[Archived] Walkersteel Blackburn End?

[ihateburnley]

Just been on the official site to check out the prices for the first home game against Everton.

In what's likely to be a poor game, with a bumper 'first home game' attendance anyway, with maximum away travel AND the fact that it's against one of our North-West rivals, why do the club make this fixture an A+ Category game???

An adult ticket in the Blackburn End now costs £36 apparently. And before anyone else says it, yes I know "we are one of the cheapest sides to watch in the Premiership" and that I could be forking out £50 to go and watch my team if I live in London.

It's a poor do when going to watch your team every week costs more each month than your food and utility bills put together.

[RevidgeBlue]

All part of our extremely short sighted policy of trying to fill as much of the ground as we can with, and make as much money as possible as we can out of the travelling support.

EDIT: In my view (which I've previously expressed at the Fans Forum) there's no justification whatsoever for category A + prices with the ground one third empty! That sort of pricing structure is only valid imo when you can sell out every week anyway but can still make some extra bunce for the big games.

I wouldn't be against the prices of the cheaper games being higher but Category A + prices just make Rovers fans think they're being ripped off

even if in real terms the actual price stands up favourably to prices elsewhere.

Until we can fill the stadium every match should be the same price imo.

Edited August 7, 2006 by RevidgeBlue

[Uddersfelt Blue]

Just been on the official site to check out the prices for the first home game against Everton.

In what's likely to be a poor game, with a bumper 'first home game' attendance anyway, with maximum away travel AND the fact that it's against one of our North-West rivals, why do the club make this fixture an A+ Category game???

An adult ticket in the Blackburn End now costs £36 apparently. And before anyone else says it, yes I know "we are one of the cheapest sides to watch in the Premiership" and that I could be forking out £50 to go and watch my team if I live in London.

It's a poor do when going to watch your team every week costs more each month than your food and utility bills put together.

I suspect that by making this game a+ we can fleece all the Everton fans as well as some of our own (but not all as many will be season ticket holders).

Rovers have to go with the flow on ticket prices or we will be left behind as far as match day income is concerned.

After all there are cheaper seats available in the Riverside for those who can't afford.

The cost of tickets is a never ending debate but until a sizeable chunk of supporters refuse to pay I'm afraid the clubs will continue to charge exhorbitant prices.

Edited August 7, 2006 by Uddersfelt Blue

[cletus]

I refuse to be ripped off, so i`m not going.

[modes98]

I was going but not at those prices and with the chelsea game on sky i doubt i'll be paying high prices for that either.

[cletus]

Brian Potter...."The problem lies with the thousands of so called Rovers fans who don't go to Ewood because, although they won't admit it they dont bloody want to go!, they basically expect something for nothing and will give one reason after another for not attending.

I`ve been watching Blackburn Rovers regularly for nearly 27 years. I love going to watch 'my team' but i refuse point blank to be blackmailed into paying extortionate prices because i`m 'not loyal enough'.

If others are happy to pay these prices, then good on them, but i wont pay these prices...simple as that.

[cletus]

Can a moderator start a poll, asking walk-on fans if they are prepared to pay catagory A+ prices?

...As i think it`d be interesting to see how much it might effect peoples 'decisions' on whether to go to games or not...

[McClarky]

So incredibly short sighted. I'd be surprised if we sell more than a couple of thousand home tickets for ewither of these games which is another opportunity lost to get some floating fans back to Ewood. Another season of regular sub 20,000 attendances in prospect I think. They need to forget about the away fans and think about how to increase the number of Rovers fans who are willing to pay to come and watch the team.

[RevidgeBlue]

Perhaps because it is the truth.

We do not operate in a vacuum or in isolation. And dipsute the flawed maths of several people the club make more money (and thus have a better ability to compete at the highest level) from 18000 paying £30+ than from 22000 paying £20 plus or 25000 paying £10 plus.

That argument is fatally flawed.

Relatively few people will actually pay the 36 quid price, the vast majority of the crowd will be season ticket holders anyway and/or juniors/ OAP's. Practically the only people paying the full whack will be the travelling support.

Where will they be the first time we face Reading or Watford? At Goodison Park. All you've achieved is dissuading your casual Rovers fan from attending the Everton game and quite probably the Reading and Watford games as well.

