1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

Interesting how that will go down, because away from that very top corner of a hundred or so who stand throughout, the rest of the block is packed with long standing ST holders, many ‘of an age’, quite a lot of small kids and families too.

 

 

I would genuinely hope that the Club has learned from past mistakes and will explain, consult and listen to those affected.

There have been more interesting developments on the ISSA Bros involvement at Ewood. I can’t say too much but it involves investment in land very close to Ewood.

It is going to be NO1 in the BBE.  It is more advanced than you think.

20+ minutes queue on Livesey Branch Rd at the Feni end due to roadworks 😡

45 minutes ago, HowieFive0 said:

Heres your answer ..

A direct quote from the Fans Forum minutes by the look of it.

Shrewsbury (2018) and Wolves both launched safe standing some time ago.  Both clubs went to the licensing authorities rather than wait for the legislation to change.  According to Shrewsbury it has “revolutionised” their match day experience and has encouraged a new cadre of younger fans to their club.

PS. There was a lot of unsafe standing at Barnsley 😌

14 hours ago, arbitro said:

I don't know if it still applies but because of Covid there was a blanket ban on players posing with supporters for photographs of giving autographs. That said on Saturday at Barnsley several players gave their shirts to kids in the crowd. I'd give the club a call and ask the question. 

Those are the rules but at Barnsley, as you say, Boro and Forest some of the players were high 5’ing fans and posing for selfies.

3 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Take the seats out of the Directors Box to make a standing area and make the freeloaders who frequent it pay for tickets. 😁😁😁😁

It is usually almost empty, even the freeloaders don’t turn up any more 😬

Have a look at the Fans Forum minutes on the Club website.  1,000 seats being converted will cost £70k and they may have to move some existing ST holders (the irony of it); it won’t happen!!

Maybe we could ask Millercare Mobility to sponsor a safe standing area along with a couple of our loan player sponsorships.

21 hours ago, Paul Mellelieu said:

I actually thought he came across better in this interview than previous ones, and answered some well constructed questions with a level of candour.

 

More of this kind of public response is a step in the right direction.  

 

We are in the crap though as a club, with only bright spot being the academy.

 

One thing I didn't quite understand was a suggestion of moving the training ground / academy to a site "in the BwD" area.  Anyone make sense of that?

It is a site close to the M65.  More madness btw.

2 hours ago, 1864roverite said:

Can I just say when we grew up in wheelton there was never a dingle in there! what has become of the village if it lets a Dingle  reside there 😅

That dingle will be ‘Churchie’.  He never actually attends at t’Turd.  He moved to the village to live with a woman but she dumped him a few months later.

1 hour ago, Wheelton Blue said:

Living in Wheelton, I see all sorts of affiliations.....Rovers, North End, Bolton, City....there's even a dingle in the village. 

So there's plenty of competition.

Wheelton always used to be 90% Rovers.

3 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I'm well aware that there are huge numbers of Rovers affiated families in places like Chorley, Leyland, Bamber Bridge, Penwortham and

Again it seems the attitude is that these areas aren't ours, that they are too far away or belong to other clubs.

If we had Premier League football then the problem would more or less take care of itself but until and unless we have that the Club needs to do more to persuade people in those areas to come here and ensure generations of fans aren't lost. Many of these people will never visit Blackburn unless for the football and over time will have less and less ties to the town.

In the case of Chorley and Bamber Bridge again it baffles me why some see these places as PNE territory to hoover up support in when distance and travel wise it is just as easy to get to Ewood as it is to Deepdale from those areas.

These sort of areas are also more affluent and attractive places to live and are growing rapidly with huge housing developments. Clitheroe is another one -  loads of people moving there, nice houses being built - should be targeted with serious efforts including a Rovers bus. Is anything at all being done? Not that I'm aware of.

Exactly.  You only need to seethe queue of cars going down Livesey Branch Rd and Blackburn Old Rd after each game.  I wonder if the Fans Forum members could ask for a breakdown of ST sales by postcode; Rovers will have the information at their fingertips and a comparison of the percentages per postcode area over say 10 years may show some interesting trends.

