JHRover

I'll bet now that immediately upon safe standing being legalised in the top 2 divisions the majority of clubs will take steps to install it at their grounds. Some have already started to do so and others have said that they will. The reason is that there is a large number of people who prefer it and an acceptance that it improves atmosphere. Do nothing Rovers will be one of the last to get around to it.

The topic was up for discussion some 25 years ago when Jack Walker was spending and he went as far as to have proper plans and models made. At the time the Riverside wasn't in need of replacement as it was still relatively new but it was obviously something that was being looked at. We are now 35 years or more on from when the Riverside was done last and like it or not the standards, requirements of modern day stadia have changed massively since then. It was also put together relatively cheaply at a time when the club was struggling to make ends meet and had to put something up to replace crumbling older stands. This isnt an old stand like at Highbury or Craven Cottage oozing tradition or history. It looks and feels poor. One of the biggest issues is the lack of a concourse and lack of cover for all seats. If nothing else those two things are an embarrassment and make the stand a problem that needs addressing. It's all well and good saying we should wait until promotion before doing anything. But then try to start work when in the Premier League and there is a demand for those premium view seats and we face the prospect of 12-18 months of no Riverside stand and a reduced capacity when the big boys come to town. Logistically it makes more sense to do it asap with a view to it being used in the Premier League. Like how Fulham are doing with their new stand or Bristol City. If we got up now I am almost certain our facilities would need upgrades for modern media and disabled requirements. No way would the Riverside be able to house broadcasters in its current state and I also suspect the studio in the Jack Walker might be insufficient size. In terms of disabled facilities we would be facing a deadline to provide covered raised viewing points and without a new Riverside incorporating these we would either have to rip hundreds of seats out elsewhere or build some horrible platforms in the corners like Burnley have done. The new Riverside has some essential requirements. It needs to be built about 15 meters nearer the pitch without the walkway along the front. It needs spacious concourses offering shelter. It needs to be fully covered without any obstructing columns. It needs to ensure it has adequate disabled and media facilities to meet PL requirements. As part of the job the old floodlights need removing and putting in the roof of the new stand. The old TV screen needs removing. A new one needs to be put either in the roof of the new stand or one each in the corners. The ground would feel much more enclosed without the floodlights and large distance between the current stands. Ideally it needs to be done in a matching style to the other 3 stands, admittedly that might be difficult/expensive. It should include non matchday income streams. Hotels are going up all over Blackburn so there is clearly demand and pitch views of Ewood would be better than overlooking McDonalds at Darwen services. Capacity wise it needs to be at least 4000. We don't need much more than that but any less and it would look silly. Cost wise - FFP exempt so not part of that discussion, other than income from it would count towards Ffp compliance. Billionaire owners who care about their club and never say no to a cheque? Why can't it happen? In reality I suspect we will see nothing until the Riverside becomes a hazard or we are forced into it, then we will get some half baked refurb of the existing structure.

Mixed feelings after yesterday. Would have taken a draw beforehand and with 10 minutes to go as we were hanging on. In the end it is a tough away game gone and a point out of it. In terms of other results we have come through relatively unscathed with Fulham, Brentford, Bristol City, Forest, Cardiff and Millwall all dropping points. Preston cheating again to win another penalty to turn their game around against Hull is disappointing but we need to make up ground this week with our home games. The question of whether yesterday was a good point or two dropped will become apparent this week. Do the business in our home games and we will be looking good. Drop points at home and it becomes too much to allow and too much work to do down the line.