I think the reason the prices are high is because they know that these type of clubs will bring more supporters and therefore make our attendance up, whilst still charging daft prices.

I think there should be 3 categories

A - Those clubs that finished in the top 6 (or 7 if your one of the top 6)

B - 7th - 14th

C - 15th - 17th + those promoted.

As I said on the other thread, imo there shouldn't be any categories with the ground a third empty!

In the current climate there should be a uniform price for all games. Our average attendances have dropped by at least five thousand since categorised prices were first introduced, and they're not now relevant.

[Wiggy]

I've talked to a few Toffee Men who are refusing to make the trip.....ones that wouldn't think of missing Ewood in the past. Apparently this is a big talking point amongst their fans. Good on them I say, they should vote with their feet if they feel they're being ripped off. As for which one of Rovers extortionately paid executives thought this one up, well spend a bit less time on the golf course and more researching your customers needs. Idiots!

Edited August 7, 2006 by Wiggy

[RevidgeBlue]

They need to forget about the away fans and think about how to increase the number of Rovers fans who are willing to pay to come and watch the team.

Couldn't agree more!

Could somone please mock that up in letters nine feet high and put it on the wall of John Williams' office!

[Gav]

Bottom line is we have to make cash somehow or we'd not be in the market for players like Benni Mac and Bellamy. If charging £36 to 5000+ Everton fans allows us to remain competitive then I'm all for it. Why don't the walk up Rovers fans just come to the cheaper games if they want to support the club so much.

It really gets on my nerves all this talk about walk up fans getting a raw deal. Every time we play Utd and Liverpool they want to come and many back their plight, but they should support us when the less glamorous sides come and not just the big boys.

I for one support the pricing.

[Paul]

As this topic has started to become a ticket prices discusion and there is the Everton Price thread running I've merged the two.

I have some thoughts which I shall add after Corrie!

[RevidgeBlue]

Bottom line is we have to make cash somehow or we'd not be in the market for players like Benni Mac and Bellamy. If charging £36 to 5000+ Everton fans allows us to remain competitive then I'm all for it.

A pound's a pound but at the end of the day we're not in the market for these sort of players because of our attendances, whether they be 15,000, 18,000, 20,000 or 25,000.

We're in for them because of the 25 m plus we receive from Sky and the Premier League every year.

[Wiggy]

Bottom line is we have to make cash somehow or we'd not be in the market for players like Benni Mac and Bellamy. If charging £36 to 5000+ Everton fans allows us to remain competitive then I'm all for it.

Fair enough and I agree with you to a certain extent. However the pricing structure has reached tipping point so that the extra £ 6 will have a negative effect on revenue. Many Evertonians will refuse to pay this price and I will be astounded if there are 5000 of them on the night. As for home fans, well plenty of Blackburnians need little excuse for a miserable old moan and a night in the pub whilst claiming the moral high ground.

Edited August 7, 2006 by Wiggy

[Gav]

A pound's a pound but at the end of the day we're not in the market for these sort of players because of our attendances, whether they be 15,000, 18,000, 20,000 or 25,000.

We're in for them because of the 25 m plus we receive from Sky and the Premier League every year.

I take your point and think you're right, but these moaning walk up fans who believe they're somehow owed something annoys me no end. We'll have the usual debate in the weeks leading up to the Man Utd game about how fans are being discriminated against because they're not on the database, yet they've had ample opportunity to get on the database since we last played Utd at home.

Maybe for another thread.

[ABBEY]

gav, nearly 80 quid over a few days is steep for most folks ,especially with kids

[stuwilky]

That argument is fatally flawed.

Relatively few people will actually pay the 36 quid price, the vast majority of the crowd will be season ticket holders anyway and/or juniors/ OAP's. Practically the only people paying the full whack will be the travelling support.

Its not fatally flawed, it may be wrong, but it offers an explanation.

Of course what Im disappointed Rovers havnt started doing is following the "Charlton" model. Effectively made the Blackburn and Darwen Ends price bands of their own (in the same way the Jimmy Seed and Covered Ends are at The Valley), thus making them "comparable seating". In practice it works better the higher the concentration of Season Ticket Holders there are. As matchday prices done affect them. Make the "End" price higher, but keep the side pricing lower.

