[Archived] The Old Gate Debate

[Tris]

How about Blackburn doing something like Fulham and having a neutral area which can be used for fans who don't particulary support the teams who are playing but fancy watching a live game.

Don't think that would work for the games we're talking about though - because any neutral zone just becomes an extension of the away end. Indeed, as Fulham don't make the slightest mention of it on their website, I think we'll find they have got rid of it this season.

For those who continue to criticise Rovers then take a look what a walk up Fulham fan would need to do to watch Liverpool at the Cottage.

1) Be a member - cost 25 quid - you get a pin badge but no ticket discount vouchers like you do with ours.

2) Pay the admission price for the Cat A+ game (£45 for Hammersmith End)

70 QUID.

They did have a "bundle rule" as well which added another 30 quid to get a Cat B or C ticket - but have had to scrap it.

Fulham have had lots of empty seats this season, but recognise the need to cash in on the big games - and force their non season ticket holders to tie themselves to the club with membership.

Of course the local population is much larger, and has lots more money - but Rovers have to compete with Fulham on the pitch not off it - that is the reality of Premier League football. Discounting our prices leaves us further behind.

Incidentally, if any true Rovers fan wants to see the Liverpool game -

1) Get yourself a membership for £20 - and the 2 x £10 discount vouchers that come with it - so it's actually free.

2) Go and buy your BBE ticket.

3) Bob is your uncle, you are supporting the club you love as a member AND you can plan another trip to Ewood to use your other voucher and enjoy seeing the live action.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM??

[78]

Incidentally, if any true Rovers fan wants to see the Liverpool game -

1) Get yourself a membership for £20 - and the 2 x £10 discount vouchers that come with it - so it's actually free.

2) Go and buy your BBE ticket.

3) Bob is your uncle, you are supporting the club you love as a member AND you can plan another trip to Ewood to use your other voucher and enjoy seeing the live action.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM??

And not only that, if you have already been to 3 games, you'll get a tenner off aswell with the Card

[blue phil]

Fulham have had lots of empty seats this season, but recognise the need to cash in on the big games - and force their non season ticket holders to tie themselves to the club with membership.

Of course the local population is much larger, and has lots more money - but Rovers have to compete with Fulham on the pitch not off it - that is the reality of Premier League football. Discounting our prices leaves us further behind.

Incidentally, if any true Rovers fan wants to see the Liverpool game -

1) Get yourself a membership for £20 - and the 2 x £10 discount vouchers that come with it - so it's actually free.

2) Go and buy your BBE ticket.

3) Bob is your uncle, you are supporting the club you love as a member AND you can plan another trip to Ewood to use your other voucher and enjoy seeing the live action.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM??

Good grief !

The problem is , Tris ; we don't need to attract the "true Rovers fans" - they're already going - albeit ever more grudgingly with the sky high prices for attractive games as Liverpool !

You seem to be simply blind to the fact that we are losing a couple of thousand fans every bloody year with this present pricing policy . Call that competing with Fulham !! They'll be scared stiff . Mind you , they'll be so terrified by their own dwindling crowds that they won't be bothered by ours .

We have to find a way of KEEPING our present supporters and attracting the ones who have stopped going - stopped going it has to be said primarily because of the suicidal pricing policy you endorse .

You ask what the problem is with membership schemes .... I'll tell you . For the lapsed fan in the pub it's too bloody complicated . You explain it to someone who hasn't gone for a season or so and watch his eyes glaze over . Forms to fill , vouchers etc.etc...

And don't even mention The Card . Until it comes with a free magnifying glass to read the small print on the back you can forget it ......

[BRFC4EVA]

BRFCS4EVA - I know you are one of the 'The Club Do Everything Right' brigade on all issues, but surely we should be being less picky nowadays. We will not sell out against Liverpool because the prices charged are nothing short of robbery - so why are we turning people away that ARE willing to pay that??? Yes the little old lady may well be a scouser at heart. So bloody what?!? It's not as though she is taking the seat that would otherwise be filled by a Rovers fan. Until we can fill the stadium on our own, it is ludicrous to bring in these restrictions. Like somebody else said if you wanted to buy a present for your grandson who lived in the Blackburn area but hadn't really thought of watching Rovers before, the two games you would think of as ideal to whet the appetite would be Manchester United at home or Liverpool at home.

We are shooting ourselves in the foot BIG time with this, and by the way £36 in the Blackburn End is an absolute disgrace for ANY game. I'd be most surprised if we get 15,000 home fans on for this game. Then again everybody is loaded at Christmas aren't they and with only three games in seven days it could be a sell-out

Firstly id just like to apologize for the way the message came across, very unsympathetic. Now id just like to address a number of your points. I am not one of those people who believe the club does everything right. I am in the middle probably, i will critize when neccessary, but i also feel that sometimes the club gets the hard end of the stick.

