The State of Ewood Park!

[OldEwoodBlue]

3 hours ago, JHRover said:

The cost of a desso pitch can be 7 figures. But certainly not 3 or 4 million unless you are doing it on all the pitches we have including the training ground.

To just do Ewood it would be more like £1 million. Expensive yes but that is a one off, so divide over many years and the costs come down.

I wouldn't blame the ground staff. They can only work with what they are given and it is clear that isn't enough. Who'd have thought that the best owners we could hope for would cut corners on facilities. 

A symptom of their neglect and lack of care. Thankfully it might force the issue now People can see what a mess it is and we get a public shaming for it.

Won't be long before Players are looking for a move because they are fed up of playing on a mud heap.

What people are forgetting is that the annual investment in the pitch maintenance and the cost of groundstaff, were casualties of the cuts when we got relegated.

The decision was to retain the Championship playing staff and the Cat A academy. Everything else was cut from the budget and key staff were made redundant.

The groundsman spreads his time covering Ewood and Brockhall. Previously they had their own teams. That was part of the restructuring.

Blame lies with our owners for past decisions which have resulted in our general demise to mediocrity via the third division.

KPMG said you can afford nice grass or Danny Graham but not both.

 

[Tugayisgod]

Now that’s a pitch!

Edited January 17, 2021 by Tugayisgod

[bluebruce]

2 hours ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

What people are forgetting is that the annual investment in the pitch maintenance and the cost of groundstaff, were casualties of the cuts when we got relegated.

The decision was to retain the Championship playing staff and the Cat A academy. Everything else was cut from the budget and key staff were made redundant.

The groundsman spreads his time covering Ewood and Brockhall. Previously they had their own teams. That was part of the restructuring.

Blame lies with our owners for past decisions which have resulted in our general demise to mediocrity via the third division.

KPMG said you can afford nice grass or Danny Graham but not both.

 

The recent quotes from Mowbray talk about grounds staff in the plural. Not just one bloke.

I know one of the grounds men, though I don't see or speak to him often. I'm reasonably sure I remember he was still there in League One though.

[darrenrover]

5 hours ago, JHRover said:

The cost of a desso pitch can be 7 figures. But certainly not 3 or 4 million unless you are doing it on all the pitches we have including the training ground.

To just do Ewood it would be more like £1 million. Expensive yes but that is a one off, so divide over many years and the costs come down.

I wouldn't blame the ground staff. They can only work with what they are given and it is clear that isn't enough. Who'd have thought that the best owners we could hope for would cut corners on facilities. 

A symptom of their neglect and lack of care. Thankfully it might force the issue now People can see what a mess it is and we get a public shaming for it.

Won't be long before Players are looking for a move because they are fed up of playing on a mud heap.

It did NOT get as far as even being discussed in India, as I believe. The ultra low cost option was included in budgetary planning submissions allegedly, by the "what do I know about football, you could write it on a postage stamp, brigade!"

I do not believe that the owners are culpable in any way, save for the fact they saw fit to employ the current incumbents idiots. Hopefully it's another lesson learned the hard way.

[bazza]

1 hour ago, darrenrover said:

It did NOT get as far as even being discussed in India, as I believe. The ultra low cost option was included in budgetary planning submissions allegedly, by the "what do I know about football, you could write it on a postage stamp, brigade!"

I do not believe that the owners are culpable in any way, save for the fact they saw fit to employ the current incumbents idiots. Hopefully it's another lesson learned the hard way.

If the Venkys can run successful poultry and pharmaceutical businesses why can't they ensure that a football club has competent people running it?

[OldEwoodBlue]

6 minutes ago, bazza said:

If the Venkys can run successful poultry and pharmaceutical businesses why can't they ensure that a football club has competent people running it?

Successful profit making business = employ high quality well paid executives.

Loss making small town football club = employ low quality monkeys.

[darrenrover]

1 hour ago, bazza said:

If the Venkys can run successful poultry and pharmaceutical businesses why can't they ensure that a football club has competent people running it?

Dunno bazza but hopefully we may be able to find out, one way or t'other...........😉

Oh, I almost forgot: WE ARE The Rovers!!!

Edited January 17, 2021 by darrenrover

[pjt]

Pretty sure the owners cant blame FFP for not investing in the pitch. The cost of pitch upgrades doesn't count towards it!

[JHRover]

10 hours ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

What people are forgetting is that the annual investment in the pitch maintenance and the cost of groundstaff, were casualties of the cuts when we got relegated.

The decision was to retain the Championship playing staff and the Cat A academy. Everything else was cut from the budget and key staff were made redundant.

The groundsman spreads his time covering Ewood and Brockhall. Previously they had their own teams. That was part of the restructuring.

Blame lies with our owners for past decisions which have resulted in our general demise to mediocrity via the third division.

KPMG said you can afford nice grass or Danny Graham but not both.

 

Much of that may be true. I would point out that the KPMG audit was only conducted in mid-2017 after the self-inflicted relegation to the third division and almost 7 years into the Venky era, so there was nothing stopping them investing in the pitch between 2010 and 2017 including whilst we were still in the Premier League. They didn't do it then and haven't done since not because the owners can't afford it but because they simply don't care and won't spend money on the facilities unless it is essential.

