the youth team as it was seen as part of their overall development.

A Junior Hornets club evening would be held monthly throughout the season, where the kids could question players, coaching staff, managers and even executives of the club. An annual Open Day was held where young supporters could tour the dressing rooms, see the team train, and meet them afterwards. Unique experiences were offered to members, such as the chance to attend the annual team photoshoot and appear in the team picture.

Away travel was also organised for the Junior Hornets and as part of encouraging friendly football, young Watford supporters would have a game of football in the morning with the junior supporters’ club of the home team before sitting with their counterparts in the home family areas at away grounds. These areas at other grounds were copied from Vicarage Road because of the success Watford had had with their inception.

A Family Room was built between the two family areas in the stadium, giving somewhere for families to visit before and after the game as well as hosting club events during the week. Funds to build and kit out the facility were raised by Ann herself, via donations from supporters. It was intended that this would eventually become a social club, open to Junior Hornets and family area supporters to use throughout the year.

As the pioneers in creating a family-friendly environment at football grounds, the club – and Ann in particular – were regularly visited by, and invited to visit, other clubs and footballing governing bodies who were keen to follow the methods and processes put in place at Watford to encourage family attendance. By the time Ann left the club in 1993, Watford were widely recognised as the benchmark for a community-centred football club.

All the work put in by Ann managed to create and cultivate a true family spirit at the club. She was a mother figure, not only to the young supporters and families she cared for on matchdays and other excursions, but also for many of the playing staff of all levels. As such, both players and supporters shared a kind of family bond, helping to bring us all closer as we all shared the common denominator of being looked after by Ann Swanson.

Ann Swanson: the main reason Watford FC can call itself ‘The Original Family Club’.

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