I have repeatly stated in the past that we should screw the 1.5m or whatever we would loose (sky money makes it up anyway) and just have 12pnd adult and 5pnd child ticket prices. And yes the prices are ridiculus. However, why does it have to man u or liverpool? You could take the grandson to Bolton or arsenal or chelsea, arent these games big enough to garner intrest and get yourself onto the database that way. The point im trying to make is that the ONLY 2 game in the year are united and l'pool where this practise is upheld what else can they do, l'pool have sold out its a boxing day game. You telling me there wont be knuckle-draggers everywhere if we had a open sale policy? Whilst i feel sorry for the old lady in question, there are a million and 1 ways to get on the database and she's had more than enough time to do it.

And btw, the club charge 36quid cos they know this game will sell out (or almost) Boxing day, liverpool in town, bellamy back, i expect at least 28k.

[ihateburnley]

And btw, the club charge 36quid cos they know this game will sell out (or almost) Boxing day, liverpool in town, bellamy back, i expect at least 28k.

I'd be very surprised.

Many people are going to be watching this game in the pub (it's on Sky), and I'm sorry to say I will be joining them. I hate this alternative of watching a 'live' game, but at the end of the day I can take the entire family down to the pub with a couple of drinks each and watch the game and I would still have change from £36.

I hope the attendance figure proves me wrong, but like I say I'd be very surprised.

[only2garners]

Having started this with my comments on others at the ticket office on Tuesday i thought I'd better come back into the discussion. I stated in my original post that I could understand why the club did it but I did feel sorry for any genuine people wanting to say buy a ticket for the match as a Christmas present. I was pleased to see Lee's comment that in these situations they normally ask for a letter explaining the circumstances so if it was for a genuine Rovers fan it would be sorted. As others have said, just because the woman was clearly local doesn't mean she wasn't buying a ticket for a Liverpool fan.

I think if the club are suggesting writing a letter to explain circumstances then it's as much as they can be expected to do, although as I pointed out to Lee I don't think this was suggested in the case I saw.

[Paul]

Reading last nights Manchester Evening News one major bookie was offering odds on which club would have the highest number of empty seats this Saturday. Various odds with 100/1 bar............I was half-way to the bookies when I remembered we're at Arsenal

When the bookies know they can make money out of non-attendance the situation is very grim.

[RevidgeBlue]

Am taking my two daughters to the Liverpool game and for some unknown reason they like the Riverside stand so having to swap.

Woman in the ticket office said it was "pretty full" everywhere and there was apparently only one lot of three seats still left together in the Riverside.

So hopefully it will be a good crowd.

[AggyBlue]

I'd be very surprised.

Many people are going to be watching this game in the pub (it's on Sky), and I'm sorry to say I will be joining them. I hate this alternative of watching a 'live' game, but at the end of the day

But at the end of the day you've turned your back on the club.

[thenodrog]

Many people are going to be watching this game in the pub (it's on Sky), and I'm sorry to say I will be joining them. I hate this alternative of watching a 'live' game, but at the end of the day I can take the entire family down to the pub with a couple of drinks each and watch the game and I would still have change from £36.

But at the end of the day you've turned your back on the club.

No Aggy....... the biter bit is that at the real end of the day there won't be a club! ihb will recant the good old days of Shearer and sutton and a top Prem club called BRFC to his grandchildren with misty eyed nostalgia whilst completely absolving himself of any blame for their demise.

Just for the record ihb do you agree or disagree with the 'Team Lancashire' principle of merging with our neighbours to increase our supporter base to a level that will ensure long term survival?

[FourLaneBlue]

Just for the record ihb do you agree or disagree with the 'Team Lancashire' principle of merging with our neighbours to increase our supporter base to a level that will ensure long term survival?

Oh for crying out loud...

It's like Groundhog Day on here with you.

[jim mk2]

You ain't kidding ... look at gormless Gordon's latest post on the asylum thread.

[Fife Rover]

No Aggy....... the biter bit is that at the real end of the day there won't be a club! ihb will recant the good old days of Shearer and sutton and a top Prem club called BRFC to his grandchildren with misty eyed nostalgia whilst completely absolving himself of any blame for their demise.

Just for the record ihb do you agree or disagree with the 'Team Lancashire' principle of merging with our neighbours to increase our supporter base to a level that will ensure long term survival?

For the last time........NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you hear that Theno? (smiling sweetly).

[Bing]

But at the end of the day you've turned your back on the club.

The club only have themselves to blame. John Williams as a businessman must surely know the implications of pursuing a premium pricing policy - by its very nature it means extracting the maximum revenue possible from a smaller number of customers. This is a man who has overseen what is effectively a 35% drop in sales numbers during his time in charge - if he didn't think that this season's walk-on price rises would see a further severe decline in our gates then his incompetence is staggering. In any other business he'd have been gone a long time ago and it's baffling how he's not hanging onto his job for dear life. Nothing will improve our attendances until we get someone new at the top with innovative ideas and a more sensible pricing strategy.

I won't be going on Boxing Day - I simply cannot justify to myself paying the prices asked. 20 years ago I could never have envisaged missing a game through choice but no 90 minute game of football is worth 36 pounds to me. People can bang on that that is the price we have to pay for Premiership football, take it or leave it - well in that case I'll leave it. I can live without going to sit on a plastic toilet seat lid, in silence no less, to see Premiership 'superstars' who aren't even that good or that entertaining.

