Just in case anyone from the Accrington area is not aware, as Cesus pointed out there WAS a bus from The Boars Head that ran directly to Ewood on match days but as he says The Boars Head is now shut but the bus did continue and still runs on match days from The Sydney St Working Mens Club on Sydney St. Bus leaves about an hour and fifteen minutes before match day kick off time and is away pretty quick after the game dropping off at certain points on the way home back to the The Sydney St. Ideal for teenagers like Cesus says whose parents may struggle to take them or others who may want a drink and don't want to drive and park up etc. Seats are bought on a first come first served basis.

Not only did they get free Stanley shirts the kids got four free kids tickets to attend the games with a PAYING adult. Not all their parents will take up the offer but its there ..some will and in doing so will increase Stanleys attendance and the possibility of those going maybe returning in the future. Nothing worse than a pestering kid ..I want to go I want to go ! My cousin a devout Burnley season ticket holder is already under pressure from his daughter because " everyone else is going dad " ! As I said thirty odd pages earlier on this thread ..start with the schools ….brainwash them at an early age!

And at Stoke this season bussed in from a pub

"So in a hypothetical parallel universe "..stops me in my tracks and says it really is bedtime ..good grief. ..

86 live football games on British TV this week alone ..one week ! And this does not include IFollow games that maybe available ..

I think that was in response to this ..the arrogant tw@ts!

Not only tap into the actual supporter and get their ideas but theres another 91 clubs all with different ideas and incentives regarding match day tickets concessions etc. Easy to cherry pick the best ones and give um a try. Bradford have a thing called WebFlexi ..pay £75 quid then pay half price for match day tickets ( £10 ).Not guaranteed your own seat but allows people who either cant afford a season ticket or people who cant get to all the games so a Season ticket wouldnt be value for money to get discounted tickets. Lots of ideas out there ..just need the club to actually try a few !

Im actually agreeing with you Matty ..12000 is a decent core. When the ground was redeveloped they obviously got their figures wrong on capacity as has been proven over the years. We could have 50000 core supporters but in a 100000 capacity stadium its going to look empty ..empty seats are now and will be the norm. Bradford City have increased their season ticket sales from 11500 to 18000 over the last few years and this was mainly down to price. But would we find another 6000 season ticket holders if we slashed our Season ticket prices for Championship football? i seriously think we wouldnt . To slash Season tickets you have to be guaranteed to make up for the shortfall in price by selling a lot more ..

Yes clubs in general do get bigger gates but since the 80s we ve increased the capacity of Ewood dramatically. So the percentage of seats taken to empty seats is probably very similiar to the 80s..less than half full so very comparable in my eye.

Nice initiative by Stanley ,writing to all the schools in the area telling them that they will give all Year 3 kids an Accy Stanley shirt for free(around 1200 shirts) This is what i meant earlier in the thread about getting out there and get back into schools and create a little interest. A kids shirt cost nothing to the fact that a simple act could result in kids following the team for years to come. Matty ..going back to the 6000 attendances of the 80s ..so in 30 odd years we ve just about doubled our core support? Me thinks we re not far off reaching the maximum figure of core supporters. Yes in the PL we had larger gates but how many of those fans were coming as Blackburn Rovers fans or just coming to sample Premier League football ? Across from the Fox and Hounds that waste ground was packed out with coaches and buses from all over Lancs ..Morecambe ..Lancaster ..Fleetwood.. Chorley and local towns like Accy.. Ossy ..Darwen etc ..its virtually empty on match days now. No coincidence take away PL and the majority vanished. BRFC alone isnt the greatest attraction. As for people saying well we got 27000 on against Oxford ..id compare this to when a team wins something and has a parade through the town,thousands and thousands come out and cheer and wave but dont actually ever go to a game. The Oxford game was our open top bus parade. A chance to wave cheer ..well done Blackburn and then forgotten again. Ticket prices need dropping thats for sure but isnt just the answer.We need to be enticing the next generation ..get um hooked .Its a slow process but if we re at our maximum for core supporters which is becoming more evident every season its probably the only sure fire way to increase that core in the future.

Just a random thought ..but ..why do people think we should have higher attendances than we re getting now ? Take away tv ..early 80s and we were looking at gates of 6000 in the the Second Division. What was different then than now ?

Rovers need to get back out into the community starting with the schools. Start at the beginning ,get them hooked at a young age . Reduce match day tickets and supply free tickets to surrounding schools for BIG games not the Rotherhams and Readings on a cold Tuesday night in an empty ground. They have to come and experience something exciting. Leeds at home would be ideal ,get them in let them experience Ewood at 3/4 capacity give them something to talk about at work and school and spread the word. All about getting people interested again.For those that did buy a reduced match day ticket the club should be sending out a survey asking about their experience good bad or indifferent asking how can we make it a better experience. Show the punter the club cares what its fans think.The club needs to engage with the local community. Season ticket holders why not reduce concessions by 25%? Its not just all about the price of a match day ticket that puts people off its the actual cost of the day.

Spot on. Swap that Oxford game to a cold Saturday in February at £10 a ticket we d be lucky to get 16000..but thats 2000 more than normal ! Lowering ticket prices will increase attendances but nowhere near the 27000 on against Oxford. And now the games are available on the red button(at least eight plus the games Rovers get allocated as Skys main match ) i cant see a sustained rise in attendances for quite the foreseeable future!

Im sure most footie fans grasp the concept of the early rounds of the Carabao cup whereby teams dont play full strength sides and dont until the latter stages of the competition.If half the first team had been wiped out with injury and suspensions last night there would have been uproar. The 500 fantastic fans would have been well aware of this and still went and got to see us put in a great fighting performance..which as a fan thats what you want to see. We ve had a great start to this season but hey ..lets keep raising that bar til its finally out of reach of this team then people can then come on here and and have a good moan! Criticism where due by all means but come on..

Oh dear ..

So what ..point gained ..move on and address problems if need be .

Youre right AAK stretching it a lil with the home wins ..but all in all a decent start to say we ve just come up .

Played awful and still gained a point ! Things are looking up!

A just promoted team takes a point away at one of the big guns ...draw away ..win at home ..well done Blues!

And another good chance ...!

Exactly. Game on ..

But 0-0 ? away from home ..we d take that ..well ..most would..with 45 mins to change it around .

so what ..??

We re still sitting with a point ? job well done first half. just taken them to HT and now down to a 45 min game with us to make a couple of changes to maybe push forward .