7 minutes ago, Butty said:

Why did I leave it till today to try and get tickets? Been busy at work but I’ve just spent 40 minutes failing to get through to the ticket office and refreshing the website online. What a tit. If anyone ends up with 2 spare tickets somehow could they give me a message. 

You can by online from the Blackpool FC site.

17 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Blackpool away tickets all sold out. 

Looks like season ticket holders bought them all

Excellent news Chadders.  I wish we had a few more.  Rovers fans were queuing from early this morning and 100’s turned away according to Facebook.

 No doubt the Blackpool ticket office will now be checking postcodes and ticket purchase records.

You may be surprised at the number of Rovers fans in Preston including our very own ‘Tulketh Blues’.

If you watch a game at Chorley FC you will often see Rovers, Nobbers, Wigan and Bolton  shirts.  Chorley is a prime target area, especially the outlying villages on the Blackburn side of town.

2 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

 

 

and? are they Rovers fans?

 

Absolutely no idea.  They are business men, they come from and live in Blackburn and have their HQ in the town - that is a fairly decent starting position for me.  What do you think?

1 hour ago, bluebruce said:

So it's a definite non story because you've fabricated another way in which staff may or may not be getting around it? Right...

Sorry but I am struggling to understand the point you are trying to make.

36 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Massive risk and are they even Rovers fans?

They now have their own box at Ewood.

There are some very interesting developments on the Rovers ownership front.  There is local interest that the V’s have not shunned.

6 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Not convinced by this argument, if you don't actually  take up a free ticket, how can you be taxed on it?

You are not taxed on it if you don’t take it up.

15 minutes ago, JohnGo said:

NON STORY for you pal. Different STORY for those who’s had it taken off them. Don’t forget the BIK has been there since Adam was a lad. Given the tax is 20% of the season ticket price of £399 the BIK is £79.80 which is £6.65 per month PAID BY THE EMPLOYEES. There is no extra liability on the club. Given the employees had enjoyed this BIK for many years (I know guy from Bill Fox’s time who enjoyed this). Are you sure the club increased their pay to offset this loss. Are sure these tight arse son of bitches haven’t. Are you a maggot boy?

You appear to have no idea how the HMRC work nor any idea about tax law.  There is no need to increase pay to cover this loss as other mechanisms are in place.

What is a ‘maggot boy’ please?  Is that a term of endearment or one of abuse?

1 hour ago, rigger said:

What are decent pubs in Barnsley ?

I tend to use this for away games.  It has always been useful.

https://footballgroundguide.com/leagues/england/championship/oakwell-barnsley.html
 

3 hours ago, Miller11 said:

Barnsley away is a fixture that holds a special place in my heart. 30 years ago a visit to Oakwell marked my first proper away fixture, my only previous experience of away games being Lancashire cup ties at Blackpool and Preston.

There was a big game feel that day and Rovers turned out in numbers with the season reaching the business end, as well as offering us a chance to get a first glimpse of what seemed like our 25th new signing of an extraordinary season.

The more cynical onlookers suggested that Duncan Shearer had only been bought to neutralise the threat of Swindon Town in the promotion race, but we didn’t care. Since Newell has been carried off as we battered Newcastle at Ewood, things hadn’t been clicking, and it only took 25 minutes for the signing to look inspired.

A long diagonal ball from Alan Wright was flicked almost perfectly into Shearer’s path by Barnsley defender under pressure from Speedie, and he steered it in on the turn. A chant that would become commonplace in about 6 months time rang out, but that was this particular Shearer’s only real contribution in Rovers colours as he joined the failed attempts to replace the injured Mike Newell Club with Roy Wegerle over his 6 appearances. Some pretty crap defending later and we’d conspired to lose the game 2-1, this fixture being the second of 6 defeats on the bounce and part of a longer wretched run of form the modern day Tony Mowbray might even struggle to survive.

It all worked out ok in the end though. Shameless plug - re-live this game and this season, as well as many others, set to a soundtrack of the day withSound of the Season at Rovers Radio - select PODCAST from menu 

 

Barnsley’s own moment in the sun came 5 years later as a second place finish took them to the top flight of English football for the first, and to date only time in their 134 year history. Under Danny Wilson, Barnsley developed a much admired and very successful passing style, and Neil Redfern proved a much more effective spearhead of their attack than the fat Dingle they binned off - I can’t see the Padiham Predator playing for anyone where it’s just like watching Brazil! 