They could invest in a nice pitch, just like everyone else in the Championship manages, just like they could spend some money getting Ewood cleaned and weeds removed. But sat in a palace in Pune you don't see such issues whereas we have to sit in it and drive past it. 

Now that their mate Mowbray is kicking up a fuss about it something might happen, but he'll know better than to cause trouble with the owners about it and instead have a moan in the Telegraph and with Waggott but not with the people who matter.

The whole club reeks of short termism, corner cutting, cost cutting and bare minimum. Eventually in life such an approach comes back to bite you.

[AllRoverAsia]

8 hours ago, Tugayisgod said:

Now that’s a pitch!

Cracking game, I've convinced myself I saw it on TV back in the day.

A perfectly playable pitch for the notoriously bad Baseball Ground.

It would need to be waterlogged, frozen or severely Snowbound to be called off .... Not just because it looked like a ploughed field.

Plenty of skills on display in that game too.

Today if the boots get dirty it's game off time.

Feckin softies.

[Ghost7]

Total incompetence by the owners. 

Maintaining the facilities and playing surface is the least you come to expect at Championship level with billionaire owners;

and the management team that is too scared to push for the standards to be maintained you should not be in the positions you are.

Good luck to the players on Tuesday, they deserve better. I won't be tuning in. If you don't feel like running the club properly I don't feel like supporting it properly.

[darrenrover]

3 hours ago, Ghost7 said:

Total incompetence by the owners. 

Maintaining the facilities and playing surface is the least you come to expect at Championship level with billionaire owners;

and the management team that is too scared to push for the standards to be maintained you should not be in the positions you are.

Good luck to the players on Tuesday, they deserve better. I won't be tuning in. If you don't feel like running the club properly I don't feel like supporting it properly.

....but if it was run properly?

[arbitro]

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/first-images-swansea-citys-brand-19527856

Swansea laid a brand new pitch in a really short space of time at the end of last year. And I know for certain that Steve rang their American owners direct and explained the situation and the benefits which could potentially be promotion. They coughed up the money immediately. Our pound shop management just whine in the local press. 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

14 hours ago, bazza said:

If the Venkys can run successful poultry and pharmaceutical businesses why can't they ensure that a football club has competent people running it?

THE Million Dollar,Holy Grail question at the centre of the Rovers fan Universe.

Some ten years on and were still scratching our Heads.

 

[Tom]

Embarrassing for a game to be called off 10 hours before kick off for a waterlogged pitch when it’s not even been particularly bad 

[only2garners]

Really Tom? I know I'm in Penwortham but it can't be much different to Blackburn. It's been raining solidly here since last night and is scheduled to carry on until tomorrow night. Already our front garden is completely under water and it hasn't done that before in the 35 years we've been here.

[Tom]

I’m in Cherry tree, our garden is wet but not under water by any means, we’ve certainly had much much worse rain and had games go ahead 

[Stuart]

No way is this down to the level of rain. Nothing to speak of compared to other recent spells. This is all down to the pitch. Something has changed at the club in recent times IMHO. On the face of it, spending the absolute minimum on maintenance is now biting.

Embarrassing.

[Tom]

Do I recall we have an issue with some sort of tanks under the pitch that can’t empty when the river is full extrapolating the issue?

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Just now, Stuart said:

No way is this down to the level of rain. Nothing to speak of compared to other recent spells. This is all down to the pitch. Something has changed at the club in recent times IMHO. On the face of it, spending the absolute minimum on maintenance is now biting.

Embarrassing.

I’m fairly certain this has SOMETHING to do with the amount of rain.

Doesnt get away from the obvious. The pitch has been terrible all season. Even against Wycombe, it was cutting up. Not seen a league pitch this bad since the late 90s. Feel sorry for the ground staff who clearly have no chance. There needs to be a massive re-think.

Saw a video yesterday of Leicester’s new training complex. That is how you invest in a football club.

[Ghost7]

1 minute ago, Tom said:

Do I recall we have an issue with some sort of tanks under the pitch that can’t empty when the river is full extrapolating the issue?

No we have an issue in Pune.

[TheKitGuy]

15 minutes ago, only2garners said:

Really Tom? I know I'm in Penwortham but it can't be much different to Blackburn. It's been raining solidly here since last night and is scheduled to carry on until tomorrow night. Already our front garden is completely under water and it hasn't done that before in the 35 years we've been here.

Yeah mate but your garden doesn't have professional drainage systems and groundsmen employed for the upkeep? 

[Stuart]

9 minutes ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

I’m fairly certain this has SOMETHING to do with the amount of rain.

Doesnt get away from the obvious. The pitch has been terrible all season. Even against Wycombe, it was cutting up. Not seen a league pitch this bad since the late 90s. Feel sorry for the ground staff who clearly have no chance. There needs to be a massive re-think.

Saw a video yesterday of Leicester’s new training complex. That is how you invest in a football club.

The amount of rainfall should not have caused a postponement.

A grass playing surface at an elite level football club should be maintained to elite level standard.

Give the ground staff the right tools!

[Tom]

Getting my lunchtime fresh air and this is the current state of the pitch on Green Lane a mile or so up the road from Ewood 

[rigger]

1 hour ago, TheKitGuy said:

Yeah mate but your garden doesn't have professional drainage systems and groundsmen employed for the upkeep? 

Neither does Ewood