JHRover

I have explained two ways of addressing the 'FFP problem' which are more reliable steps than hoping to sell players - increase revenues through commercial income. Two fundamental steps to doing this are increasing sponsorship income and increasing shirt sales. We've totally failed on that front. No shirts available to buy from November onwards would be laughable if it wasn't the same club bemoaning income limitations. You're right. Just because I can't name a company definitely interested in sponsoring Rovers' shirts means there is absolutely nobody in the world who would do it. We've scoured the globe and it just so happens the best option is one up the road already in Waggott's contact list. Same argument about alternative owners to the wretched Venkys. Try to convince yourselves that there is no other option but the one we have. It might make you feel better but there is a big world out there.

Defeatism again. If Waggott or whoever is unable to get better than perhaps we need to be replacing them with someone who has the skills and contacts to do so. You like to keep reminding me that FFP is a big problem. Well shirt sponsorship and shirt sales are two important ways around that. It seems you are content to accept whatever comes along and shrug your shoulders. Again, if the Club was proactive and serious about getting past FFP issues then it would ensure there was adequate stock of kits and ensure there was a lucrative sponsor in place.

Surprise Surprise. Local, short term, vaping. Right out of the Waggott textbook. When the Club starts taking merchandising and sponsorship seriously - having kits available to buy and actually securing reputable and lucrative shirt sponsorship- I'll believe FFP is an issue being taken seriously

We've released Dacky and Diaz, two hugely popular players and personalities and proven Championship quality, and replaced so far with a lads on frees from Plymouth and Vitesse that hardly anyone had even heard of. I'd suggest rather than exciting fans and encouraging more to buy it's actually the opposite and suggests cutbacks and lowering of ambitions Hopefully this changes.

Hopefully they go for Corberan and in doing so torpedo West Brom

For footballing rather than financial reasons I think a game against one of the relegated sides is the best outcome. Get a 'tough' game done early whilst they are adjusting and settling down under new management.

No longer Championship but I see Wigan have once again been saved and bought out by new owners Thought it was a mistake at first as I keep being told there are no buyers for such clubs and for that reason we are stuck with Venkys forevermore.

So it's now 7 years since Warnock was courted and then overlooked by us for the managers job and we sealed relegation by bringing in Coyle. Since then he's taken Cardiff to the PL and also managed Middlesbrough and Huddersfield pulling off survival jobs with both. There were folk back in 2016 saying he wasn't suitable for us because he only had a year left in him before he retired and we needed a 'longer term' manager...

Still nothing about foreign games, team flies out 3 weeks on Sunday. Despite claiming they would inform fans in good time to enable people to travel they haven't done. Almost like they aren't arsed about fans going and watching.

Could Waggott not use the substantial bonus funds received from two good cup runs and an extraordinary number of live TV broadcasts to plug any gap caused through cheaper season tickets? Answer - yes he could, but that would involve imaginative thinking and measures that might affect his numbers and jeopardise his bonus. We know what is more important here - keeping him in a job and collecting PRP rather than developing or growing the club, so we will be expected to forget all about such additional income and any sell on fees that might be received. The £70k+ per week being saved through the latest cost cuts will also help him along.

Maybe, maybe not, but I'd love to know what, if anything, Rovers had to say about the Bolton Road bus lane nonsense and the closure of multiple parking sites such as those opposite the Fox and Hounds and Empire Theatre. My guess is they said and did nothing and the result is that now we have chaos and panic stations when there is even a chance of a 20,000 crowd, luckily for them we don't get anywhere near 30,000 because they just couldn't cope.

Don't forget that when they slashed prices PNE also had the wherewithal to promote it with proper advertising. That included a sustained online campaign of advertising but also the good old fashioned approach of sticking leaflets through letterboxes. That included them distributing pricing info around houses in Garstang Waggott has done nothing of the sort. Efforts to advertise limited to occasional twitter / Facebook posts and as for making an effort outside of BWDBC area the last I heard was that we have a new excuse there which is that we can't target areas further away through fear of upsetting the EFL or neighbouring clubs. Not sure what they can do to stop us or who gets to decide which areas belong to whom but in my book if PNE are able to target Garstang we have just as much right and reason to. But when riddled with laziness and corner cutters (pitch, programme, club shop, sponsorship) we know where the problem really lies.

A start would be if it was March or April with months of sales to come and reason to think substantially more will buy But mid June with early bird complete and a price hike now in place means almost all will have committed one way or another.

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.