Not sure how or why you would reduce the capacity. Whilst Ewood is too big for us at this level the club should have plans for the Premier League and growing attendances when there. Nobody actively reduces capacity. Millwall have just released plans to build a new 30,000 ground. They've never been in the Premier League and don't get close to filling their existing 20,000 ground but have plans to grow and progress. Brentford don't usually sell out Griffin Park at 12,000 capacity so in some ways a 50% increase is a lot to cover. To reduce Ewood's capacity a new Riverside would need less than the current 4,500. That would look ridiculous and would be completely out of keeping with the rest of the stadium. For me there is more to it than just bums on seats though. We need a 21st century stadium fit for the top flight and plans to have that ready for then. In an era of FFP and the implications of trying to comply with that we need more strings to our bow. We aren't going to get 25000 per week turning up and there's nothing wrong with that. But like Brentford we need to generate off the pitch and non matchday income. Hotel, gym, events, flats, offices need incorporating. Nobody can say that there isn't the demand because all those things are being built nearby. I don't think the owners have ever seen facilities and infrastructure as areas requiring anything beyond bare minimum expense and by god it shows around Ewood these days.

It isn't outside their control to have a ground in their own city. Everyone else manages it including non League clubs who would love to swap positions.

Coventry's owners are suing Wasps/Ricoh owners and have taken it to the European courts. They claim that the ground was unfairly sold to Wasps at a low price. Wasps won't allow them to play there until they drop all legal action around it. If the court action succeeds it could potentially bankrupt Wasps who could be ordered to pay millions more for the ground. The Football League were clear after the Northampton farce that Coventry had to play in the City or within a few miles of it. Quite how they're allowed to play in Birmingham I am not sure. They also supposedly had to progress building a new ground if the Ricoh wasnt viable. Hasn't happened. As ever with the League their bark is worse than their bite. They'll come with these threats on their we website but when challenged or threatened will back down, as we will see with Ffp breaking clubs who still haven't been punished. Why should Coventry be allowed in the Championship when many, many non League clubs are refused promotion for daft things like numbers of seats or size of toilets?

Coventry looking set for promotion but should be refused unless they have an adequate stadium in Coventry to play in.

Barton will hopefully be banned from football at the end of the season when his long awaited trial takes place. Convenient of course that he can carry on through to the end of the season before standing trial for assault. If I go to a football ground and assault someone I will almost certainly receive a banning order within a short period of time, even if it is my first offence. Barton is still working in football almost a year after the alleged incident took place, still hasn't stood trial and has had no restrictions imposed. Double standards.

I don't doubt that Mowbray and his team will have targets in mind and would ideally like to move for them early. Unfortunately the backward structure of him having to wait until May to fly to India to review and agree things before he goes on his family holiday results in a month of delays after the season has finished. Can't do it.

He's also 56, not 57 until late this year. Nearly right though.

I think the majority, myself included, were very frustrated with what we were seeing which seemed to be a never ending cycle of repeating similar mistakes stretching back over more than 12 months and very little suggestion that things were going to change for the better. Preston away was the nadir and I make no secret that after that particular horror show I would have waved Mowbray off with thanks and replaced him. That didn't happen, it probably was never even a possibility, but it was clear around that time including after the Barnsley win that things weren't quite right, the fans were unhappy and Mowbray wasn't comfortable. Very easy to sit here now 5 months on after things have picked up. That's the beauty of hindsight. Of course Mowbray, his confidants and some fans will do the 'i told you so' routine but that can carry on forever in football if you give it long enough. I don't subscribe to the theory that Venkys are backing some long term project. I just think they don't care or pay attention and are happy to leave Mowbray to it because they like him. They did the same with Kean and it ruined us, so thankfully this time we've got someone likeable, trustworthy who is also a decent manager and has been able to turn it around. Some people always want to try and take the highground when there's never any guarantee any particular course of action or in our case no action is going to result in an improvement. I also think this good run of form has really crept up on us and rivals - we haven't really appeared as a side taking things by storm yet we've quietly gone about becoming hard to beat. We've also managed to dispatch teams e.g. Bristol City and Charlton away in clinical fashion. We've managed to get our home form back towards what it was last season where we don't ever seem to play particularly well but don't lose games, whilst away from home we've started picking up some good wins, built upon a solid defence. Long may it continue. First few months of the season i was quite despondent about things and wasn't really enjoying games or how we were playing and wasn't seeing much sign of any progress. Since Xmas I am seeing positive signs and indicators of progress. Lets see what unfolds over the rest of the season. Problem I have is lets suppose we get to 7th or 8th come end of the season. From there we need to invest, be decisive and move quickly to plug gaps and get ready to hit the ground running next year. I don't think that is ever going to be an option under this regime which is why we usually start off slowly and by the end of the season aren't in the mix because we've been playing catch up for so long.

