[Archived] Venky's Takeover Complete

[Mattyblue]

If any of the "town's muslims" dipped into this and many other threads, would they feel assured that they'd receive a warm welcome from their fellow townsfolk? Catch 22 isn't it?

Well they should ask their fellow Muslims who do go to Ewood and ask how much abuse they have heard or received at the ground. Very, very little if any I would wager.

It is time for ALL of the town's residents to get behind the football club, the ONLY thing that this town has left of true renown.

[unclejack28]

I cant believe some of the stuff people have written on here. Am I nervous - Yes, Am I concerned - NO and ill tell you why looking at the facts

1. The club had albeit 4 offers for our club and chose this one

2. I was pleased with the offer details in terms of keeping as much tradition of the club. If I was buying something for 50 million id like to think I could do whatever I wanted to with that investment, but here they have accepted the club are passionate about Jacks legacy and keeping the stands name and statue etc is a great sign

3. Keeping the trusts for 3 years at 1 million is also a very good move, How many other clubs have done this? surely didn't see it at Portsmouth and all those others.

4. Currently for the last 4 years we have had no investment, all our buys have been based on sales and the balance money used to balance books. Even if Venky does invest lets say 2 million a year how is that worse than what we have now? (I know the figure is low just making a point)

5. In regards to renaming the stadium so what if its called Venkys Ewood. Everyone here will still know it as Ewood park and also they have seen sense not to remove Ewood from the name again showing they do care for traditions. Arsenals stadium is called Emirates, they are allowed to advertise but we cant?

6. Motives to help the brand and football in India - Again so what. As iv stated earlier India is a great market to exploit, setting up training camps and allowing players from there to come here to train is a great start and would be happy if our club was able to help football as a sport in any nation.

In my opinion im sure they have done enough research to know what we as fans expect and what they as owners expect from the club. They have told us not to expect a man city type spending spree but so far they have been realistic in their responses. The Birmingham owners never came in and said We will be challenging for Europe etc, That's not possible to say in the short term in today's football, whats more important for a club like ours is stability which I feel is what VH will bring to the table. Why am I nervous? iv said this before and ill say it again.

The only thing that worries me about this group is that if things go bad and maybe extra non planned investment is needed I don't know how easily it will be available. If their plan doesn't work and we do get relegated where would they leave us? and if buying a club doesn't get them the expected returns for their pharmaceuticals or whatever they want to promote in the UK where will they leave us. These answers are the ones that need answering but I guess we will never know until any of these situations arise.

Overall I understand people dislike change but again lets just be positive about this and give them a far chance until we have a factual reason to be doubtful because up until now iv seen nothing to feel disheartened about.

[PAFELL]

Well they should ask their fellow Muslims who do go to Ewood and ask how much abuse they have heard or received at the ground. Very, very little if any I would wager.

It is time for ALL of the town's residents to get behind the football club, the ONLY thing that this town has left of true renown.

They may not get abused inside the ground. but I know for a fact that outside of Ewood Park there is a lot of race hate.

with my wife being of Chinese race, yet born in the UK and myself english I have encountered it an a number of occasions.

It is a time, not just for Blackburn people, that people wake up and accept that the Uk is multi racial.

[deryck guyler's spoon]

It is a time, not just for Blackburn people, that people wake up and accept that the Uk is multi racial.

I think this would be an opportune time to have a Thenodrog sweep.

[PAFELL]

I think you've just got my post a little bit muddled Pafell. If you care to go back and read it again what I actually said is the proposal by Mrs Desai to rename the stadium as Venkys Ewood would possibly lead to objections from residents of Ewood (the district) or the council, whereas calling the stadium Venkys Ewood Park would be quite valid.

Fife Rover, what I was trying to say is that neither the coucil or local resident would have any say if the Venky's or for that matter anybody else chose to change the name of Ewood Park, as in the football ground. I was saying there is no law saying you must name the ground after the local area / road.