Our next trip to Oakwell came in November 1997, for what was a real game of two halves. After ourstrong start to the season, a Sherwood goal in the opening period we completely dominated led me to believe a win would be routine. However, Barnsley’s second half display was at times sublime… all one and two touch stuff, little flicks, brilliant movement, spectacular efforts, and we came away grateful for the point knowing there was more than a little truth to the chants.

Fast forward. Last year represented Barnsley’s best ever finishing position since that solitary Premier League season. A fifth place finish and a narrow defeat over two legs in the playoff semis making a mockery of the narrative that you can only reach the top 6 by being a “big club” or spending big money. Their owner, Chien Lee also has stakes in 5 other clubs scattered throughout Europe and iscredited, if that’s the right word, with bringing a “Moneyball” approach to his clubs. Andy Holt was battering him and this approach on Twitter this morning. The multi ownership is worrying, but football has to be unique in its constant search for and celebration of “investors”, but then complain when they look for a return… but I digress.

At ground level, it’s a bit more nuanced. While their style may have suggested an analytical andstatistical approach, playing the percentages is nothing new. The signing of Daryl Dike, a catalyst of their good form in the second half of the season,also flew in the face of their supposedly rigid model. Yes, he’s young, but his loan was never going to become permanent after a $20 million buy out clause. For the past couple of years though their recruitment has been far reaching, picking up young players cheaply from all over the place.

Valerien Ismael was an inspired appointment, andreplacing him was always going to be a tough task. Markus Schopp hasn’t had the easiest time of it so far with injuries (and Visas!) and results have been, at best, mixed. Expect them to play a 3-4-3 formation with Cauley Woodrow at the top, but the team and tactics have not been settled thus far, so the rest is anyone’s guess. They play Stoke tonight which might give some inkling. 

Mowbray must have been given some food for thought after the Hull game. The Armstrong shaped hole hasn’t been addressed, and I expect we will see various different solutions throughout the season. I’d like to see this line up against Barnsley:

 

                         Kaminski

 

Nyambe   Lenihan   Ayala   Pickering

 

                 Travis     Rothwell

 

Dolan        Butterworth    Brereton

 

                       McBride

 

I know there is no chance, but we obviously lack a centre forward, apart from Gallagher who is injured and of questionable quality particularly for our style of play. Elsewhere on the pitch we seem to haveenough options, or at least we will when some of the injuries return, but Armstrong going has left a void. Hal Robson-Kanu anyone? 
The back 4 and midfield picks itself, though I have been impressed with Buckley so far, but not as a wide forward.

Prediction: Score draw.

Our last two performances haven’t been without their issues, but a 4 point return added to our early season haul has given us a points tally far greater than I’d have expected at this stage. With the transfer window now out of the way, and a manager who is going nowhere for the moment, we arewhere we are. It’s great to see we actually have some really talented players and a team who are easy to get behind for 90 minutes - I plan to switch off from all the other shite and do that on aSaturday.

That’s not to say that everything at the club is wonderful, far from it. Our pathetic CEO ought to have a look at how Barnsley, a minuscule club in comparison to Rovers, are now averaging higher attendances than us. A fantastic early bird season ticket offer (that had run its course way before Waggott thought about putting ours on sale), providing real value will have helped.

30 years ago we were in Division 2 and we won 0-1.  I remember it well.

2 hours ago, JohnGo said:

I bet the tight fisted twat didn’t pay for his ticket yet the backroom boys and girls don’t get in for free. What does it cost maggot? The costs are fixed the ground has 9k supporters get real FREE TICKETS FOR THE LOYAL STAFF.😡

Free tickets for staff are a taxable benefit which explains the need to remove them.  Maybe the staff are able to watch the games live by other means - clearly the Club cannot explain what these ‘alternative’ ways of watching are or they may well fall foul of the HMRC.  This is a NON story.