A coach runs from Rishton Cricket Club for £5 every game or you can pay for half a season.

A coach runs from the Station pub, Rishton for £5 every game.

A coach runs from Sydney Street Club, Accrington.

3 coaches run from Darwen for £3.50 every game (Craven Heifer, Greenfield & Spinners?).

That's it. Plenty of gaps to fill.

Going with friends or family is habit forming.

Just now, JHRover said:

I asked Waggott last week what efforts the club was making in non Blackburn catchment areas like South Ribble, Hyndburn and Rossendale to grow our support. His response wasn't clear but he said that the budget might not accommodate putting free buses on to games from all those places. In my view missing the point entirely.

Nobody's asking for free buses. People would be prepared to pay £3 return in Blackburn and Darwen and £5 return in Ribble Valley, Hyndburn, Rossendale and South Ribble. However the club seem incapable of coordinating anything.

1 hour ago, pk1875 said:

Please don't tell me that the club are considering giving a scarf to new born babies? surely not

That's what I thought. Madness and a waste of money.

19 hours ago, PeteJD13 said:

I intend to and when my sons old enough he'll be coming to, with regards to shirt give aways. When I spoke to Steve Waggott in May he was saying he was looking into giving rovers scarfs away for babies but again nothings actually happened

Looking into giving scarves for babies? You either do it or discard it. It's a terrible idea anyway. Who dreamt this up?

7 hours ago, JHRover said:

Accy Stanley are on their annual shirt giveaway today dishing out free shirts to all Year 3 kids in Hyndburn. Not just Accy but the surrounding towns which are full of Rovers fans.

I get sick of repeating myself but this is another example of where we are falling short. Hyndburn is our territory. Year 3 kids we should be targeting as our next generation of support. Is there a single reason why Stanley can each year do as they are whilst we do nothing?

This is an annual event.

On RoversFans.com, Barmitzvah Boy has posted in the "‘Deadwood’: Home Attendances and the Lack of Atmosphere" thread, that the age profile of the season ticket holders in the JW Upper is high.

Stanley, in a lower league, are recruiting youngsters in areas where Rovers draw support from, with no reply from Rovers.

Steve Waggott: "As a club we've done everything we can". I disagree.

Rovers are being beaten hands down by Stanley in the search for new fans.

Coaches outside every Hyndburn primary school I passed on my way to work this morning.

Mystery solved - they're all going to Stanley to get their free shirts from the players. Saw the photos on Twitter - even on a bad day, the children were overjoyed.

So this morning children, maths is cancelled, we're all going to meet the Stanley players and get a free shirt. Great way to increase support.

This is an annual event.

On 22/09/2019 at 12:19, dingles staying down 4ever said:

SPEEEDDIEEEE!!!!!!!

....add a Mimms, May, Price, Sellars, Wright, Cowans, Newell, Hendry, Atkins, Moran.

We might just have a chance then.

1 hour ago, gumboots said:

They were. Loads of people had brought their kids. We took our 3 year old grandson with us. He had a whale of a time running along the front of the stand copying the subs warm up routines and we didn't think he'd paid much attention to the game but he told his mum afterwards that one man kicked the ball and if somebody caught it then lots of other men jumped on him in a big heap. We bought him a rugby ball afterwards and he was immediately running then lying down and passing it back to his grandad. He cried when he had to leave the ground. Doesn't take much at that age to get them interested

Imagine Rovers trying to tap into World Cup fever - they'd probably put the prices up.

Just heard on Radio 5Live that Sale RUFC were selling tickets for £3 for last Saturdays game to tap into Rugby World Cup fever.

3 hours ago, Paul said:

@pk1875 I think you make some very good points there. I remain to be convinced about weddings and other social events but with the right marketing commercial activities would work. The key though is marketing. I went to numerous events at Old Trafford for no reason other than that was where the event was. The fact it's the home of Utd was irrelevant. The difficulty of course is marketing as Rovers management continue to prove they are poor at marketing football let alone anything else.

A reduced capacity stand would be a plus point.

We've already got a 3 sided ground. If the capacity is reduced by a smaller stand on a full side, it will exacerbate the 3 sided ground appearance.

1 hour ago, pk1875 said:

I recall Waggot saying that they had or was looking into the viability and demand for another  hotel in Blackburn, since then a new hotel has been announced above the Postal Order, a Doubletree by Hilton is being built at Whitebirk (with wedding and conference suites)  even the old stage door in town is being turned into a hotel. Clearly there was a demand..... is there still?

There's another on the Boulevard.

27 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Armstrong played wide left today. I think he is better suited to wide role in 4-2-3-1 formation. Gallagher should be up front in majority of games. 

why does it matter so much? 

who cares if we predict the team selection as long as we win

It doesn't.

