5 minutes ago, Uddersfelt Blue said:

I don’t wish to get into the slagging off of Steve Waggott or anyone else involved in running the club as I’m not close enough to understand the issues. 
 

However, if a financial decision has been taken not to open the BBE how should that put off those who want to watch the game from attending? I usually sit in the Riverside and if I wanted to attend (which I won’t be) I would be more than happy to buy a ticket in the JW. 
 

 

I guess the same could be said about the financial decision to pay certain players contracts up and let them leave the club. Also sack the manager and bring an under qualified background staff member in, to give it a go.

After all we still had players to cheer and a manager to listen to in  post and pre  match interviews.

Some things have been done to feather the nest of other people and not for the greater good of the club and thankfully, some people spot things like that and quite rightly do not just sit back and accept it.

20 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

The main worry is again above Waggott. His decision to close the Blackburn End is obviously pig ignorant and counter productive. But in tandem with budget cuts to the point where we cant afford players of any experience or even a loanee to a tiny squad, assuming this continues for any period of time, theres only one way we get out of this league and it doesnt lead to the Premier League. Waggott seems to be fulfilling the wishes of the owners, leaving us uncompetitive and with a further dwindled regular fan base.

For what it's worth and again from what other people are saying, Waggott seems to justify his salary, by what he is saving. Slashing the wage bill and not spending on transfers, will no doubt be fed back to India, to show that the bigger picture is, he is worth his £300k.

I might not get a reply to my E Mail and he will definitely not admit to the loss, the stand closure causes, but that needs to be fed back to India too, in the event.

15 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

And there it is in black and White,cost cutting before the needs and wishes of home supporters.

Make no mistake'we are in for a tough time with this lot in charge.

If it’s so desperate that we need to save £2k to £3K max, that’s definitely tough times. It’s possibly worse than it was back in the eighties.

No wonder Sw4aggott is bragging about paying the wages and hiring a new coach. Perhaps we need to point this out and ask for some degree of comfort, once we know the exact figure saved.

The club must be on a cliff edge if this is how desperate things have become and we deserve to know. 
 

9 hours ago, Wheelton Blue said:

As otherrs have suggested, it would be very interesting to see from the club exactly what they expect these cost savings to be, and how the numbers were derived.

It;s all a smoke screen IMO.

I guess we won’t know until the crowd is announced, but it could be an idea to check what not opening the Blackburn ends saves, in advance.

Waggott has stated that he expects a crowd of 6,000 so is we get 5,000 for example, the maths are easy enough.

For those going, I hope he gets it from you large. 

1 hour ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

If the decision to close the BBE for financial reasons, surely the blame lies in Pune (and maybe our stay away fans).

Someone who know nothing about traditions and fans feelings, so Pune is correct.

The stay away fans may well increase on the back of another crazy decision though, but no way are they to blame.

One other thing to mention here, especially if we lose.

Why have we not thought of a way to fill the lower tier of the Blackburn End, instead of emptying it.

Surely taking full advantage of being drawn at home, should be explored, as a place in the next round could be worth 10 times more than the saving, he is making here. 

21 minutes ago, smiller14 said:

I've conveyed all of the above in my reply, and asked for how many tickets need to be sold to offset the cost savings we have made in closing the stand:

Thank you for your reply.

I can almost guarantee the attendance will be considerably less than the Walsall game, when in reality it should be higher (being a round further).

I’d be intrigued to know how many tickets we need to sell to offset the costs associated with closing the Blackburn End – surely an attendance of even 1,000 lower (£10,000 lost in ticket sales) would trump the costs of hiring staff in the Blackburn End for this fixture, in addition to any other operational costs. It feels nonsensical commercially, notwithstanding the long-term effect such a decision will have on supporters who feel ignored. I already know of many long-term supporters who are not attending this fixture out of principle, and fear the long-term effects will be dire – it is hardening belief amongst our fanbase that Steve Waggott is out of touch with the supporters and that the supporters are disregarded and not considered. I, for one, am postponing any plans to return to Ewood anytime soon on the basis of this decision.