When you're paying £50 a game and there's 6,000 on, you can carry on patting yourself on the back about how you've still not turned your back on the club. And JW will no doubt be chuffed at another season of rising gate receipts.

Edited December 23, 2006 by Bing

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Just for the record ihb do you agree or disagree with the 'Team Lancashire' principle of merging with our neighbours to increase our supporter base to a level that will ensure long term survival?

But it wouldn't increase OUR fanbase would it Theno......if it was up to the likes of thee there wouldn't be a Blackburn Rovers anymore!!

[philipl]

I do have sympathy with everyone who is struggling to make ends meet- there have been times when I've been there.

But, Rovers have NEVER pursued a premium pricing policy. Yes they have tried to optimise revenues from games but anyone who has travelled away to games in London knows what premium pricing policies are!!!

Far more important is the impact of the apathy of the fans on the Walker Trust. If you have an obligation to provide entertainment to the people of Blackburn and are providing consistently top flight EPL football from a team packed with internationals run by one of the best young managers in the game with regular good cup runs and now European football of a decent standard plus many many tickets at sub £20 (ST averaged and current promotions) AND the gates keep dropping, what would you do?

If the people of Blackburn don't want entertaining at Ewood, the Jersey Trustees have no obligation to provide it.

Everyone should understand, the pricing response of the club with all the reductions is a Trust reaction to the difficulties in paying what are basically similar prices to the ones an average gate of 26,000 paid just four short years ago but the difference is coming straight out of monies that would have been available for other parts of the club's development.

Edited December 23, 2006 by philipl

[thenodrog]

Precisely and well put. But you are p1ssing into the wind cos these numpties (and I was talking to one such last night) have the intelligence of an amoeba and shorter memories than a gold fish.

btw are you still helping to fund brfc Philip?

BING DID YOU GRASP THE MIDDLE BIT? I (and most ST holders) AM PAYING IN THE REGION OF £20 FOR THE LIVERPOOL GAME!!! DO YOU CONSIDER THAT TO BE AFFORDABLE OR NOT? DO YOU THINK THAT IT SHOULD BE CHEAPER FOR PREM LEAGUE FOOTBALL?

Sorry for shouting but you seem to be cocking a deaf un to the truth and I am bloody sick of continually hearing this £30+ figure trotted out all the time by armchair/barstool apologists who have simply 'gone off' brfc (cos they were never really fully 'on' brfc in the first place if the truth is known) spreading stupid half truths about the issue.

And before you have a rant about the above I confess that I too will prob not attend certain sporting events e.g. 1st class cricket, golf, darts, tennis for the simple reason that tv coverage is miles better than spectating from the sides. Whilst I enjoy the above sports to varying degrees they have never been 'in my blood'. And talk about ticket prices / overpaid players / bad refereeing all you like but THAT is the crux of this issue. And one that so few will admit.

Edited December 23, 2006 by thenodrog

[thenodrog]

Oh for crying out loud...

It's like Groundhog Day on here with you.

Not really. I just want to hear ihb's response. He obviously doesn't care enough about brfc so therefore imo he could not oppose a 're-alignment' of local football to ensure future progress in making top level football in Lancashire a 'norm' rather than a flash in the pan.

[stuwilky]

no 90 minute game of football is worth 36 pounds to me.

Is it worth £27?

[thenodrog]

I doubt it stu..... after all he could have a great time chucking up 5 pints and p1ssing away another 5 for that much!

[Bing]

Season tickets are great value but due to work commitments I'm unable to commit to one. £27 should be the absolute limit for ticket prices and being stuck on the front row of the Riverside or down in the corner by the Darwen End for that price is simply not atttractive value.

I readily admit that my interest is not what it once was. I highly doubt I'll be watching the game at all on Tuesday. The few home games I haven't attended this year, I've had better things to do than stand in the Hordens staring at a telly.

[gumboots]

There is quite simply, no substitute for live football. As someone said, it's in your blood. It's part of what you do in your spare time, so much a part that you can't imagine not doing it. We go as a family, 4 or 5 of us or even more when my daughter comes over from Germany. It's our entertainment. So although I do feel £36 is a bit steep I've paid it as a one off for this game for my daughter who's coming home from France because she's been watching 3rd division Laval games since September and can't wait to watch Rovers again. She's at the Emirates today and will be at the other games played while she's home. We can't afford it either but we'll miss out on something else rather than miss Rovers. Not saying it makes us better than others who don't go - just explaining how it is.

[Mike Graham]

It's a bad do when we cannot sell out for a NW derby on Boxing day against Liverpool; a side who bring 7K to the Darwen End and many more elsewhere in the ground.

We sold out v a very bad Sunderland last season...but not Liverpool this season!!!

[thenodrog]

This will be a huge factor in crowds falling away compared to a few short years ago.

http://money.aol.co.uk/tax/income-tax-bill...223040609990001

Mind you I hardly expect any of our red brigade in the moderating team to agree with me.

[cletus]

Not going Liverpool game, as i still refuse to pay those prices, but i will be going to the Boro game with my mates (3 of us) as we`ve all taken advantage of the more 'sensibly' priced offers this year (i.e ...Bolton & the european home games)