Attendances: A cause for concern

[arbitro]

In a perverse way Covid has been a screen for Waggott to hide behind. It's given him something to blame for his failings although the blessing of furlough must have saved him a significant chunk of money. Rovers are bucking the trend here. The majority of clubs are getting increased or similar gates to pre Covid times. His poor stewardship of our club should really grate with every Rovers fan but somehow I doubt it.

[JBiz]

9 minutes ago, rigger said:

Just for comparrisons sake : Burnley a league above us £360, Accy a league below us £220. Shouldn't we be at about £290 ?

When you’re turnover is £120million before you even open your doors - you’d think Burnley’s would be even cheaper.

Stanley is £20 a game otherwise - can’t knock Holt with the way he’s building the club but they’re super limited on wages and they hardly have any overheads in terms of structural / academy compared to us.

[arbitro]

According to this article Rovers are one of the more expensive season tickets in the Championship but that excludes several clubs who hadn't issued prices at the time the article was printed.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/championship-season-tickets-cheapest-expensive-24279478

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

I think the club underestimated the resentment and frustration from last season. The terrible run of form in Feb/March and falling woefully below expectations. Off the back of that, it’s hardly surprising that fans are reluctant to return.

[tomphil]

I think part of the issue is the year on year hikes of STs despite the clear malaise around the club and manager.

Not rocket science to know the numbers would more likely drop all things taken into account. Talked about it before but it's all about peoples perspection on it and as we know at Rovers it's pretty split.

You can't embark on a downscale, lie to fans year on year, try and sell the training ground for building, advertise your best players for sale, keep a manager who wins 2 in 17 or whatever and publically states he's happy to keep losing 0-1 etc.

And expect any other than season ticket sales to follow your own trend - downwards.

 

Edited October 30, 2021 by tomphil

[chaddyrovers]

3 hours ago, rigger said:

My personal circumstances has nothing to do with the fact that, £400 for a season ticket, is not a good deal. 

But you don't have a season ticket tho?

2 hours ago, rigger said:

Just for comparrisons sake : Burnley a league above us £360, Accy a league below us £220. Shouldn't we be at about £290 ?

Nope. It I was making this decision I would have season ticket prices at £230 in most areas. Kids under 12 I would charge a pounds all season 

Edited October 30, 2021 by chaddyrovers

[47er]

2 hours ago, JBiz said:

When you’re turnover is £120million before you even open your doors - you’d think Burnley’s would be even cheaper.

Stanley is £20 a game otherwise - can’t knock Holt with the way he’s building the club but they’re super limited on wages and they hardly have any overheads in terms of structural / academy compared to us.

I agree with you but I thought Burnley's top price was £580 or around that?

That's the starting price at some Premier League clubs by the way!

Another difference between us and Stanley is that they are a club close to their community and growing because of it. The exact opposite of us!

Edited October 30, 2021 by 47er

[tomphil]

Do Premier league Burnley fill their own c18k seats in their tin shack ?

If not then why not ?

[Wood26]

The Sheffield United game will be interesting at £14.60 a ticket. They have already sold out their allocation.

Im intrigued to see how many extras we get. Hoping I’m wrong but I expect about 2k extra maximum. Because I still think it’s not a cost thing for most, it’s a success thing.

[Doogs]

6 hours ago, Wood26 said:

The Sheffield United game will be interesting at £14.60 a ticket. They have already sold out their allocation.

Im intrigued to see how many extras we get. Hoping I’m wrong but I expect about 2k extra maximum. Because I still think it’s not a cost thing for most, it’s a success thing.

I have just bought two tickets for this game. First visit to Ewood this season.

[arbitro]

2 hours ago, Doogs said:

I have just bought two tickets for this game. First visit to Ewood this season.

Please don't take this personally but what has prompted you to go? I think for fans who are going for the first time this season there should be a follow up call from the club to ask that very question. Then at least there could be proof of why our crowds have dropped alarmingly.

[matt83]

51 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Please don't take this personally but what has prompted you to go? I think for fans who are going for the first time this season there should be a follow up call from the club to ask that very question. Then at least there could be proof of why our crowds have dropped alarmingly.

Re calls I’ve no idea why the club don’t have someone or employ someone to call people off their existing database in order to find out why they no longer attend and even try to convince them to come along.

I had a season ticket for 20 years yet have bought only a hand full of home ticket off them in 10 years (even though have been through other peoples accounts). Surely they’re curious as to why and the other largely missing 10,000. To be fair there’s nothing they could say to convince me to buy a season ticket with this manager and owners but at least they’ll have a picture of why people aren’t going wherever it’s that, cost, moved away, lost interest, etc…

As usual they try nothing and they’re all out of ideas. In truth I suspect they know exactly why but aren’t prepared to do anything about it. 

Edited October 31, 2021 by matt83

[lraC]

23 hours ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

I think the club underestimated the resentment and frustration from last season. The terrible run of form in Feb/March and falling woefully below expectations. Off the back of that, it’s hardly surprising that fans are reluctant to return.

You are pretty much spot on with that.

I think certain people at the club takes fans for mugs and we are not the only club that do it.

I went to a La Liga game yesterday Elche V Real Madrid. Crowd were buzzing and it was almost a full house, Granted the mighty Real Madrid were the visitors, but it was great to see and hear so many passionate fans.

Due to going there, I had a closer look at La Liga yesterday and noticed the attendance at the Nou camp, was unbelievably low for Barcelona. It seems even their fans will not take the miss management that is going on and just carry on going regardless. They are voting with their feet and their ground was less than a third full.