As for the broadcast element, I cannot fathom how it will present a better backdrop – the optics of an empty home stand behind the net will more than outweigh this, as well as the certain mockery we will receive from fans across the football pyramid.

It just feels like every decision made is aimed at saving a few quid, even if this means alienating loyal fans – which will have a long-term cost both financially and non-financially. Whilst this decision would make sense on a spreadsheet, it will undoubtedly come at a cost, and I sincerely hope the resultant attendance decrease will offset any reduction in operational costs, and therefore not be considered moving forwards.

Great response that and thanks again for sharing.

The figures he provides in response, should be interesting. I am sure with a bit of innovation and competitive pricing, we could have got to 10,000 for this. 

7 minutes ago, smiller14 said:

I contacted the club regarding this and receiving this reply from a PA on behalf of SW:

Thank you for your email in regard to the closure of the Blackburn End for our Carabao Cup match versus Cardiff City on Wednesday, 27^th September.

 There are a number of factors to consider when creating the operational plan for a matchday and the decisions made are based on these. 

 Initially we review what the anticipated attendance is going to be and then measure this against the financial cost of opening the entire stadium.

For the first round of the Carabao Cup; BRFC V Walsall, we attracted an attendance of just over 6,000 supporters. There were fewer than 2,000 supporters in the Blackburn End for this fixture, which is less than 50% capacity for the lower tier. Due to the make-up of the stadium, once the decision is made to open a stand, the staffing of that area remains the same whether the stand is at capacity or accommodating fewer than 500 supporters. 

 For this week’s fixture, although we expect an attendance similar to that of the Walsall game, with just over 48 hours to go, we have sold just over 2,500 tickets. The Jack Walker Stand has a total capacity of 11,000 seats, which will adequately cater for the demand. We do appreciate that many of our long-standing supporters sit in the Blackburn End and would argue that this stand is affectionately referred to as the home end, but the Jack Walker Stand can be relied upon to accommodate all supporters with ease, provides a better backdrop for the broadcast footage and ultimately it will help us to manage costs at a time when all costs have to be carefully considered. 

 I’m sure you can appreciate and understand why the Club has taken the relevant measures on this occasion. Of course, these decisions will be reviewed on a match-by-match basis should we progress further in the competition, as we hope to do.

 Thanking you for your continued support.

Of course, most of the above is easily rebutted. The 'broadcast footage' point is absolutely mind boggling - it will look great on broadcast with no fans behind one net. 

Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps the next think to ask is given that he was expecting 6,000 and also given the quality of the opposition is better, will he accept responsibility for this being a financial own goal, if we end up with 4,000 or less?

Also, how will he feel if this leads to some fans deciding enough is enough and giving up on attending, due to this tipping point.

I think more than one poster on here, has suggested that is the case.

What next. The game is only available on line.

After seeing that yesterday, it almost makes me sick to the stomach. 

What is the point in pitting the likes of Newcastle, City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, United (when stable) and even others, up against teams like Luton, Sheff U and the Clarets (despite this years spending for them)?.

If Rovers were to go up, we would simply endure that type of battering ourselves and apart from the odd victory against the teams around the bottom 5 or 6 would we really want to see that kind of slaughter most weeks?

So what are we playing for right now, the right to play in the big league for one season, so that our owners can claw back a bit of the money that have put in?

It all seems a bit pointless right now.

19 minutes ago, Tabula Rasa said:

We're 8 games in.

If we can stop leaking goals, we'll go up.

There. Said it.

I fully agree with that, but that’s the conundrum. We don’t know how good or bad the new keeper is yet, but he is going to need to be very good to stop us conceding as many as we have.

Granted there were 3 yesterday that he could have done better with, but Ipswich had 36 attempts on goal.

We need to shore up the midfield and get our act together defensively too, as we are just relying on being totally kamikaze.

