Brisa Attendance Improvement Proposal

[colin]

Constructive criticism

4.6.3 Ewood Park Station

Build station at the back of Ewood – on the Blackburn to Manchester line.

I remember this suggestion being dismantled on here a year or so ago.

The proposed station would be used very infrequently (25 times a year maybe?) and would have to funded by Railtrack who would no doubt laugh at the suggestion.

Ewood is reasonably well served by Blackburn, Darwen & Mill Hill stations.

I think that this should be deleted as it will dilute the other points.

Sorry that this is a bit to close to the deadline.

[cn174]

The final document that has been sent to the club has just been uploaded. Thankyou to everyone for your contriibutions, but if you have anything else to add please still send them in to admin@brisa.org.uk because we may well make a version 2 in the future

BRISA Attendance Improvement Proposal - v1.0

BRISA Attendance Improvement Proposal - v1.0 (PDF Version)

[philipl]

It is very good.

A thought that struck me when I read the mutual discount with a Prem club idea:

- One of Rovers or Burnley are going to end up with Accy Stanley playing league games on the same day as them next season. Rovers should get in there now and agree with the Police and Accy Stanley that Rovers and Stanley league games should not clash and a joint season ticket for Stanley and Rovers games introduced. Stanleys' gates have been woeful by Conference standards but a Christmas gate of 3,000 showed the potential for folks going to them rather than Ewood. Better to embrace this development rather than get hurt by it.

I was disappointed that the PR agency idea didn't appear. Believe an 01254 number popping up and "Hello, I'm Blackburn Rovers PR" will be just as ineffective as having no PR. The media is in London- the Rovers' PR has to be in London. Fact of life, if it is considered worth investing in PR, at least spend the money effectively.

[Jim Royle]

My thoughts are that the whole document offers nothing to Blackburn Rovers management.

Not one proposal has actually been thought through to a conclusion, all I see is a long list of hopeful rhetoric without anything concrete. I must state here that I went negative on the whole document when I read such lines as “And God forbid if ……..”

I mean slogans like the park and ride scheme are backed with amateurish drivel such as the location being “somewhere near the M65.”

Okay, it may list the reasons for people not coming fairly well. However it doesn’t even acknowledge that whilst attendances are on the decline, the previous attendance levels, given the population where truly remarkable. Leeds United would need a crowd of roughly 175000 every home game to match our attendance/population ratio and that is without considering the relevant hinterland.

That is the crux and unfortunately any local marketing strategies may find that the attendance levels affected are marginal, so marginal that the cost of such strategies could well outstrip the benefit.

I know I will be accused of not offering solutions, and to that I plead guilty, but because I don’t think we have any issues to answer. BRFCs attendances are a function of demography and discounting any major PR disasters, the teams success is the only the thing that will measurably affect it.

Looking from outside I see that “my club” is being run by a fabulous management team, be that at boardroom level, first team level or academy level.

Perhaps that is all that should be voiced – we should stand tall and let it be known that, here at Blackburn rovers, we gain our strengths from our weaknesses i.e. we are a small town in an economically barren area slugging it out with the big city boys and quite frankly doing it rather well!. Such realistic bravado may actually breed ownership of the club into the locals.

Keep the faith, but keep it real. Please don’t fall into the trap of taking yourselves too seriously because the quality of that document does not support such attitudes.

Edited January 12, 2006 by Jim Royle

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Perhaps that is all that should be voiced – we should stand tall and let it be known that, here at Blackburn rovers, we gain our strengths from our weaknesses i.e. we are a small town in an economically barren area slugging it out with the big city boys and quite frankly doing it rather well!. Such realistic bravado may actually breed ownership of the club into the locals.

373858[/snapback]

Spot on Jim!

The fact is that we are the most successful 'town' football club in the UK,our history is one to be very proud of and the envy of some much bigger city clubs....it should be exploited and celebrated to the full at every opportunity.

[den]

Fair comments Jim Royle. - "Looking from outside I see that “my club” is being run by a fabulous management team, be that at boardroom level, first team level or academy level." Totally agree.

I think it's fair to say, that the document doesn't, and isn't intended to represent the unanimous views of all BRISA members. What it is, is a collection of ideas taken from Rovers fans, from various sources.

BRISA knows, and the club know that there is probably very little that is new.

