So our average gate is actually less than it was 10 years ago at this same level. Meanwhile just about everyone else has enjoyed significant increases of several thousand. A crisis for the long term health of the club and its fanbase. Created by negligent owners and their underlings. Assisted by those supporters who focus their energies on the 80s and comparing numbers to those days.

We charged Bristol fans £20 when they came to Ewood in December. So Rovers' away fans getting rinsed again. Just like we will at Leeds soon when they charge upwards of £40 for a televised game substantially more than we charged their fans at Ewood. Eventually the penny might drop at Rovers that the way to deal with this is charge other clubs what they charge us, and offer proper discounts to Rovers fans who sign up to be members.

10 years ago gates at Ewood were averaging over 14,000 and that was a reasonable figure at the time by Championship levels. Certainly similar ball park to most. For example - 2014/15 our average gate was 14,900 or so, which over the season was more than Huddersfield, Wigan, Blackpool, Millwall, Brentford, Bournemouth and Rotherham, it was also similar to Bolton (15,400), Birmingham (16,100), Watford (16,600), Charlton (16,700) and Reading (17,000) Not game changing numbers behind Fulham (18,000), Middlesbrough (19,000) and Ipswich (19,600) So basically 2/3 of the league was at or similar numbers to ourselves. Of course that's inconvenient to the doom mongers and self-pity brigade of which that bloke in California is one, doesn't fit the narrative of little old Rovers struggling to compete. Fortunately now the numbers are looking better for them because there has been an explosion in gates across the EFL which Rovers have managed through suicidal policies to do the complete opposite to, leaving us down at the very bottom of the League and with numbers that are perfect ammunition for the pro-Venky mob to use to their advantage. Another reason for us slipping down that table is that two of those clubs have gone on to get promoted - Brentford, Bournemouth - to the Premier League, despite having significantly lower numbers than us turning up to watch. Amazing that. Almost as though having tiny grounds and hardly any fans is irrelevant to success. It actually comes down to competent management and investment, neither of which have been seen here for a very long time. BTW, investment isn't paying your bills on time. Investment is actually going above and beyond the essential bare minimum.

Rowett a strong option for a struggling side. Birmingham owners a bit clueless with the Rooney thing but like most will take drastic action where required to try and save their Championship status. You compare to what has happened here this season and in 2017 where relegation is practically invited by the owners.

So communication with the fanbase now relies on the holiday arrangements of the Telegraph reporter? Broughton could convene a press conference and invite local media. Telegraph's job to find someone else to send or miss out.

Simple solution to that little problem....blame the boogeyman or in our case good old FFP. Owners are doing all they can, desperate to invest etc. but it just isn't fair because our low crowds and FFP make it impossible (Please ignore the £30 million from player sales and the crumbling infrastructure not constrained by FFP)

Next instalment is "the owners are committed....are you?" when Waggott puts up season ticket prices in May.

As is now the usual way of it Waggott is prompted into releasing a hasty and poorly drafted 'statement' purporting to be from/on behalf of the Owners only after a major development occurs and confusion and speculation runs rampant for 5-6 days. If this genuinely came from the owners and they genuinely wanted to communicate they would have released a statement setting out exactly what the issue in India is and would have released it promptly rather than doing nothing for days on end then coming up with this drivel. If you believe the owners have had any input into this beyond their dogsbody giving it the once over before it went onto the website I think you are deluded. This is just the latest attempt by Waggott to portray this as business as usual. I'm not buying it. I find it frankly disgusting that the 'statement' is used once again by Waggott as an attempt to thank the owners for their input, bizarrely referencing Covid, now 4 years ago, as an issue or excuse. Strikes me as a desperate bid by a lackey to take action to divert building anger away from India. Probably caused by him hearing the Venkys song at MIddlesbrough on Saturday.

Sunderland and Bristol both mid table sides going nowhere and in dodgy form. Some would say better having them than relegation rivals battling for their lives. But when you've won 2 in 20 you have serious issues and cannot be confident of a win anywhere.

We keep hearing this baseless claim that Venkys might sell if we got back to the PL because they'd get some of their money back and be more attractive to would-be buyers. I don't believe this for a second. Why they would walk away from a position of strength, popularity, publicity and rehabilitated in the eyes of many I'm not sure. They are probably deluded and arrogant enough to think we could survive in the PL with similar levels of 'investment' as they provide at the moment and want to give it a go. No, the only way they are leaving here is by being forced out, not voluntarily. A few ways that can happen but I'd say the intervention of government agencies and Courts in their home state is probably our best chance. The alternative is they simply run out of money but that seems unlikely if they really are 'billionaires' and they'd probably just slash costs if they ran low on cash (oh yeah, they've been doing that already).

That was actually my thought at the time. Pleased that a large percentage of those going now recognise that Venkys are an issue and were quite relentless in singing that song, but it didn't strike me as a 'Venkys out' message rather a 'I don't care about Venkys my only interest is Rovers' message. Suspect a lot less people would have been singing it if it contained the words 'Venkys out' or similar, which is ultimately what we need.