Take Arsenal or Bolton as examples, there is no town / area called emirates or reebok, yet arsenal and bloton have named their grounds after their sponsors. If for example the Venky's wanted to change the name to Venky's Ewood Park they could do so. The area of the ground may well be Ewood, but it is not Ewood Park - the Park is the ground that is in Ewood. I suppose if the council wanted to be daft they could object to EWOOD Park. They could, but would not, demand a fee for using the name Ewood. Extremely hypothetical of course.

[47er]

Well they should ask their fellow Muslims who do go to Ewood and ask how much abuse they have heard or received at the ground. Very, very little if any I would wager.

It is time for ALL of the town's residents to get behind the football club, the ONLY thing that this town has left of true renown.

I'd agree with you. Those Asians who do attend Rovers' game don't get any stick at all from what I can see. Encouragingly their numbers seem to be growing if slowly. That wan't my point though.

[PAFELL]

I would have thought any extra support from the sizeable local Indian community showing their backing for the Rao Brothers and thier new ownership of Rovers would have been welcome Paul.

Tat?

Early kick-off aside,I do believe today was Ewood's lowest crowd of the season?......................

It was live on TV. Why pay for a ticket when you can watch it from home. I watched it on TV. Put aside I live down south. I bet there were others who either watched on TV / computer stream or listened on the radio.

I also know a lot of people who do not like Sunday football, many for religious reasons.

What I am saying is that there could be a number of reasons why people did not or could not go today's match. Therefore it can never be right to judge that the new takeover has been seen as a bad move.

A lot of people take time to adjust to change in all ways of life. But with regards to Rovers, if results and performance and league positions change for the better, if people stayed away today because of who the new owners are, they will soon be back.

[PAFELL]

Last Warning. Takeover discussion, not meta analysis of each others motives and beliefs.

Sorry Glen, but I have to ask, I may have misunderstood your post and sorry if I have. But are you saying we cannot speak out about posters who write views that are clearly of a anti race nature. PM me if need to.

[MikeB]

Sometimes change is needed as things can become stale.

I am genuinely excited at the possibilities and the infusion of new creative thinking that will raise Rovers' profile, increase revenue and therefore give us the opportunity to become the truly competitive force that we all want.

People I spoke with today were all 'up' for the new ownership and I sensed the dawning of real optimism that was only mildly tempered by a natural degree of trepidation.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Well they should ask their fellow Muslims who do go to Ewood and ask how much abuse they have heard or received at the ground. Very, very little if any I would wager.

It is time for ALL of the town's residents to get behind the football club, the ONLY thing that this town has left of true renown.

I thought the new owners are Hindus.

[PAFELL]

I thought the new owners are Hindus.

I think you are right in that. But sadly, due to ignorance people label Indians / those from pakistan etc as muslims. At the end of the day a person is a person and should not be judged on their religion, colour, race etc, but on how they are as people. Anybody who makes such judgements based upon race etc, just reveal themselves as ignorant idiots.

[Glenn]

Sorry Glen, but I have to ask, I may have misunderstood your post and sorry if I have. But are you saying we cannot speak out about posters who write views that are clearly of a anti race nature. PM me if need to.

One of the things that a. massively lowers thread quality and b. gets me wound up is when disagreement on subject matter (which isn't just a good thing, it's an essential thing for a forum) turns into a PERSONAL disagreement and this thread seemed to be about to head that way. This a partly because it keeps us away from UK defamation laws and partly because we've said we won't tolerate personal attacks. So feel free to disagree with people's ideas, just don't make it personal (and don't call somebody racists or xenophobic with being able and willing to prove it ). I hope that makes sense.

[BPF]

[Hughesy]

I can understand them looking at the possible sale of naming rights given the massive income it could generate....however I would ask the Rao brothers & their Sister to WAIT....there is no rush & surely we would get a much bigger fee if we had already made an impact in India??