However, as has been said before, at the very least BRISA can give the answers in detail to it's members - and everyone else. Those answers will be put in front of everyone, to disect as necessary. There is much to be gained from clarifying the situation.

Tom Finn has said that if even one suggestion can be taken on board, then it will have been worthwhile. We will have to see what develops.

I do think your comments about amateurish drivel are a bit over the top though. I mean, we're only a group of fans trying to help. We're not a consortium of top professionals.

[des]

the more input from the fans the better for the club, and no matter how it is writtren, feedback for the club is better then having no feedback at all, so keep up the good work and keep on writing.

[Glenn]

the more input from the fans the better for the club, and no matter how it is writtren, feedback for the club is better then having no feedback at all, so keep up the good work and keep on writing.

373964[/snapback]

I know I keep harping on about this, but to me the point of the exercise isn't to acuse the club of not doing enough and offer dozens of ideas to do better. The point is to make public answers to questions several of us has been told privately (something the club shouldn't need out intervention to do).

Sure, if the club finds a single idea that could improve things, then that's a major added bonus, but to me the real value of this is that for the first time we can publically explain WHY some of the ideas in that document haven't been possible and even some that have, but nobody knows about.

[Blackburn Ender]

Philip

You're wrong on the London PR front.

Rovers' PR person needs to be in Blackburn responsive to what's happening at board level at Ewood and at Brockhall.

The journalists are up here, too.

If you want to pay West End prices for a crap service, fine, bring in your Freud Communications-type idiots who charge big bucks and put juniors on the account.

I work with the national media every day across property, tourism and business desks. I had at least 15 cover stories in major broadsheets last year.

And my office is in Poulton-le-Fylde.

Rovers may well need good PR; they don't need a fancy dan London agency.

[philipl]

It's good to hear Blacburn Ender.

The reason for suggesting London is that Rovers are a client with a pre-existing bad image and bias against it and are competing against a vast amount of other material for space.

A typical example this evening- Sparky goes on Sky News and answers a leading question with a straight bat: "MGP not for sale and no approach from Spurs." That story doesn't even get into the 20+ stories listed under Premiership in the Sky web site!

The Rovers account is not about news coverage. It is all about image management in the face of a deeply hostile and sceptical media. I am not aware of anyone who does that well outside London and I wouldn't go to Freud either. I'd be looking for a young Agency which is hungry but can show a track record of handling a tricky account well.

[Blackburn Ender]

I take your point, but your example is about news management. If Hughes is speaking on SSN, Rovers' PR should be turning his comments into a news story and issuing to all media, asap.

I think there would be a lot of resistance from the media to Rovers getting involved in image management (whatever that is).

It looks to me that what Rovers need is a bit of effective, old-fashioned hard work in the press office from people who understand the media, news and sport.

It's about the relationships you build with the media and individual journalists. That, time and respect for the management (and success on the field) is what will change people's perception.

[des]

feed back can take all kinds of formats and if you want to inform the club that fans should know how and why decsions are made then this can only happen by giving and getting feedback

right back to football.........

[bellamy11]

Just got back from the meeting itself which in my opinion was quite positive. John and Tom were very open with us and we put some things forward that I think will help the club, and they in turn have given us more things to think about.

Needless to say once everybody gets back we can collate notes etc. The minutes will go up on the BRISA website in due course.

[Flopsy]

I hope you'ld had a haircut before meeting proper people

well done lads and ladies

[AggyBlue]

It looks to me that what Rovers need is a bit of effective, old-fashioned hard work in the press office from people who understand the media, news and sport.

374019[/snapback]

Are too many people in the comfort zone down at Ewood?

I don't just mean the press office, from the complaints that appear on this site regarding all manner of issues, the club doesn't seem to be running as the well oiled machine it once was.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't any problems with the club, I just thought I'd pose the question.

My thoughts on attendance - 20k average for a town the size of Blackburn is good,

an entertaining, winning team will draw in more.

[GiddyGoat]

Feedback - The breakfast of champions.

Tuck in

hmmmm Champions

Edited January 13, 2006 by GiddyGoat

[bellamy11]

"I hope you'ld had a haircut before meeting proper people"

I had a haircut in 2005 and you'll be happy to know I plan to have another one in 2006!

Edited January 13, 2006 by bellamy11

[andy82]

"I hope you'ld had a haircut before meeting proper people"

I had a haircut in 2005 and you'll be happy to know I plan to have another one in 2006!

