Second half of last season we were regularly getting 6000+ non season ticket holders attending league games It seems the club has absolutely failed in securing any net gain in converting a reasonable portion of those numbers into additional season tickets. Some will, but just about enough to offset the alarming numbers who haven't renewed. Waggott not arsed in the slightest about this because numbers are 'steady' and most importantly revenue up. If he's lucky JDT will replicate and have us top 6 all season again in which case overall numbers might hold at 14000+. But mid-table or a relegation struggle = sub 10000 gates and embarrassment. The good news is we've a few 'giants' to roll out the Ewood red carpet for to fleece and make up for it. Category A++ coming soon and as yet no news about 1875 membership so no chance of a discount for Rovers fans.

That's partly my point yes. Wrexham's owners have overcome the fact that they are a 4th or 5th division club and secured a sponsorship deal with a global business which is presumably very lucrative and reputable. In 10+ years of these owners, even before then under the Walker Trust, our shirt sponsorship has been weak. Ranging from being unable to secure a sponsor at all, to a succession of unheard of finance companies with unclear backgrounds, to vaping and gambling firms. Only once have we actually got a deal done with a global brand - Dafabet - which they ended early. Again we keep hearing about FFP and how unfair it is. Our owners run multi billion value businesses and are prominent in India and Southern Asia. Why have they never used their connections to our advantage? The Wrexham reference was to show evidence that global companies will get involved if the right levers are pulled. Instead we've a joker like Waggott who can't look beyond Darwen for anything

I think you really mean it helps when you have owners that take an interest and want the club to grow/succeed. The Hollywood lot clearly want that and actions follow words. The idiots we are lumbered with clearly have no interest or ambition and that's why they've never deployed what must be vast connections across India and Asia to the benefit of the club. There are plenty who say 'but nobody is interested in clubs outside the PL or think local companies are the limit. That Wrexham deal proves that with the right ambition and connections it is possible even for a lowly 4th or 5th tier club. Instead we've a rotting stadium and as yet no sponsor, and I expect with a waster like Waggott responsible for the next one it will be either inappropriate or not lucrative.

Still waiting on news as to what we are doing with a new sponsor but expect it to once again be Totally Wicked or some other gambling / vaping rubbish. Meanwhile newly promoted League Two side Wrexham have just signed a deal with United Airlines to sponsor their shirt. Presumably that's beyond our small time think small operation as Waggott rings around BWDBC based companies and tries to get someone on board.

He's not from anywhere near Blackburn, as far as I'm aware has nothing but a professional interest in the Club and I understand spends a great deal of time at his base in Kent. He's 69 this year. So well past the average and state pension age. You might think that someone that age, doing what you might think is a tough, stressful, high pressure job, would reach their late 60s, after having done it for years beforehand, and factoring it all in, travel, age, stress, decide it just isn't worth it anymore and retire. The fact he hasn't and it seems isn't tells me a couple of things. The perks of the job are too great to give up - the cash/profile of it - and/or the costs of doing it actually aren't that onerous and no problem to manage at an age where many would be knackered and ready to pack in. I don't think he's alone. There are many more like him in similar positions of 'power' be that politics, media, football. Like to think they've got positions of great pressure/responsibility yet curiously content to keep going into their 70s and beyond. Normal people especially those well paid would be retired in a shot.

When Bolton Wanderers (Lge 1) have sold over 14,000 and Preston (below us in the Championship) have sold 13,000 and we are perhaps just past 8,000 it is a failure. No ifs, no discussion about pricing, no arguments about revenues generated. It isn't a few hundred here and there. It is almost double what we are managing. Any CEO of Rovers presiding over such a discrepancy between us and neighbours should be ashamed and as far as i am concerned resign. The fact Waggott is still here after 5+ years of this and appears to think it is acceptable or even something to be proud of tells me all I need to know about the people owning and running the club and their attitude towards it. To make matters even worse it seems he is incapable of putting season tickets on sale without a now customary 'thank you' to the owners for their 'generosity' without which we'd presumably have to pay even more. The evidence down the road shows that this is a lie, that clubs with much poorer owners can outsell us charging much less which proves whatever benefit Venkys bring to the club certainly doesn't extend to season tickets.