Ive not explained it very well at all. But it makes sense to me

[ihateburnley]

Bottom line is we have to make cash somehow or we'd not be in the market for players like Benni Mac and Bellamy. If charging £36 to 5000+ Everton fans allows us to remain competitive then I'm all for it. Why don't the walk up Rovers fans just come to the cheaper games if they want to support the club so much.

It really gets on my nerves all this talk about walk up fans getting a raw deal. Every time we play Utd and Liverpool they want to come and many back their plight, but they should support us when the less glamorous sides come and not just the big boys.

I for one support the pricing.

I think that it possibly only the issue of support that prevents us being viewed as a big club. A full house creates a cracking atmosphere, and whilst I'm under no illusions that charging a fiver less will bring tens of thousands extra into the stadium, I do think it is becoming more and more of an issue for fans.

I'm not going to that game because it is too much. Simple as. It's not a question of loyalty, commitments, weather etc - it's money.

In it's most simple of examples:

24000 people paying £25 each = £600k (which is a very realistic and achievable attendance)

18000 people paying £36 each = £648k (which is a more probable attendance at present)

Now of course there's issues regarding concessions etc where we may not actually hit these figures, but the general gist of my argument is that a few grand more is hardy anything, compared with a fuller stadium, a cracking atmosphere, more likelihood of a result, and most importantly no more embarrassment over our attendances.

Gav - you say money is what attracts the players we have (or have had). Well maybe Bellamy would have stayed if we were getting 31,000 on Ewood everyweek!!!

I ask you all this. Which would you rather us have; a team that had overpaid superstars, half-full stadium and a ticket-policy that priced you out of going to support them anyway, OR, a more mediocre-looking squad, a near-full stadium and a ticket policy that encouraged new fans and allowed you to go and watch your team whenever you wanted?

[Exiled in Toronto]

Justification for the prices tends to go no further than the oft-quoted "among the cheapest in the premiership." But this is irrelevant on two counts. Firstly, it assumes that prices should be comparable, i.e. there is some sort of national market for premiership footy, whereas, apart from maybe Man Yoo, there isn't; it is a series of local markets.

It is completely irrelevant what another club charges when they are in a more affluent region with a completely different level of underlying demand. Pricing is the mechanism to balance supply and demand, and given that supply is relatively fixed (we all have the same fixtures and stadium capacities don't change in the short term), pricing should therefore correlate with the level of demand and the ground capacity fill-rate. We have by far the lowest in both.

The second reason for ignoring the price comparison justification is that the claim that we need to charge the same to compete for the same players just doesn't stack up when most of our income comes from Sky matches shown, league placing and commercial.

A third factor for me is that I do not buy into the view that real fans should turn up regardless when the clubs themselves have conspired to train their customers to accept the perfectly reasonable alternative of following football from home or in the pub. I'm not sure that "being there" is worth the massive price premium over watching remotely, eihter live or delayed, when watching footy in the pub is such an obviously enjoyable experience. It's cheap, you don't have to pre-book, you can sit where you like, you can drink, you can stand up and so on.

You simply cannot blame customers who choose not to buy your product or service when you ignore local market conditions.

[Paul]

Paul has IMO been one of the best posters with the insight to explain the situation including as many have said our love/hate feeling now of the game in general, and on many a time he always explains in great detail.

Thank you. I’m not sure you’re right though.

For me there are two truths connected to pricing, not just at Rovers but every club. The game changed forever with the advent of Sky (it could have been anyone), when that happened our game was taken from us and secondly, I feel Rovers have thrown in the towel on attendance. The issue is now how to maximise revenue

A few short years ago we had heroes, now there are no heroes in our house. I'm not blaming Shearer, but I'll never forget the heartbreak he caused. I knew he was going, with every goal in the Euros it became more obvious. On reflection that was the day the game began to die for me, I couldn't trust the players anymore.

For decades the clubs needed income from the support, now it is important but far less so. When Sky came along not a single PL chairman had the vision or courage to recognise what would happen in the future (isn't hindsight wonderful?). Fabulous (now obscene) money was given to players. Lets not forget approximately 80%, yes that's right £80 in every £100 or £28.80 of the £36 you paid to get in, is paid in salaries at most clubs. This money has created an enormous divide between fans and their team. It’s a gulf too great to be bridged. The relationship between fan and player has been severed. We are fed insulting pap in the media every day and expected to believe. Pull the other one, I’m not daft. I switched off years ago, I haven't a clue who plays for who these days. I can't name another PL first choice 11.

