Attendances

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

Stop blaming the strategy. The tickets aren’t that expensive. They’re competitively priced for the league we’re in. That’s not subjective. Are they more expensive than Preston. I doubt it. 

Could they be cheaper? Obviously. But where do you draw the line. Do you still want a competitive squad? 

I’m bored of the excuses. Fans can look to find reasons not to go, that’s their prerogative. There will always be a reason. The product on the pitch. The owners. Transfer activity. Not starting Rothwell. Mowbray. The shade of blue on the shirts.

The damage was done years ago. Our crowds have been static since 2013. I genuinely don’t believe that there’s any marketing strategy which will significantly change that. Promotion may be the only way.

 

I find this "excuses" mentality that fans take up to be totally bizarre, as if people have an objection to attend, regardless of price etc.

The hard core are already going but seemingly you cannot grasp that the remaining people who could be tempted are not the hard core, they can take or leave attending, and ultimately it is up to the club to do what it can to prize them back.

Your point about having a competitive squad lacks logic too. In that if prices go down, on the face of it thats less revenue, but only if you dont factor in an increase in quantity.

[AAK]

31 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I find this "excuses" mentality that fans take up to be totally bizarre, as if people have an objection to attend, regardless of price etc.

The hard core are already going but seemingly you cannot grasp that the remaining people who could be tempted are not the hard core, they can take or leave attending, and ultimately it is up to the club to do what it can to prize them back.

Your point about having a competitive squad lacks logic too. In that if prices go down, on the face of it thats less revenue, but only if you dont factor in an increase in quantity.

Spot on, ive said on here before that personally, the darwen end being shut means i wont go, i like a sing a long, which is now non-exsistent, thats why i go away games and not at home. Im not one of them who has to go to home games no matter what, and there are plenty like that. I am not saying id get a season ticket, if DE was open, becuase i wouldnt, due to work, but id go when i could.

As you say, it isnt an excuse, i just dont want to go.

Edited September 15, 2019 by AAK

[Paul]

3 hours ago, Stuart said:

 

I’m sure many of us have had the dreaded conversation with our young children about why they can’t support United or Liverpool, and calmly and sincerely explaining about how you don’t pick your team, it picks you. “You are from Blackburn which makes you a Rovers fan” (although birth certificates are probably being misplaced at the minute). Those conversations for 1st gen fans to 2nd gen fans will continue to be a long way off unless we get people down to Ewood in the first place.

Oh how I remember those conversations, two in particular.

No.1 son: "Why can't we support United like Tom and Billy?"

Me: "How often do Tom and Billy get to see United?"

A few years later when No. 3 son would have been 6-7 and No. 1 around 11-12.

No. 3 son: "Do we have to support Rovers? I like United."

No. 1 son: "If you want to live in this house you have to support Rovers."

No. 3 son got down from the table and fled upstairs in floods of years.

Edited September 15, 2019 by Paul

[OldEwoodBlue]

Just now, AAK said:

Spot on, ive said on here before that personally, the darwen end being shut means i wont go, i like a sing a long, which is now non-exsistent, thats why i go away games and not at home. Im not one of them who has to go to home games no matter what, and there are plenty like that. I am not saying id get a season ticket, if DE was open, becuase i wouldnt, due to work, but id go when i could.

As you say, it isnt an excuse, i just dont want to go.

but would you get a 10 game flexi ST ?

 

[roversfan99]

Just now, AAK said:

Spot on, ive said on here before that personally, the darwen end being shut means i wont go, i like a sing a long, which is now non-exsistent, thats why i go away games and not at home. Im not one of them who has to go to home games no matter what, and there are plenty like that. I am not saying id get a season ticket, if DE was open, becuase i wouldnt, due to work, but id go when i could.

As you say, it isnt an excuse, i just dont want to go.

And I think its pretty naive to suggest that the customer is the one with the onus and responsibility to buy a ticket, indeed it is with the club to sell the tickets.