[cesus]

On 30/10/2021 at 10:19, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

I think the club underestimated the resentment and frustration from last season. The terrible run of form in Feb/March and falling woefully below expectations. Off the back of that, it’s hardly surprising that fans are reluctant to return.

Completely agree with this. I think there has to be some acceptance from Waggott that people will not continue to blindly support Mowbray or Venkys continued running down of the club. 

What would have me worried about attendances if I was Waggott would be this is probably the "easiest" Rovers team to back in years. Plenty of academy players, no player that all fans love to hate, nobody who isn't trying. The actual squad is rather likeable when you consider we've had the likes of Orr, Best, Murphy in the past.

Edited October 31, 2021 by cesus

[arbitro]

33 minutes ago, matt83 said:

Re calls I’ve no idea why the club don’t have someone or employ someone to call people off their existing database in order to find out why they no longer attend and even try to convince them to come along.

I had a season ticket for 20 years yet have bought only a hand full of home ticket off them in 10 years (even though have been through other peoples accounts). Surely they’re curious as to why and the other largely missing 10,000. To be fair there’s nothing they could say to convince me to buy a season ticket with this manager and owners but at least they’ll have a picture of why people aren’t going wherever it’s that, cost, moved away, lost interest, etc…

As usual they try nothing and they’re all out of ideas. In truth I suspect they know exactly why but aren’t prepared to do anything about it. 

It really is a simple job to employ a marketing consultancy firm for a week or two to get some answers. Clearly there is a cost associated to this but surely it would be money well spent for the club to find out and perhaps use the answers positively. When you consider the money wasted on the failed sale of the STC it's another example of the poor leadership down there. Or, more likely Waggott doesn't care and is happy to blame Covid.

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, cesus said:

Completely agree with this. I think there has to be some acceptance from Waggott that people will not continue to blindly support Mowbray or Venkys continued running down of the club. 

What would have me worried about attendances if I was Waggott would be this is probably the "easiest" Rovers team to back in years. Plenty of academy players, no player that all fans love to hate, nobody who isn't trying. The actual squad is rather likeable when you consider we've had the likes of Orr, Best, Murphy in the past.

100% on this they've missed yet another marketing trick like they did after promotion.

Should have been all out come and back this young cheaper paid side on cheaper tickets. Like a reset after getting wage big wage stealers off the books finally and having a young hungry team with a fearless approach.

Sadly they are only interested in the midtable plod and the comfort zone it creates.

I personally can buy into things this season and much prefer the youth is the future approach. Compared to previous seasons recently, it's not perfect but you can forgive that as long as they all try.

Even though i find a lot of the managers methods and words annoying iv'e enjoyed this season o far. 

[Wheelton Blue]

My expectations at the start of the season were so low that anything above a relegation scrap would have been a bonus. I'm pleasantly suprised at where we are in the table, and as @tomphilsays, there's a lot to like about our younger players. Dolan in particular for me, plays in such a way that you can't help but like him.

Over the course of the rest of the season though, Mowbray won't be able to help himself, we all know that. This is the frustrating part for me; if only he'd just stick to what works for the players he has and stops dicking around with tactics etc, we could have a surprisingly good season. 

[tomphil]

A good finish this season and it's all set up for a good imaginative pricing and marketing campaign next summer.

Use that to hike prices again, say nothing, try and sell more fixed assets and players and we'll take another big hit at the ticket office.

[DeeCee]

2 hours ago, arbitro said:

It really is a simple job to employ a marketing consultancy firm for a week or two to get some answers. Clearly there is a cost associated to this but surely it would be money well spent for the club to find out and perhaps use the answers positively. When you consider the money wasted on the failed sale of the STC it's another example of the poor leadership down there. Or, more likely Waggott doesn't care and is happy to blame Covid.

They don't want to know.

[arbitro]

1 hour ago, DeeCee said:

They don't want to know.

The fans or the club?

[Oldgregg86]

6 hours ago, lraC said:

You are pretty much spot on with that.

I think certain people at the club takes fans for mugs and we are not the only club that do it.

I went to a La Liga game yesterday Elche V Real Madrid. Crowd were buzzing and it was almost a full house, Granted the mighty Real Madrid were the visitors, but it was great to see and hear so many passionate fans.

Due to going there, I had a closer look at La Liga yesterday and noticed the attendance at the Nou camp, was unbelievably low for Barcelona. It seems even their fans will not take the miss management that is going on and just carry on going regardless. They are voting with their feet and their ground was less than a third full.

I saw the Barca game and there was only 37000 in a 99000 seater stadium. If you factor in they get quite abit of tourism based customers that is alarmingly low. 

[matt83]

1 hour ago, Oldgregg86 said:

I saw the Barca game and there was only 37000 in a 99000 seater stadium. If you factor in they get quite abit of tourism based customers that is alarmingly low. 

It’s the best form of protest to vote with your feet. I imagine they’ll make a solid managerial appointment or replace their president (seems to be a thing to placate people over there) and they’ll be back.

It would be interesting to see what the attendances of the international Goliath’s of Barcelona would be if the owners/management team took the piss out of them for 10 years. 

[Wheelton Blue]

Barca fans are a bit odd.

I watched the Classico last week when there was nearly 90k on.

[DeeCee]

5 hours ago, arbitro said:

The fans or the club?

The club, especially Waggot.

[RevidgeBlue]

2 hours ago, DeeCee said:

The club, especially Waggot.

Have to agree with this.

What do they do if a substantial chunk say "Not going again until Mowbray/Waggott leave." (Which would have been my reasoning had I decided not to take up my ST once more this season)

Alternatively what would they do if most said "Not going because of the owners?" Would they have the testicular fortitude to report that back?

Much easier to blame it all on Covid.