The game is dead. Can we get it back? Unlikely, a generation has been lost, football is now entertainment, so entertain me (and why not, £28.80 of my hard earned has just been given to that bunch on the field), it's a business that takes commercial decisions to maximise income. That is where we are today and why I feel Rovers have thrown in the towel on ticket prices.

Commercially it makes sense to charge your highest prices to those willing to pay, while retaining the core customers. So how to do this? In April offer an Early Bird scheme, reward those who commit to a full season. Publicly the club demonstrate how competitive Rovers are. I have no complaint about the total cost of my season tickets. Maximise match day income by categorising games on the basis of travelling support. Clubs with a large travelling support will become A+, add a couple of big name London clubs and state it’s based on “entertainment” value.

Reducing the Everton price by £10 would not make one jot of difference to the attendance; therefore the price is £36. The fans we need are in the pub. Why? I don't know, it's beyond my comprehension. A Rovers fan should be at Ewood. If you are making a genuine protest, as cletus is doing, fair enough, but if you're in the pub downing a gallon of beer, twenty fags and a carry out please don't tell me you're a fan or bleat about prices.

Thenodrog is right, Lancashire United will happen. I will not watch it, but it will happen. Glazer has a franchise in Manchester, Abramovich has London, some American wants Birmingham, and another foreign owner has Portsmouth. It isn't far away, but unless it’s called Blackburn Rovers, plays in blue and white at Ewood Park wild horses wouldn't drag me. Look at Chelsea it's not a foorball club anymore.

The only answer is for fans to boycott games. It may be starting to happen, I'm not sure I could do it, well not until we are supporting a bus company.

Tired of it? Yes. Sick of the money in the game? Yes. Got your tickets for New Zealand? YES

Edited August 8, 2006 by Paul

[roversmum]

I trust those fans who are not coming to the Everton game for the reason of cost will be at the New Zealand match to see how the new season's squad is shaping up?

[RevidgeBlue]

I feel Rovers have thrown in the towel on attendance. The issue is now how to maximise revenue

You may well be right although I sincerely hope you are not, surely we have more imagination, ambition and ingenuity than that.

The thing is though, are we really maximising revenue? What are we really gaining by charging up to 5,000 (I doubt there'll even be that many) Everton fans 36 quid instead of say a more reasonable 26 quid?

Even if no more fans attend at 26 quid (unlikely) we're only gaining a maximum of 50k. But the knock on effects in terms of home fans not attending either that game and other games this season and the general loss of good will towards the club must surely exceed that many times over.

[blue.white]

Well maybe Bellamy would have stayed if we were getting 31,000 on Ewood everyweek!!!

Bellamy left for Liverpool because he has always been a Liverpool fan and is now able to fulfill his boyhood dream of playing for them. He has stated in numerous interviews that he wouldn't have left Rovers for any other club, and even took a reduced salary to join Liverpool compared to the improved contract we offered him.

I ask you all this. Which would you rather us have; a team that had overpaid superstars, half-full stadium and a ticket-policy that priced you out of going to support them anyway, OR, a more mediocre-looking squad, a near-full stadium and a ticket policy that encouraged new fans and allowed you to go and watch your team whenever you wanted?

The way you've worded the question makes it sound like a lose/lose situation, but I'm not so sure that a quality team and a reasonable pricing policy are mutually exclusive.

Fair enough, we can't match the likes of Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Newcastle in terms of monetary power, but last season shows that with the right ambition and passion and a decent coaching setup that we can often match them in terms of quality without £120,000pw "superstars".

We must focus on continuing to fund the academy, which is producing some promising youngsters, as well as scouting for talent in leagues other than La Liga, Serie A and the Premiership. You only have to look at Morten Gamst Pedersen - signed from Norweigan club Tromso for around £2m - to see that we don't need to spend mega-bucks to bring in quality players.

Edited August 8, 2006 by blue.white

[Ste B]

Could somone please mock that up in letters nine feet high and put it on the wall of John Williams' office!

He might have to move that Dartboard with your picture on it in that case.

Perhaps Rovers should also be given some credit where its due for a change.

I renewed my season ticket at LAST YEARS prices because of the early bird scheme, and have spread the cost of the ticket over 10 months. That means I don't have to spend 72 quid in a week to get to the first two home games.