I get that football supporters are quite unique in terms of being customers but the onus is still with the seller ie the club and Waggott to maximise the number of bums on seats. No one needs excuses to not attend a game, football isnt and shouldnt be a chore.

I am a season ticket holder and have been for a while but I am also not lacking in empathy to the extent that I can't appreciate that not everyone will prioritise Rovers like I do.

[Stuart]

28 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

The Huddersfield singing section is a great example of how we could improve things, it only contains a 1,000 fans, but they are wedged in together with flags and banners creating an atmosphere that aides the rest of the crowd.

Alas no such foresight at Ewood.

This is a great idea but which of the stands do you displace?

It would be best suited to the BBE but I would love to see safe-standing be a central part of a redeveloped Riverside. Generate an away atmosphere in the home end. Away fans generally stand and sing and create the best atmospheres. Bottling that an importing it to Ewood needs to be the aim.

I just don’t think that our administration has the imagination, ambition or appetite to attempt it. It can be done - as it is in Germany - and someone has to be first. We have a stand in need of redevelopment and a demand for it. It should even be possible to include similar facilities for away fans. In the DE side of the Riverside and look to offer the DE to Rovers fans when there is a small away following like yesterday.

Eg.

[OldEwoodBlue]

Great idea that Stuart, agree with the ideas in that proposed layout.

In particular like where you put a proper dedicated disabled area. Embarassing to see folk in wheelchairs sat helplessly in the torrential rain at the bottom of the Riverside when there is so much space.

Can you email that to Steve Waggott and ask him... why ? / why not ?

Edited September 15, 2019 by OldEwoodBlue

[Mattyblue]

Just now, Paul said:

Oh how I remember those conversations, two in particular.

No.1 son: "Why can't we support United like Tom and Billy?"

Me: "How often do Tom and Billy get to see United?"

A few years later when No. 3 son would have been 6-7 and No. 1 around 11-12.

No. 3 son: "Do we have to support Rovers? I like United."

No. 1 son: "If you want to live in this house you have to support Rovers."

No. 3 son got down from the table and fled upstairs in floods of years.

Nothing worse than seeing someone on Facebook or wherever who you know is a big Rovers fan and his kid has a glory shirt on.

Grow a backbone, man!

[Stuart]

7 minutes ago, Paul said:

Oh how I remember those conversations, two in particular.

No.1 son: "Why can't we support United like Tom and Billy?"

Me: "How often do Tom and Billy get to see United?"

A few years later when No. 3 son would have been 6-7 and No. 1 around 11-12.

No. 3 son: "Do we have to support Rovers? I like United."

No. 1 son: "If you want to live in this house you have to support Rovers."

No. 3 son got down from the table and fled upstairs in floods of years.

Bringing ‘em up right!

[Stuart]

Just now, OldEwoodBlue said:

Great idea that Stuart, agree with the ideas in that proposed layout.

In particular like where you put a proper dedicated disabled area. Embarassing to see folk in wheelchairs sat helplessly in the torrential rain at the bottom of the Riverside when there is so much space.

Can you email that to Steve Waggott and ask him... why ? / why not ?

Don’t think me and Steve would hit it off somehow!

Feel free to steal it and send it on by all means. I’m sure people at the club monitor these pages anyway.

Just now, Mattyblue said:

Nothing worse than seeing someone on Facebook or wherever who you know is a big Rovers fan and his kid has a glory shirt on.

Grow a backbone, man!

100%. You have to blame the parents ultimately.

[chaddyrovers]

3 hours ago, Stuart said:

Which is what I’m saying. 16,000 ST sales should not be beyond us.

But they are with Waggott’s current strategy.

where are you getting another 6500 season ticket holders from? 

Have we ever 16k season ticket holders in the championship? 

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Our squad is not paid by ticket sales, it’s paid for by our jailers.

Nice to see you blaming Rovers fans though. You’ll get on well with Waggott.