Yeah Girona we've played at Ewood not too long ago in pre-season, maybe 2016. I assume due to their City connections they will be over in the area and its an easy / cheap one to arrange. It certainly isn't a marquee friendly as some have described and I don't for one minute think Waggott would agree to it if it was going to cost money to host. I see they are, as is customary, leaving it until the last minute to release any information about the most pressing issue which is that of the foreign games. It might come as a surprise to those employed by Rovers that some fans would want to go to watch these games and the usual routine of announcements a week or so beforehand just isn't good enough. It's the same story every year. I'd hoped this was changing with Broughton suggesting news at the end of May yet a week on and still nothing bar references to a couple of games overseas. A glance at other clubs they actively advertise and even encourage fans to follow them. Rovers couldn't give a stuff.

Think Corberan would be a very smart move by Leeds Also Ron Gourlay has just left West Brom, suggests there may be problems ahead there and he was probably the one who appointed Corberan.

Lets remember that the owners didn't want Waggott or indeed anyone as CEO. They were quite happy to drift through the first 8 years of their ownership with nobody. Unfortunately despite their best efforts it started to get a bit uncomfortable for them and their man in the shadows when Mike Cheston, the last man standing in executive capacity at the club, was left having to deal with disgruntled supporters and the press whilst doubling up as the financial director. Then the FA came along with their mandatory once per year fan consultation meetings (anyone remember those? Set up by the authorities to ensure a channel of communication between ownership and fans, conveniently abandoned under the guise of Covid and never mentioned again, just like shareholder meetings) Big problem in those meetings, Cheston wasn't up to the job of handing the fans and was out of his depth. They needed someone else and quick otherwise the anger and focus was going to turn to India and the shadow man, which must be avoided at all costs. So after employing snake oil salesman number one for 6 months during the relegation season before he packed up on relegation they needed another. Only this time around the manager they had taken a shine to was able to recommend someone willing to do the job and play the Venky game, someone who had been happy to do similar at crisis clubs Coventry and Charlton and who had been moving around doing short term 'consultancy' work for those bastions of stability and transparency Southend and Gillingham. Seems Steve doesn't get offers to be CEO at normal functioning respectable clubs but manages to find work at all the laughing stocks. So I think he's here to box tick and maintain an edifice of normality for the authorities, press and fans, whilst tasked to ensure his costs are covered by the fruits of his labour in increasing revenues and cutting costs. Win win for those in India who never really saw any need for a CEO but if he pays his own way on his salary why not. When he finally, finally retires (that day can't come soon enough) we will be back to the owners trying to make do without a replacement or promoting an existing inadequate staff member to the role and fudging it.

It's about this time where a block of 200-300 in the JW upper tier mysteriously become unavailable overnight. Wonder if we will get another 'prize draw' if we hit 8000 (remember when it was 10,000?) Probably not if he's hit his target there's no need for anything else

They're just bonkers down there. I'm glad to see that the £2 surcharge on season tickets was discussed. So the club appear to think it is justified on the grounds they are recovering their costs due to Ticketmaster. That's helpful. Presumably they'll also be attaching a surcharge to tickets and merchandise moving forward to recover their costs due to the gas and electricity providers? Incredible that the CEO of Blackburn Rovers appears to take pride - at least that's the impression I get from the minutes - from selling a pitiful 7300 season tickets and although almost 1 in 5 from last season have failed to renew he doesn't seem too bothered.

It had passed me by that Cardiff are also once again looking for a new manager with Lamouchi leaving. Thought he did a good job getting them out of trouble.