The attacking play has been exciting and the football nice on the eye, but even as a spectator, I’m knackered after every match.

Get the new keeper in, perhaps go 5 at the back and maybe temper some of the forward play a touch.

I rate JDT but his philosophy of preferring to win 5-4 instead of 1-0 is costing us what could be vital points right now.

Leicester up next, so we need to implement some changes in the personal and style to get a result.

Grinding out a scrappy 1-0 will be fine by me, but I sense that will not be the order of the day. 

Just now, Tugay-is-God said:

Wharton moving in slow motion even by his own standards. 

Watch him get our winner 

6 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

Rovers TV not broadcasting for anyone?

Yeah it on Rovers TV for overseas fans. 

23 minutes ago, islander200 said:

I must have missed us beating Watford beating west Brom beating Boro.

I'm sorry but joke post, one of Ipswich easiest games this season ?Based on what?

I agree. No way is this an easy win for them.

Kets go at them and be a bit cooler in front of goal. No reason why we can’t win this. 

It’s such a massive own goal this.

Even something as simple as buy one get one free would have worked a treat here. Maybe we can’t offer  cheap tickets for the Leicester game, but what about, buy a £10 ticket and we will offer free/reduced tickets to anyone buying one, for the next cup game we host at Ewood. 

2 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

So he is now planning for Accy Stanley crowds for first team games?

Nicely sums up his tenure.

Don’t give him ideas. He will be switching games to the Wham next, or even considering ground sharing for the 24/25 season.

Announcing they were closing the Blackburn End, seems to have taken 4,000 off the attendance.

Waggott is a total sham, doing that.

1 hour ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

Pretty much - nobody without resale value is what I was told.

I guess that compounds the situation with cost cutting and reducing the wage bill.

It's a same they don't put an age limit on CEO's and boot the current one out.

11 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

I remember the 07/08 Mark Hughes side - didn't know when it was beaten that team. 

Got 23 points in games where they'd fallen behind. 

Some real leaders in that team - particularly at the back. 

Interesting that as that is 43 wins in the whole division out of 380 games. It bears out what I posted about it being fairly rare.

1 hour ago, DE. said:

When Hull beat us on August 19th.

In general though you might be right, it'd be interesting to see the stats for that.

I forgot about that one.

I wonder if it happened at all last season, as I don't remember one.

1 minute ago, DE. said:

There was a stat posted by someone last year which showed we were overall the worst at coming from behind to gain points, by some distance, over something like the past 3 years across the entire EFL. Whilst it may not be common, we're still on the extreme end of the scale.

I suspect the same might apply to us going ahead too. I can’t remember when we last lost, after going ahead. 

13 hours ago, Nuttall is lost said:

Under JDT (who I really like btw) we just cannot come back and win or even draw once we go 1-0 down.  Its happened so many times that its obviously not a coincidence. What is the reasons?

For me its no senior players.  No old dog for the hard road.

Based on the odds, I have pasted below and taking a snapshot of our games, since Millwall last season. We were behind in that and won (granted it didn’t matter in the end) and we were behind at Rotherham and drew. That’s two in the last 8 where we didn’t lose after conceding first.

I’m not trying to defend our record, but if the odds are around 14/1 then it’s going to happen 3 times each season.

Statisical analysis, shows it’s not a common occurrence in football. 

9 minutes ago, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

This isn't a Tomasson or even Broughton choice though. It's a directive from Venky's, and that's from someone at the club.

So the directive is, we are not allowed to play/buy players above a certain age?

Perhaps it’s not just a Rovers thing. I’m not too sure how many bookmakers offer odds on this, but William Hill do. I just checked and for Ipswich to score first on Saturday and Rovers to win, it is 14/1. Just to check the same thing on another game, I tried Norwich to score first and Plymouth to win, which is 12/1 and the same odds apply to Preston to score first and WBA to win. Find a double like that and a £1 stake would return £170 so it’s probably a rare event at most clubs.