The fact is that we have thousands of empty seats. If you are happy with that because it makes you feel like a ’good fan’ who can call out ‘bad fans’ who look for excuses not to go (which I nonsense by the way) then fair enough.

Personally I think that large crowds are good for success on the pitch - even if a club doesn’t have the best players in the division. It might also be good for attracting new owners. The trouble is, as we’ve found over the last 10 years, some very mediocre individuals indeed have done very well out of keeping Venkys just where they are. The status quo works well for them - as long as they can keep making excuses. Like blaming fans...

we couldn't even attract new owners in our PL days so how realistic it to expect the club to a attractive option considering the debt that needs covering every season for the playing squad, academy to run? Just imagine the playing squad if the club had to be run a balance budget and no debt. Football is a business not just a football club

So Stuart, instead of blaming fans why don't you try to set a meeting up with Waggott to discuss this issue? Have you done this? 

They are so many different factors in people who were season ticket holders in the past who don't attend that it is going to be hard to attract these back to being a ST Holder again. The reasons are different working patterns, Family commitment, other sporting interest like Golf, Horse Racing, Cricket now,  lost interest in football, lack of Premier League football, etc and etc. 

59 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Why in God's name didn't the Walker offspring continue to run the club as a sound family business?....only they know their reasons for the fire sale but I have a feeling they wanted theirs and theirs alone rightful inheritance back asap.

I have always suspected a modicum of resentment on their behalf to Jack's Philanthropism

wasn't the Walker family more interest in their airline Fly Be? 

51 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I find this "excuses" mentality that fans take up to be totally bizarre, as if people have an objection to attend, regardless of price etc.

The hard core are already going but seemingly you cannot grasp that the remaining people who could be tempted are not the hard core, they can take or leave attending, and ultimately it is up to the club to do what it can to prize them back.

Your point about having a competitive squad lacks logic too. In that if prices go down, on the face of it thats less revenue, but only if you dont factor in an increase in quantity.

I find your post bizarre tbh. You are very quickly to stick up for non attending fans but you don't answer what will get them back? Just have a go at a poster who makes good points tbh

[chaddyrovers]

8 minutes ago, Stuart said:

This is a great idea but which of the stands do you displace?

It would be best suited to the BBE but I would love to see safe-standing be a central part of a redeveloped Riverside. Generate an away atmosphere in the home end. Away fans generally stand and sing and create the best atmospheres. Bottling that an importing it to Ewood needs to be the aim.

I just don’t think that our administration has the imagination, ambition or appetite to attempt it. It can be done - as it is in Germany - and someone has to be first. We have a stand in need of redevelopment and a demand for it. It should even be possible to include similar facilities for away fans. In the DE side of the Riverside and look to offer the DE to Rovers fans when there is a small away following like yesterday.

Eg.

Its a good idea Stuart tbh. I wouldn't have Home and away fans in both stands tbh. Away fans only in Darwen end and Home seating and Disabled fans in Riverside stand
 isn't the plan to have a hotel in the riverside stand? 

[Mattyblue]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

 

we couldn't even attract new owners in our PL days 

 

We would in 2019, the PL is unrecognisable from when the Walkers were trying to flog the club a decade plus ago.

[MarkBRFC]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

Nothing worse than seeing someone on Facebook or wherever who you know is a big Rovers fan and his kid has a glory shirt on.

Grow a backbone, man!

Couldn't agree more.

If I can manage it living in Cheshire which is rife with Utd, City, Liverpool & Stoke (?) I'm sure people who live in Blackburn with the club on there doorstep can.

I see similar here, most of the parents in my lads under 10's team are Port Vale fans, but there kids rock up at training in Utd, Liverpool, City tops etc. I ask the question every week and just get told " how can I make him a vale fan when all his mates support Liverpool etc".

Easy, like I have, make an effort to get him interested in the club, take him games etc. It really isnt that difficult, theres no converting my lad to a "big club" now.