We are no more up against it than we have been at any other stage in the past. We've lined up opposite similar clubs every year in the Championship over the last 10 years and competed just fine. Whatever advantage Sheff Wed might have in numbers of fans clearly isn't much given their performance over the last 10 years during which they have finished below us or alongside us. Same for Sunderland, in return for their resources and fanbase they've had 3 years in League One and then finished level on points with us in the Championship. What is more important for the non-parachute laden clubs is a plan and determination to stick to it, which is where I hope Broughton will deliver. Leeds, Wednesday, Sunderland and more recently Leicester and Soton have been all over the place on recruitment and managerial appointments. Hopefully that continues although Sunderland seem to be getting the big decisions right these days. Luton, Brentford, unfortunately dingles have all got those right over the last few years and have succeeded despite small fanbases and resources in comparison to teams around them.

Take it Leeds / Leicester won't be getting sanctioned for FFP breaches (sure they both breached on losses in getting promoted out of the Championship)

Each and every summer we hear the same lines It's only going to get more difficult Some BIG clubs coming down / up All the usual stuff all aimed at putting us down a few notches on expectations before a ball is kicked. We'll be watching Bournemouth v Luton and Brentford v Burnley in the "best league in the world" and still there are people reckoning it's really tough and we're going to struggle before we've even started. What they are actually doing is measuring strength on attendances / stadium size which as the years go by only becomes less and less important than it once was, as the make up of the PL shows.

He's better than anything we've had under Venkys and I reckon we'd struggle to get better if he left. Of course you're right, nobody could really blame him for wanting out after an utterly disgraceful January transfer window that still hasn't been explained and as yet still no heads have rolled.

Still got the potential problem of Leeds and Leicester looking for new managers, especially if relegated. I hope that the India trip happens and he can convince Venkys to spend.

Hopefully this latest Spurs failure means they turn to Kompany as their next option For some reason these sort of Clubs never go after the dingle manager.

Doubt it, there's a few who have managed both including Koeman and Advocaat although it would almost certainly rule out a direct move from one to the other.

Rooney has won a measly 32 of his 114 games as a manager (28%). At Derby people were quick to point to their off the pitch issues but not sure what the excuse is at DC United. Anyway definitely not for me. I don't want him at this Club and his record doesn't suggest he's good enough.

Maybe those that they don't want to sell because they fall behind the pillars and have an obstructed view of the goals?

I did mention in my original post that it was the full interview on the official page I had watched. I'm also not taking any issue with anything Broughton had to say, my annoyance was with the approach taken by the interviewer

Interviewer "I guess we have to find a different way of working to compete with some of those sides who have the bigger budgets, we don't have that available" Broughton "That's fine, but we can't use that as an excuse, that is where it is, unless the Premier League, driven obviously by the work that is happening with the government white paper and the possible reforms reconfigures the parachute payments in the future, we know what we are in and we know how we have to do things differently. We've got a really good plan in place to do that, and hopefully we've made good steps this year towards fulfilling that" Interviewer "How important do you think that white paper is for football clubs like this?" Broughton "Yeah absolutely vital, not just for football clubs like us but for football as a whole, even if I go down to the Football Conference, if you look at Notts County this year, over 100 points, over 100 goals and then still rely on a play-off system to get promoted to the Football League when really now the National League is such a competitive league and has so many former Football League clubs in it that it has to progress...." Interviewer "How competitive do you think the Championship is going to be next year, because by the looks of things there are going to be three big clubs coming down from the Premier League, there are two big clubs and potentially a third coming up as well from League One as well, how difficult a division do you think it might be?" Broughton "Yeah I mean for all of those clubs to come in and have huge crowds and really drive up the attendances in the Championship" That's the part I was referring to, it can be found around 4-5 minutes into his interview on the official Rovers TV page. It clearly references both those clubs coming down and those coming up. Fair enough if you think that is an overreaction but I just think it shows what dumbing down and small time attitude there is around this club.

We only become a 'stepping stone' at the point it becomes clear we cannot or will not match the manager's ambitions. If the manager believes in what we are doing and is confident he can achieve his aims with us then we aren't really a stepping stone E.g. if we'd have got promoted this season, which we could have done, nobody would be talking about stepping stones because we'd be gearing up for a place in the richest and most high profile league in the world. But, because we messed it up and are a club with zero ambition and charlatans throughout it will be quite clear to JDT by now that he will have to treat this as a stepping stone.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy in exchange with PSV?