Lol he only joined us to work with Mowbray again. Not because he wanted to be here more, rated us more, we paid more or sees us as a better bet all around. Thank god too. With their excitement over 'beating' us to free agent Bauer and landing Scott Sinclair I wonder how hysterical they would have been had they spent a club record on Armstrong.

Start off by doing away with international breaks and that could reduce night matches by 4-5 a season.

True, credit to the owners and club for that (although we had similar under Bowyer 2013-15 before the rug was pulled out from under him). I'm not criticising Rovers here. I'm criticising certain elements who seem to enjoy creating gossip and uncertainty about our better players when there's very little evidence of anything happening. These sort of things quickly spiral out of control and become fact in the eyes of some.

Never going to get past 99 appearances ?

It's not even a story. Its spreading gossip and rumour. Not doing Rovers any favours. https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/02/20/report-suggests-newcastle-want-to-re-sign-10-goal-eight-figure-a/ Here we go. Doesn't take much to get these sort of things going. Next news is 'local press' in Blackburn have reported interest in him, even though they've just picked up a rumour from elsewhere. Then it snowballs.

It's not even a story. Its spreading gossip and rumour. Not doing Rovers any favours

I'm suggesting that they dont pass off gossip from miles away as real interest in one of our better players. Not really asking for a 'cover up', just report on facts preferably unearthed at Rovers end rather than fanning the flames of what might be a Nixon style column filler and nothing more. These sort of things spread like wildfire and within weeks will be going round as clubs preparing bids. That can't do us or the player any good at this stage.

Who says that's a fact? It's a rumour. It might be true, it might not. There's no way the Telegraph know. So they are piggy backing on a rumour from elsewhere. Saying he is being watched by others is fairly obvious and could apply to most players in the Championship. Premier League clubs spend fortunes scouting players all over the place. The vast majority don't get bids and don't move. Telegraph are mischief makers who are always quite quick to jump upon distant rumours of interest in one of our star players but never actually come up with anything positive about the club e.g. new signings or spending.

What facts have the Telegraph reported? Relaying a rumour from another paper isnt the purpose of their existence.

This is how transfer rumours start. Telegraph doing us no favours once again regurgitating 'news' from other outlets and passing it off as 'interest' in one of our players. Before long it will be a fact that Armstrong bids are coming and it will snowball from there. Of course PL clubs will have had a look. He's young, English and not only in good form but scoring quality goals. Can say the same for half the Championship players who have played well this season. Some things never change and before long it will be fact that he's going to be sold and we are going to struggle to hold on. With Dack out and other business not great Armstrong might be Mowbray's saviour when it comes to his India trip.

Suspect it will be true. A relatively small allocation, large portion of Southern Rovers based fans, last trip to Griffin Park. Think each previous occasion we've sold out or gone close. Just save it in the archives for when dingles go on about support. 800 at Southampton last Saturday lunchtime, 1600 at Brentford with Rovers this.

Proof will be in the pudding. It will put hundreds on the crowds, not thousands which is what we need. Waggott, Chaddy and everyone else can say it's a great offer and the fans are to blame for not buying, but the fact is we are treading over well worn ground here. Every season they come with stuff like this and it makes minimal difference. Need to do better and think outside the box.

Off topic but why have dingles got England u21s v Turkey at Turf Moor. Why isn't Ewood hosting such fixtures? It is bigger and better including better access and parking facilities.

Is the allocation usually only 1650? I seem to recall it usually being over 2000?