[roversfan99]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

 

I find your post bizarre tbh. You are very quickly to stick up for non attending fans but you don't answer what will get them back? Just have a go at a poster who makes good points tbh

My point is simply that nobody needs "sticking up for" or to justify not attending. The onus is on the club to get them back if it is possible, people who are former attendees or potential new attendees have not done anything wrong.

Aside from cheaper tickets, both season tickets and matchday tickets, I don't profess to having the answers but that is not the point I was making.

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

We would in 2019, the PL is unrecognisable from when the Walkers were trying to flog the club a decade plus ago.

I don't see that at all happening or even a chance. Hull have been available to buy now for a number of seasons and still no buyer

Just now, roversfan99 said:

My point is simply that nobody needs "sticking up for" or to justify not attending. The onus is on the club to get them back if it is possible, people who are former attendees or potential new attendees have not done anything wrong.

Aside from cheaper tickets, both season tickets and matchday tickets, I don't profess to having the answers but that is not the point I was making.

For me, the club have done some things trying to get fans back or attract new ones but there is no one answer to this problem or even a couple of solutions as people have different issues. 

I know a diehard Rovers fan who would like to attend every home game with his son but he sadly cant cos of 3 different problems these being his work pattern, His missus having to work 1 in 3 Saturday, 2 other kids to look after who aren't interested in football and have other activities on Saturday these do. So How can Rovers solved this problem and Im sure many other Rovers fans and families have this of problem to deal with

[Mattyblue]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

I don't see that at all happening or even a chance. Hull have been available to buy now for a number of seasons and still no buyer

 

Hull are a struggling Championship club so what has that got to do with the PL?

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

Hull are a struggling Championship club so what has that got to do with the PL?

we aren't a PL club anymore and wasn't Hull in the PL a couple of seasons ago

[Mattyblue]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

we aren't a PL club anymore and wasn't Hull in the PL a couple of seasons ago

Aren’t we? I was hoping to wake up from the nightmare, Dallas style, any day now.

You said the club wasn’t even sellable as a PL club, I said the PL has completely transformed in 10 years, as proven recently with an 80% stake of a mediocre club like Southampton being sold for over £200 million.

10 years ago we were sold lock, stock and barrel as an established PL club, debt free for £20 million.

So just maybe there’s a little bit more interest and a market for buying PL clubs these days, what do you reckon?

Edited September 15, 2019 by Mattyblue

[JHRover]

1 hour ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Great idea that Stuart, agree with the ideas in that proposed layout.

In particular like where you put a proper dedicated disabled area. Embarassing to see folk in wheelchairs sat helplessly in the torrential rain at the bottom of the Riverside when there is so much space.

Can you email that to Steve Waggott and ask him... why ? / why not ?

If we ever get back to the Premier League we would have to take steps to provide more and better disabled facilities as the rules there are now quite strict. You have to provide a certain percentage of capacity to disabled supporters whether the demand is there or not. In the Championship the rules are more relaxed. So offering 10 spaces at the front of the Riverside in the pouring rain barely above pitch level wouldnt be acceptable. These days grounds are built with gaps for wheelchair areas in the stands. Of course a new Riverside would be ideal to address that but it wouldnt provide the away disabled facilities required.

I'm also surprised one or two disabled away fans aren't complaining that they are being segregated from the rest of their support because of Waggott's policy of putting smaller away followings upstairs whilst disabled fans have to go and sit on their own downstairs.

Same goes for our media facilities which would almost certainly have to be overhauled to comply with the complex requirements of today.

[JHRover]

7 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Aren’t we? I was hoping to wake up from the nightmare, Dallas style, any day now.

You said the club wasn’t even sellable as a PL club, I said the PL has completely transformed in 10 years, as proven recently with an 80% stake of a mediocre club like Southampton being sold for over £200 million.

10 years ago we were sold lock, stock and barrel as an established PL club, debt free for £20 million.

So just maybe there’s a little bit more interest and a market for buying PL clubs these days, what do you reckon?