[Darwen Rover]

The way to attract 'muslims' or anyone at that is to make a connection with said individuals to the club.. And it has to be done at an early age.. A more strategical proactive approach needs to be taken to plant the seeds for the future.. Having certain raced / background owners will not make a shred of difference.. And neither will special incentives for certain racial groups which will just cause more resentment...

Football is for the people and we at Rovers are unbelievably lucky to have such a great club at bargain prices.. We have leveraged the price conscious market, we now need to win the hearts of the future before sky sports does via the big 4...

[tony gale's mic]

Well they should ask their fellow Muslims who do go to Ewood and ask how much abuse they have heard or received at the ground. Very, very little if any I would wager.

It is time for ALL of the town's residents to get behind the football club, the ONLY thing that this town has left of true renown.

Most of them are into football but a lot of them don't support Rovers. People generally support football teams primarily on who the family supports rather than location and a lot of them are first and second generation who wouldn't have grown up in a family of Rovers fans like many here have done.

So they started to support Man U and Liverpool from a young age and this has carried on. To expect them to suddenly change to Rovers now we have Indian owners is asking a lot. However I do feel some of them could be converted with the right marketing as theyd have an opportunity to see live football at their doorstep rather than just on TV. But it would be a gradual thing for sure.

[RoyRover]

If I'm being honest, I don't see that much changing in the near future. Sam will finally have some money to spend, even if it is a small amount to start. I just want to know that the club is in the right hands and that we are financially secure for the future. I don't want to have hundreds of millions of pounds blown on players like at Man City. The way they have conducted themselves makes me feel ill and I wouldn't want our club to be like that; not that the new owners have that sort of cash to splash. It would just be nice to know that we can compete with the teams in and around us and that if Sam would like to sign a modestly priced player who can improve us, he can do so without having to sell.

What's more, I hope that the new owners are realistic people who realise that things will take time to change at Rovers and have enough humility to know that they are newcomers to the world of football and they need to listen to people like John Williams and Sam, who will know a whole lot more about how to run a club and how to recruit players. They seem to be genuine enough, so if they can let the club run like it has been and be the source of investment that we have needed then things can work out well. I only worry that with foreign owners, they can start having their own thoughts on team selections, tactics and player recruitment which always leads to trouble.

.

[RovertheHill]

That was uncalled for

[Bobby G]

Express says fans crying foul over renaming of our stadium to potentially Venkys Stadium or something like that. I think this has been discussed before.

[Montfort]

Didn't the new owners look cold.? Still they should be able to afford a top of the range overcoat for the next time they come.

[Fife Rover]

Didn't the new owners look cold.? Still they should be able to afford a top of the range overcoat for the next time they come.

Primarks finest?

[Hughesy]

Mrs Desai (sp?) mentioned it could be called Venkys stadium or something based around the sponsor name..like the Emirates....nobody said IT WOULD be called the Venkys stadium. Add into that the language barrier...typical press just use the one line they want!

[RibbleValleyRover]

Surely it might be something like they have at Newcastle? Venky's @ Ewood Park? I suspect they will try and get an outside sponsor first, if not then they might decide to sponsor it.

I have no real problem with it as long as:

1- The sponsor isn't something ridiculous and therefore makes us look like a laughing stock. The Durex Stadium for example.

2- It provides a real financial benefit.

I suspect most will call it Ewood Park anyway no matter what it's changed to, I know i will.

[Bobby G]

Durex Dome would actually get a lot of publicity as well. Thats what its all about isnt?

[Smithy]

Surely it might be something like they have at Newcastle? Venky's @ Ewood Park? I suspect they will try and get an outside sponsor first, if not then they might decide to sponsor it.

I have no real problem with it as long as:

1- The sponsor isn't something ridiculous and therefore makes us look like a laughing stock. The Durex Stadium for example.

2- It provides a real financial benefit.

I suspect most will call it Ewood Park anyway no matter what its changed to, I know i will.

If venky's sponsor it say at 1 year at a time it could be raised as needed to increase club funds. I'm not 100% on the financial rules coming in but surely sponsorship isn't capped and I assume there are no issues over sponsoring your own club?