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The owners are not on record per se as refusing it, if I recall, at the time Waggott suggested (maybe to the Fans Forum) the total cost of a root and branch replacement would be in the order of £2.4m and that he would explore the possibility of sponsorship to defray the cost. As always under his stewardship nothing actually happened and I think a few bits of the pitch were relaid with modern high tech mesh based turf instead. We dont know if he and / or Pasha ever actually asked the owners to stump up the full amount, but whose fault it was is immaterial, it was never actually done. Fast forward a few years, and Waggott was still here when the first of the three postponements/abandonments occurred so it was clear the issue was far more pressing. We've had anecdotal evidence on here from Mike Graham that Waggott was in favour of some sort of excess storage tank but again nothing was done. At the Club they've all known about the problem for a number of years and done nothing whatsoever, it whether it be a proper replacement or a cheaper alternative.

I didn't think it could get worse, but unless the club actually stumps up the cash to fix the drainage problems, then we're going to be seeing more abandoned games on the regular at Ewood, essentially taking away watching Rovers play from the fans. It is pathetic. If the game goes ahead then I suspect it'll be a score draw: 1-1. Gudjohnsen for Rovers.

'If a multi-million bid comes in' has to be some of the stupidest phrasing I've seen in an article. Nearly every team in the Championship would pay 'multi millions' for him. Practically every move in the Prem is multi millions.

I don’t think the locals were very happy 🤣 Its the same at Ibrox make no mistake, but still this made me laugh:

wasn't it Waggott who said that? The pitch and the entire drainage structure need improving and we need a new structure in place. We can't afford another game abandoned

Yep, nothing but a plug to sell tickets for tomorrow's game despite there being a weather warning in place for overnight.

Another Nixon classic. "Club could sell star player if a big bid comes in".

Still not a peep out of the Club regarding the latest abandonment nor the merest hint of an apology to the supporters from both Clubs who spent time and money on a water day. Even the Politbureau are obviously having a tough time trying to spin this one.

The owners are on record as refusing to totally replace the very old pitch a few years ago. I think even before the court case but cant be sure on that. Anything else seems immaterial in comparison.

Surely Michael Fish takes some of the blame too.

What a great post.

Yeah not so much a "pitch drainage expert" but my career is in construction, namely civil engineering Drainage is an easy concept though. If the river level on Saturday was not actually stopping the outflow then it is likely drains are blocked. It would be relatively easy and cheap to check this - a CCTV / Jetting crew is usually around 2 - 3thousand per day at most. You could have had them in on Sunday and by tomorrow dinner time you'd have found the blockage and jetted it out. It just seems so shoddy by the Club. I can't believe they haven't fixed the problem. We need to be realistic and understand that they won't invest in the long-term of this club, so the required improvement works will never happen. But to not even address the issue in a temporary state - pumping, jetting or whatever - is just pure negligence. They just don't give a crap. Whatever those rollers were on Saturday were useless. You could see on camera it was just dispersing water back on to the pitch. Think someone posted they cost 1k each and they had 4. For that 4,000 you could have hired a pump for the day and overpumped water out of the system and down the river and it would probably have been enough I suspect we also have a maintenance department that has been stripped of budget and experience.

England played some decent cricket against India last summer, battled hard and got their heads down when they had to against a top team. Then the final Test, a chance to beat India 3-1, England needed about 40 to win with 6 wickets in hand and loads of time to do it. So why did Smith dance down the pitch and try to smash the ball for 4 when England could have to the target easily nudging singles? It’s brainless stupid unthinking cricket to me and I blame McCullum and Stokes for this muddle headed approach that has led to the present debacle

2023 - ‘ I cannot emphasise enough the importance of drainage, especially with the rainfall we experience in Blackburn’ 🤦‍♂️ https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2023/july/28/grounds-manager-delighted-with-ewood-pitch-/

It's all John Ketley's fault.

It needs a good flushing out..along with Venkys,Sufail and the Ego.

Believe it or not pitch drainage is a relatively simple system. Everything relies on gravity and heating. Though the heating element is complex and is additional to aiding pitch drying, the actual framework of drains is simple. Literally just pipes angled at intervals across the pitch. What we don't know is if it all goes one way toward the Riverside or if its 'spidered' and/or arched and joins drains surrounding the pitch to eventually end up in the River Darwen. Suspicion is that they need replacing. As the holes eventually clog up thus creating a plug or they've subsided OR the rain fall genuinely can't cope on the pitch. (More drain lengths, wider drains, mesh footing base needed)

The local paper had Bradford City quoting the cost as a ‘significant six figure sum’

Anywhere but United or Chelsea. I'll be surprised if Real Madrid/Barcelona don't try and entice. He'd be a perfect fit at Bayern too. He'd drastically improve his all round game by playing in another top league

Suddenly? I've always been a pitch drainage expert

There's a lot of pitch drainage experts suddenly on the forum! 🙂 There's been a lot of talk about whether hugely complicated and expensive technological solutions are needed and I don't know the first thing about engineering principles or pitch drainage but as as a lay person Id be hugely surprised if: a) After 30 years of neglect the existing drainage system didnt need a good clean and some maintenance. and b) similarly Id be surprised if the bottom half of the pitch wasn't so compacted due to never being replaced that a huge amount of water never reaches the drains in the first place when it rains. Thirdly, even if it's not just the above, I can't believe that in this day and age there isn't a relatively simple solution available to the problem. The cost is irrelevant, it has to be done in the same way a stand would have to be repaired if it was deemed unsafe. Fourthly even if said remedial work is relatively time consuming and/or can only be carried out in the close season I refuse to believe that temporary measures can't be put in place until it's sorted permanently like covers for the pitch and a pump to remove any excess drain off and/or rent some proper water removal machinery of the sort used by high end golf Clubs or Cricket Clubs. Not a few hand operated fucking mops. Anything else is just excuses.

It would be very interesting/telling to see how much water is coming out of that outlet, when there has been/during a heavy downpour of rain.

No one can stop those. Class finish

Yep. Just to clarify I would always prefer a lower league side at home and a better chance to progress. I think I'm thinking more what would be an interesting tie. If we got most premier league clubs away I'd just think FFS. But Everton do have a local, shiny new stadium that we haven't been to so, like Wrexham away this season, it comes with a lot of novelty value.

I did the 8pm-4am shift handed over to Chaddy bright and early.