Agreed.

24 minutes ago, The Hypnotic said:

You’re missing the point and putting words in my mouth... I’m not saying that Evans is a good player or should be in the squad every week, and I don’t think that Armstrong’s goal ratio is acceptable. I just think it’s a bit rich that people refer to “tombola” (becoming the new BRFCS buzz word) and picking a winning team through luck, rather than giving the coach the credit he deserves. Maybe Tony saw that Evans was raring to go, he certainly played very well for NI recently. Obviously he had a lot of faith in Armstrong and Dack so it’s great that’s starting to pay off. How about respecting the fact that TM has been a coach for a long time and actually knows what he’s doing?

Isn't Tony's tombola a reference to his hard to predict team selection and the fact that nobody can remember how many times he has sent out an unchanged side.

Just now, The Hypnotic said:

Maybe spending a week with the players, observing them at training and monitoring their mental state qualifies Tony to pick his own squad? Sounds like Evans was great today, fair play to him and fair play to TM for picking him. Armstrong scored despite expert consensus on here being against his selection and it’s not long since people wanted Dack dropped for losing form. TM knows what he’s doing, some folk on here need to give him a bit more respect. 

40 goals in 100 apps is a good return in any League.

Tony's tombola - how does he do it?

54 minutes ago, Stuart said:

A turn of phrase.

Look, I’m not looking to pick a fight. We are on the same side but if Jack has demolished the RS and rebuilt it people would still have grumbled but it would have got done.

Stands are a very emotive thing - especially for those directly affected - but the RS needs updating sooner rather than later. While we have loads of empty seats it would make sense to start from scratch rather than build around it - especially if there was a hotel attached.

If people have concerns about a different agenda from the administration then that’s a whole different conversation.

34 minutes ago, Paul said:

When did this one about building an hotel resurface? I haven't heard this madness in 10 years.

Speaking as someone who used to travel a lot for work the Ewood area is completely wrong for the business traveller. For leisure purposes one has to ask the question why would a tourist want to visit Blackburn.

If an hotel is built at Ewood it will be an unwanted burden on the club. One has to be realistic, Rovers apart why would visitors want to be in the area?

29 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

The Fernhurst Hotel and Lower Darwen Premier Inn seem to do well...

All the Travelodges/Premier Inns/Holiday Inns along the M65 from Preston to Burnley are regularly booked solid weekdays. Business trade is driving demand.

Just now, Stuart said:

But that sounds like more of the same. There is an opportunity to develop the stand, not simply replace old wood and steel for new.

The new main stand at Anfield wasn't more of the same nor were the extensions to Old Trafford. Where's the wood in the Riverside?

Just now, Tugay-is-God said:

Holtby and Johnson double substitution?

2 Tribes springs to mind.

Tony's tombola rivalling Bongo's Bingo.

20 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Unless you were able to build the whole thing during the off-season I don’t see how you could just build over and then dismantle from underneath - no roof for a considerable period. It certainly wouldn’t be much of a redesign.

Jack saw fit to close the DE stand during the season while it was rebuilt. It comes down to lack of trust in the current administration and their motives.

It comes down to who is contracted to design and build the structute eg Mather & Platt or some tuppeny halfpenny Venky outfit. Any new roof would be higher than the existing one, therefore you could build behind and over.

Just now, Stuart said:

Sorry but I’m struggling with your position.

Are you saying don’t bother with redeveloping the stand?

No, replying to @Miller11, I said the stand can be redeveloped, like Liverpool and Man Utd did, without displacing more fans.

6 minutes ago, Madon said:

Not sure what's interesting about that apart from Johnson out and Evans in (and Holtby on bench!)

Good Evans! ?

Just now, Stuart said:

To redevelop the Riverside, it’s kind of implicit that it gets closed first.

Fuckin ell Stuart, don't Chuck the towel in.

On 18/09/2019 at 23:39, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

That's my main beef with Mowbray. The team changes every week, sometimes the formation and way of playing changes also. It's been going on almost since he came in. What's the betting there'll be changes from the 11 that started last week against Millwall for this weekends game ?

Meanwhile the dingles have played 4-4-2 almost every game since Dyche came in and if at all possible they pick the same 11.

A team of average Joes who've played together regularly and know exactly what is required of them will beat a team of stars that haven't played together 9 games  out of 10.

This is proven to be the best way to success for most clubs ( including all those with limited resources).

1 hour ago, Miller11 said:

On the topic of stand closures, Waggott is desperate to knock down the riverside and redevelop. His big dream is to build a hotel. Doing this would doubtless drive away even more fans. I think there’d be a significant number who would just stop going rather than relocate elsewhere.

A good architect/contractor partnership would build behind and over the top of the existing stand, as Liverpool did, so not displacing any fans during the season.