Hasta

I think an I ssue is that Waggot has said price promos do not work, but we never seem to get one that you believe will work. Whilst there might be a handful of people who will be able to take this new offer up, I imagine not one person on either side of this argument will say they expect a significant take up.

But it wasn't 3 in 3, and most people didn't see the away performance. You talk about form being a factor, but are then arguing that people attended because it was 3 wins in 12 but wouldn't have if it was 0 wins in 12. 3 wins in 12 is hardly stirring form! Therefore that just leaves the opposition and I've covered that above. As for encouraging people to attend the last 6, we will struggle now as interest will wane even more oncd we have nothing to push for. However a well publicised £10 a ticket, £1 for kids will get a big crowd on for Bolton on Easter Monday.

Do I think that winning 3 in 12 games was the reason 12000 home fans bought tickets for Newcastle? Nope. Do I think we had a large number of home fans go to that game because we played well in the original tie? Not a chance. Do I think Newcastle as a club contributed to a significant increase in home fans for an FA cup game than we were used to? Kind of but not because they were a premier league side. I think people wanted to see a game with a much fuller darwen end and a good atmosphere, as opposed to seeing 'Newcastle's Premier league starts.' Certainly a couple of the people I went we were looking forward to what they thought would be a more lively atmosphere. However, regardless of what they were hoping for, they wouldnt have gone at £20. Again, it goes back to if you are going to do a deal on a single game, do a good one. I'd love the 6 game deal to boost crowds but, as many many people say, the people who will commit to regularly to going to Ewood are probably signed up on one of the two season ticket deals. People who do other things at the weekends and attend infrequently aren't going to be encouraged to spend £100 and tie up 6 dates for up to 10 weeks in the future.

How can you say you don't agree that many people don't attend because of price. Obviosly some don't go for that reason. We just don't know how many. Read my post above about the Newcastle game and the number of people I took. They went because I made an event out of it and it was a tenner.

£10 < £100

How much money left their wallet for the Newcastle game? How much money would leave their wallet for this 6 game offer? They would rather pay £10 than £100. Simple as that. They also don't regularly attend Ewood so don't want to book in 6 games as they may have other things to do on some of those dates. You can criticise their level of support and dedication all you want, but the discussion we are (or we were) having here is how to encourage them back. Slagging them off won't do that.

So now people won't return for Premier League clubs. Only big premier league clubs. Ok ? I took 8 people with me to the Newcastle game. Only 1 is a regular attendee. 1 had never been to Ewood before. They didn't go because it was Newcastle. My brother is mid-40s. He's seen many big games and big teams at Ewood. He doesn't go much anymore. The only game he's been too this year is Newcastle. Certainly, it helps that we weren't playing Northampton. However had it been £20 against Newcastle there would have been just 2 or 3 going in our group. Would any of my group go again for a tenner for a future league game? Possibly. Would they pay £100 for 6 games? Not a chance. Bolton is a 3pm kickoff on Easter Monday. A chance of 16000 home fans there at a tenner.

Interestingly, I think 5 of the 6 games as part of this deal will be behind the red button.

Don't know as I went. You may be right as it was an early kick off. Still doesn't negate the point.

Swansea and Stoke. Both not on TV. Both on a weekend? ???

No one is justifying the non-atendees. Just explaining one of the main reasons why they don't go and explaining why the 6-game deal won't work. Do you think that this deal will significantly increase attendances? There's a reason we got one of our biggest home cup attendances of the last 8 years for a midweek game against Newcastle despite it being in TV, and it wasn't due to success.

How unfit must Chapman be? Does he look like some tubby little barrell now who looks like hes wearing a fat suit. Surely with 2 or 3 weeks fitness training you can get a player ready for bench cameos. I keep reading he's a couple of months away. You could probably get me fit in 8 weeks!!! As for the Dack substitution, he'd just shown his first bit of magic to carve out his chance at the near post. I didn't think he was looking that tired. To take him off was one thing. To then move two players out of position, and switch a third to the opposite wing was ludicrous when you could have done a straight swap. It undoubtedly broke the momentum we had at that point. Palmer got on the ball and just helped them keep possession better. I thought he did well for them from that perspective.

Travis substitution was spot on. Dack however .....

Don't bother Matty. He's got to be on the wind up.

But at the start of the season we didn't realise that most teams in this league were going to be mediocre, or that we would keep shooting ourselves in the foot in the last 10 minutes of games. At the start of the season I'd have been happy with finishing mid table but not now. Now I feel like the last play off spot is up for grabs. Bristol City didn't look great today and they are 6th. Birmingham are 8th and we were strolling past them until we committed Hari Kari. Surely watching the way the season has panned out has made people change their view from the opening day. Maybe this season is like the year Leicester won the premier league. All of the big names are going through a transition period and by next year Stoke, Villa Swansea etc.. will have got their act together. We put ourselves in with a chance but , despite all of the talk, didn't strengthen and try and make a serious challenge. Disappointing.

I thought we had our best spell, and had most momentum, in the 10 or 15 minutes leading up to the Dack and Palmer substitution. After we made our change, we never had a sustained attack again until the final few minutes. Dack obviously didn't want to come off so I think Mowbray has been outmanoeuvred there. The ref was atrocious but his biggest mistake was not sending Travis off.

Do Everton need to take something, or are they already through?

I see the Preston Massive are travelling to Bolton today and its allowed to kick off at 3pm.

Bristol City are on a great run of form, but the only team they have beaten who are in the top 10 during that spell are Birmingham. That doesn't mean they haven't done exceptionally well, and they have draws against Derby and Norwich in there. Win today and no team will have picked up more points at home than Rovers this season (30). Should be a good game. I just hope one of Dack or Graham starts and Mulgrew is back. If we go with Rodwell plus a non-centre half at the back I fear for us.

But over the years the number of lapsed attendees must be huge. I'd imagine it's more than the number of walk ons, even if they are different people each games. The deal in itself may be ok for some, but it's still a big single outlay and doesn't try and bring in new fans, which has to be the long term fans. I imagine you'll hardly see an increase on the back of this deal.

Disagree. I think lapsed attendees over the last 10 years outweigh the current infrequent pay on the day customers.

A single special offer for a plum 3pm kick off game.

So the plan to try and encourage boycotters, lapsed fans and never-attendees to get themselves into the new Ewood experience is to get them to suddenly spend the best part of £100 on tickets. Hmmm. See the flaw in this?

Shocking wasn't it. The lack of basic effort and urgency was appalling.

It's plausible that someone actually could have spiked Steve Kean's drink.