At the end of the day they were reluctant disinterested owners who didn't want to be here and hadn't for a number of years before they eventually sold. The fact they entertained Ali Syed and then sold to Venkys tells us all we need to know about the previous owners, their interest in this club and how desperate they were to cash in on it. So in my book they had to go. There's no place in football for owners, managers, CEOs, players who don't want to be involved and be successful. Unfortunately for us they found terrible people to replace them and that decision may yet be the death of the club. Yet still a sizeable portion of the fanbase yearn for the Walker trust and fiercely defend Venkys. I despise them both for their ownership and decision making.

Reading in talks with an American group about a takeover. Still some delude themselves. Pretty soon to have the worst owners in the EFL....

Not sure many were saying "anyone is better than the Walker trust" although they needed to go. They didn't want to be here and Rovers needs committed people not part timers looking for an exit. How many of the current 92 would you class as worse than Venkys?

There's currently a very, very short list of people I wouldn't want at Rovers rather than the current lot, and I doubt people running other clubs with a degree of professionalism would be on that list. Almost anything better than the purgatory inflicted by the current regime.

The fact they would rather the club limp along in this zombie like chaotic state for months or even years on end whilst confusion and uncertainty runs rampant, allowing all our assets to be sold to the highest bidder, flushing Championship status and a shot at the PL down the toilet, alienating many more fans and condemning us to a dismal future in League One or beyond all the while going through the aggro of going to court every few months for permission to keep the lights on, rather than just admit defeat, and for once act in the best interests of the club by taking steps to sell or transfer it elsewhere thus protecting it from further immediate damage and keeping it free of their legal issues really just displays what self centred despicable people they are deep down. You get the likes of Mowbray, Waggott and the rest of them down there singing their praises about what lovely wonderful caring people they are when that is based on them getting paid by them, wined and dined in India and the rest. What actually matters is actions and putting the club first. We've known from day 1 that it isn't on their radar to do this and still to this day their egos and self centred pride / legal / financial concerns take absolute priority over just doing the right thing, admitting defeat and letting someone else take it on. Horrible people.

The only calculations currently going through his rancid brain will be how much more he needs to put up prices to counter the inevitable substantial drop in numbers that is coming this summer. That's all he's interested in and has made that quite clear in his time here. It isn't about numbers through the turnstiles it is about hitting his own financial targets and I think track records suggest he'd be quite comfortable with a virtually empty Ewood so long as those turning up paid what was needed to hit the target. Less paying more not more paying less is his motto.

If ever you wanted a human manifestation of Venkys reign of terror and destruction of this club and its standards and principles its the employment of Waggott as its highest office holder. Inadequate, classless, not fit for purpose and just looks and sounds wrong

I'd consider that to be the worst case scenario - we limp along for another 6 months with no aim or purpose other than to find enough cash to stay afloat, sell our few remaining assets and have another diabolical transfer window leading to at best another Championship relegation battle next season. No thanks. Best case scenario is surely that the scum are informed that this arrangement stops in August and then they realise that they have no way of funding the club any further and have no other viable option other than to hand it over to someone else. EDIT - sorry just seen the above

It's too complex and sensitive for the local media mob to get their teeth into. They don't know what they are talking about on the subject and will be discouraged from covering it by the people at Rovers. So rather than go digging and get some expert analysis of the situation from people who are up to speed on these things and risk upsetting Waggott instead they'll cover easy and comfortable ground which means tuning into the weekly presser to discuss which injuries might be back for the weekend. As you say, clubs existence in question due to these funding issues, yet hardly anything from the club or local media. They're a disgrace the lot of them.

Interesting 'Likely to take some time' suggests this isn't quite the tick-box procedure implied previously and that the Court will need to hear evidence and determine the application. Hopefully Venkys lose. The listing of 'final hearing' also interesting. What happens for the next tranche after August?

Mowbray had a Championship budget for 4 years and with the exception of Armstrong in his final summer wasn't compelled to sell anyone. In the 18 months since he left we've sold pretty much everyone of value or experience and replaced with much cheaper / academy players and adopted a League One level budget. He knew what was coming alright. These are other factors that will get ignored and overlooked when they put us back in League One and the Mowbray acolytes are out in force telling everyone how great it was under Tony and what a fab job he did.

It's all just lip service. That's all Waggott is there to do, provide the illusion of a normal functioning football club that wants to engage with supporters and build bridges, but in reality there is no such intention or desire. Cheap hollow gestures like turning up to a fans forum meeting every few months and laying out an array of excuses as to why things can't be done or promising to 'look into it' are the furthest he can and will go, and suspect he wants to go. This is why I shake my head with bewilderment when legions of fans praise him for 'honesty' when he appears once or twice a year for a comfy club media interview, or when people say I should try and speak to him face to face across a table and I'd think very differently about it. I wouldn't. People like him have, to put it politely, the 'gift of the gab'. There are many other ways of describing it. It is how people like him have carved out careers in football and made good money out of it. Half the job is coming across in a particular light and convincing your audience of a certain narrative. I just pity those who have fallen for it time after time.

Or perhaps the worst outcome of the lot....that Mowbray returns to manage Birmingham just in enough time to pluck a couple of wins out and leapfrog us, consigning us to relegation whilst keeping them up.

A true leader. Happy to swig the champagne and dine with the hospitality mob on matchdays whilst collecting his huge salary. Not so happy to front up and speak about issues fundamental to the club's future.