374178[/snapback]

Haircuts are vatly overrated.

[Flopsy]

I dont know you havent seen Bellamy's the hedge clippers are being sharpend as we speak

[FourLaneBlue]

Spot on Jim!

The fact is that we are the most successful 'town' football club in the UK,our history is one to be very proud of and the envy of some much bigger city clubs....it should be exploited and celebrated to the full at every opportunity.

373909[/snapback]

True but it should be also be pushed out further. Blackburn Rovers are not just a team for the town of Blackburn but for much else of East Lancs too. Darwen, Rishton, Church etc need also to be targetted. The more affluent Blackburn fan may often move out of the town and the club needs to make sure these fans either keep attending or get back into the habit. From what has been suggested of the Jack Walker Upper, these people aren't going anymore.

[ABBEY]

well i think tonights game proved how people cant afford to watch footy anymore...and that goes for both teams.

[cletus]

A poor crowd of 18180 for the Bolton game

This game had been pencilled in as a SKY pay per view, 5.15pm k/off game since the begining of the season. Everyone know`s when a Rovers game is on telly, the crowd is always affected....this one quite considerably!

Only 1500 Notlobbers turned up, along with only about 16500 Roverites.

......so why the #### did the powers that be at Ewood make it a catagory A game?

It was quite obvious (even the week before the game) that ticket sales had been seriously affected, so why didn`t the club come up with some sort of bums on seats offer? i.e...

Kids for a quid,

reduced prices,

bring a friend for half price,

free pie

what-ever!!

I am honestly starting to believe this club is run by ####ing idiots!

(Q...Does anybody know how much £££ Rovers would`ve got from SKY for last nights game? Just out of interest?)

[philipl]

I think PPV is about £150K per game.

From a financial standpoint Rovers did the right thing with Category A yesterday.

To make it Category B would have required a gate of about 21,000 to bring as much revenue in through the turnstiles. I don't believe for a moment we would have got those numbers.

Time and again, the Blackburn public has shown the club does not get rewarded for dropping prices.

I don't know what BRISA were told at their meeting but my guess that for every £1 knocked off the ticket price, about 10p comes in through the gate in terms of extra attendance.

[FourLaneBlue]

I think PPV is about £150K per game.

From a financial standpoint Rovers did the right thing with Category A yesterday.

To make it Category B would have required a gate of about 21,000 to bring as much revenue in through the turnstiles. I don't believe for a moment we would have got those numbers.

Time and again, the Blackburn public has shown the club does not get rewarded for dropping prices.

I don't know what BRISA were told at their meeting but my guess that for every £1 knocked off the ticket price, about 10p comes in through the gate in terms of extra attendance.

374758[/snapback]

It wasn't worth being a Category A game though...on TV on a Saturday night? Making it Category B would have been a fairer price so it is not a question of "dropping prices". The fans have been asked to pay out last Wednesday to see United, the Saturday before for QPR and before that for Pompey at home. Expecting fans to pay out for the fourth time in less than a fortnight in the new year for a game rearranged for Sky while charging the most they can is simply not on from Rovers.

If ever there was a time to be considering the financial burdens for fans it was last night. I'm ok this season...I'll be back for a few weeks, watch a few games and then be out of the country again. If I was being asked to cough up again and again though for home games which are rarely at the time that the fans want (Saturday at 3) then I might be thinking enough was enough by now.

Time and time again the prices are knocked down for the games that they can't sell tickets for anyway. Fulham or Pompey at home etc. Why not try and get fans in with games they might want to see? For years now the Rovers approach to reduced tickets has been half-hearted. Tenner to see Fulham or Charlton...not many took it up and it made season ticket holders think if their season ticket was really worth it.

I'm not saying we should just let people watch the United game for a tenner...but on this occasion it must have made sense to look at the game on an individual basis rather than just lumping it into a category...this time A. The crowd of 18180 against local rivals shows that whatever Rovers did on this occasion it didn't work.

Edited January 15, 2006 by FourLaneBlue

[blue phil]

To get the place filled the Rovers have to get kids in for free on a PERMANENT basis . Obviously these kids will bring in adults with them so revenue will go up as well . Better to have seats filled with future fans than to have them sit at home worshiping Man U and Chelsea from their armchairs.

Like Cletus I despair of the lack of imagination from the Rovers . I am also heartily sick and tired of those who blame the Blackburn public themselves for the fall in attendance .