“We love it when the away team bring a big following. Like Preston and Wrexham. There is really only an atmosphere when the away end is full. We want to play in front of a full house.” - Aynsley Pears. In that infamous meeting at the start of February. Gallagher and Hyam were in agreement.

Just witnessed a very good performance from the U21s who came back from 2 down to draw with Arsenal. I’d start Leo Duru on Saturday and have Nsangou on the bench.

Michalski Carter O’Riordon McFazdean Pickering JRC Tronstad Dolan Szmodics (c) Gilsenan Big Billy

Brilliant that. The perfect reaction. Great to see Carter back, he makes a big difference and for me is our best defender. I was very nervous when McFadzean came on but he was excellent today. JRC MOTM. You’d have to say that Eustace executed the perfect game plan today. With no excuses around P&S/FFP this summer we should be in a position to build a proper squad again based around things other than just “the numbers”. Obviously the cashflow and court case issues will be the biggest factor though unfortunately.

I think this is 10 or 11 games for Gallagher without a goal. That’s a drought to any normal striker, but with him it’s just what you come to expect. That substitution has me worried.

They clearly watched the midweek game and have decided to target us down our right hand side after seeing how calamitous Brittain and Hyam were. Carter has been left isolated out there a few times but fortunately stood up to everything pretty well. Gallagher offering absolutely nothing in their half. We’ve been sloppy with our passing when trying to break, but you can see the idea with that good chance Szmodics carved out. Still a long way to go and I’m not sure we can sustain this. Better than expected so far though.

5pm will be too late. 12:30 kick off so I’d get the number pinned by 12:45.

Pears JRC Carter Wharton Pickering Tronstad Garrett Dolan Szmodics Chrisene Gallagher Wahlstedt, Billy, O’Riordan, Buckley, Moran, Gilsenan, Tyjon, Duru, Markanday

We have had a lot of discussions over the past couple of years about making a significant reduction to ticket prices but it’s always been countered with the need to hit a revenue target that Venky’s have set. They don’t believe that a big reduction would improve sales enough for them to still meet that figure and have dismissed the idea in previous years. I should also point out that we first pitched our ideas for next season to them months ago, before the transfer window debacle and the complete collapse of our form. We’ve continued to have discussions and since pointed out that they ought to be expecting a significantly bigger drop off in renewals than they have seen for the past couple of years, and that they need to think about doing something drastic to mitigate this before they start thinking about attracting new season ticket holders or re-engaging with lapsed ones.

Not sure how the two worst culprits by far survived the half time cull

We paid something in that region. I presume recouping the fee would form part of our compensation, but there’d only be about 15 grand on top.

Compensation fee. A pittance.

Tyjon is wanted by Man City, so giving him some first team exposure is about the best way we can persuade him to stay when we can’t offer him a pro deal yet. Telalovic hasn’t proven to be much of an option so I’d rather give this lad some minutes.

I’m not sure of any initial fees, but Rovers do get a percentage of concourse sales. Don’t quote me on it but I think it’s a third.

Obviously success on the pitch is the main driver and the only thing that will significantly increase gates. If, and it’s a big if, we sell 12k season tickets at £250 a pop we’d bring in less ticketing revenue than we do now. Obviously there is an argument to be had about additional income (average spend of 2-3 quid a head on the concourses with the bulk going to Sodexo), and the intangibles like better atmosphere (although would 12k season ticket holders make that big a difference?), plus would we just end up cannibalising our walk ons? There’s no magic wand that can be waved to automatically double our attendances overnight, apart from maybe promotion, that includes drastic price reductions. It’s a long term rebuilding job that has definitely become more difficult this summer.

It was part of a bigger presentation with various ideas, some were better received than others and hopefully some will be incorporated. The basic gist of it was: - Need for entry level priced tickets in under occupied areas (limited number, very cheap) - Slight reduction to standard ST price - No change/slight increase to premium ST price - Removal of barriers to stop people buying one (alternative to finance company backed DD, pro rata prices available into the season without deadlines) - Additional benefits for those willing to pay more (the exact wording being instead of milking the hardcore offer them something extra), we suggested a number of “bolt ons” that could be sold with a ST - Family discounts throughout the ground - New category for U8s - Flexi/PAYG tickets - a lot of discussion here particularly as we will have even less Saturday 3pm kick offs next year, and there is obviously a need to make sure a full season ticket remains more cost effective

The question is would say a £100 reduction move the dial sufficiently to maintain the level of income we currently have?

We have proposed almost exactly this - effectively a “pay as you go” season ticket.

Cheaper tickets in certain undersubscribed areas, flexible tickets for those who can’t make all games, family discounts, added value products for those happy to spend more, etc

In our two latest sets of accounts PNE brought in £3.8 million in matchday revenue. In the same period Rovers total was £5 million. I believe this was the first year that Preston heavily reduced their early bird tickets. There has to be a sweet spot that we definitely aren’t at yet, but I don’t think that there’s any way we’d double the amount of season tickets sold by halving the price. It’s certainly easier to make a case for a more dynamic and out of the box pricing structure than big reductions across the board based on those figures.

Regarding the shirts there is a contractually obligated period in which the company can look to extend/renegotiate. I think we are in that period now for next season. I don’t think anything has been finalised either way as of yet, and even if it was that would be information too commercially sensitive to share with negotiations ongoing. We’ve spoken more broadly about sponsorships when discussing commercial revenue. The accounts will give a clearer picture, but generally those revenues are going up year on year, though I’m sure everyone would like to see them go up more.

Another good performance, draw a fair result although we could’ve nicked it. Any sort of squad depth and I think we win that - but there’s no way of us changing the game positively with subs. Dolan, Brittain and Markanday were all absolutely fantastic! The reverse fixture against this lot was probably our worst performance of the season, so a very good point.

It’s a 7 minute drive or a 13 minute bus journey from Billington Brass Band Club, which was the venue for 2 out of the last 3. I’m sure you’ll recall that neither of those were very well attended, neither was the one at Ewood last year. All three had politicians as the guest speaker, although one sent a statement rather than attend. Hopefully a change of venue to a place that is an integral part of the club and an important part of Jack’s legacy, but not normally accessible to supporters, will pique some interest. Same applies with the manager, and personally I see the fact he is keen to come along and find out about what we are doing as a positive.

I enjoyed that!! To a man we were excellent. Hyam with a really dominant display, which has been lacking far too often recently. I thought Chrisene was very good too. JRC makes such a positive difference, and if he didn’t have his fitness issues, and was a bit quicker he’d be playing in the Prem. Szmodics doing what he does, what a finisher. Hedges was great and Dolan absolutely unplayable - deserved his goal and MOTM on the day. The Boro, Ipswich and Sunderland performances have been a lot more coherent and we’ve deserved more than the 4 points out of those 3 games. Massive win that, and I’ll sleep a lot easier tonight!

RPReplay_Final1711813940.mov For me this is the most clear and obvious bit of incompetence by Atwell and his dopey linesman… https://x.com/roversradio/status/1774105427116003775?s=46