If their motivation was to pass the club on to the most suitable owner possible and be rid of a club they never really wanted nor had any interest in then they could have paid off debts accumulated under their ownership and handed it over for £1 with a promise that the £40 million be invested into the club for players and improvements a la Steve Morgan at Wolves.

Some people like to make excuses for the Trust by claiming nobody wanted to buy us. If true perhaps then they could have handed it over for less. It wasnt their club to make money from after all. 

[K-Hod]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

Nothing worse than seeing someone on Facebook or wherever who you know is a big Rovers fan and his kid has a glory shirt on.

Grow a backbone, man!

If I ever have children, they can support whoever they like....

(As long as it’s Rovers).

[Stuart]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

where are you getting another 6500 season ticket holders from? 

Have we ever 16k season ticket holders in the championship? 

we couldn't even attract new owners in our PL days so how realistic it to expect the club to a attractive option considering the debt that needs covering every season for the playing squad, academy to run? Just imagine the playing squad if the club had to be run a balance budget and no debt. Football is a business not just a football club

So Stuart, instead of blaming fans why don't you try to set a meeting up with Waggott to discuss this issue? Have you done this? 

They are so many different factors in people who were season ticket holders in the past who don't attend that it is going to be hard to attract these back to being a ST Holder again. The reasons are different working patterns, Family commitment, other sporting interest like Golf, Horse Racing, Cricket now,  lost interest in football, lack of Premier League football, etc and etc. 

wasn't the Walker family more interest in their airline Fly Be? 

I find your post bizarre tbh. You are very quickly to stick up for non attending fans but you don't answer what will get them back? Just have a go at a poster who makes good points tbh

You honestly have no imagination so I’m not surprised that these ideas go over your head. In one breath you good idea and in the next undermine all of them with some safe option. I thought after your lengthy ban you had woken up a bit but you are a slipping back into your old habits.

Where have I blamed fans? The blame for our loss of fanbase lies squarely with our owners and those whom they have listened to - and now employ.

Waggott is paid big money to understand his stakeholder needs and wants, and to incorporate this into a successful business strategy, not just keep squeezing while ignoring us.

You need to read back the last sentence I’ve quoted above and have a little think.

[tomphil]

The several hundred regular fans that might have been put off after being turfed out of their sections in the Family & DE and become pick and choosers or non attendees might now be making the home gates a tad more respectable if they were left alone or treated a bit better.

11k into 12k at least, food for thought there but again the suits don't give a toss they get paid the same regardless.  The days of a John Williams are long gone and that was big time Prem, stuff mostly anyway.   What is needed is a touch of the John Howarths i think or someone who knows how this fanbase ticks not just box tickers.

When are back at the same level and similar team and football as the GB era then why don't the gates stack up similar ? If i was in Pune that's what i'd be asking my directors in Blackburn.

Edited September 15, 2019 by tomphil

[tomphil]

7 hours ago, AshleyClifford said:

The attendance yesterday in all honesty is what I would expect. I thought millwall would have brought maybe 1000 rather than 500 that they did though,so a better home turn out than I thought. Last year we had 13.300 at the same fixture but this was the 1st home game of the year, we had a similar crowd to yesterday when we played Reading at home (noted, this was on a Tuesday ) ; I would say we are inline for similar crowds to last season. Each week are crowd will be one of the lowest but how low depends on who is playing who and where. Also as mentioned about Preston have set a condition on the game yesterday for applications for the city game, maybe some city fans bought tickets.

Why would Millwall ever bring 1000 or more up here unless they were going great near the top ?

Their followings at Ewood tend to average probably around 500 being anywhere from 300 to a thousand odd exception aside over last ten years.

People have serious over expectations of away followings in this league the majority of bog standard clubs similar to us outside the local area bring bugger all unless doing well or whatever.

Makes our away followings even more impressive all things considered averaging around a 1000 every season since we were dragged out the Prem.  Lets face it we've never had much to shout about in this league over the last 7 years and now it's coming home to roost, in these parts it usually gets worse a lot quicker than it gets better.