only2garners

This seems a good idea to me too. The absolute perfect opportunity for this would be 16/2/19. The men are at home to Middlesborough and the women on the day after, so you might get fans from both teams to a double header on the Saturday. Even if only say 1,000 fans came to a 12pm kick-off for the women it would still be way more than they get at Bamber Bridge and you would also have fans in the ground for an hour between games which should increase catering sales. Off the top of my head I can think of two possible issues with this. I assume Rovers have an arrangement with Bamber Bridge to play the ladies' games, so they may need compensating for lost income. And there might be issues with playing two games back to back at Ewood, particularly in mid winter.

I didn't realise it was compulsory to respond to posts on here. I have been keeping my eye on this thread and fully intend to represent these views when we talk about attendances at the next meeting. But given the next meeting is not for more than two weeks I didn't see the need to make this point until nearer the meeting. I was planning to post to this effect before we set the agenda but then there was a post about the Forum and the date of the Supporter Consultation Meeting was announced yesterday so I posted. As for responses, a set of minutes are always produced after the meeting and posted on the club website, usually within a week of the meeting.

Of course it isn't. The Forum is just coming up to it's 20th anniversary in early 2019. Below is a post from this message board which Phil Lloyd, the first Chair of the Forum made in 2011 outlining how it came about. The membership of the Forum attempts to offer a voice for all strands of Rovers support and brfcs.com has been represented for about the last 10 years. Mattyblue is right that the club had been planning another cut-price home game a la Oxford - we were first told about it at the meeting on 22nd May. At that time they were awaiting the fixture list to choose an appropriate game. At the last meeting in September it was still stated that they planned one but clearly this has not yet happened. It will of course be on our agenda for the next meeting on 12th November. We will also no doubt be having a more general discussion about attendances and this whole thread is useful in getting some ideas to discuss. Attendances and ground atmosphere have probably been the items we have talked about most in my time on the Forum - I have been a member and Secretary since 2007. We had a long discussion at the last meeting in September. In other news the club have just announced the date for the next Supporter Consultation Meeting - Thursday 22nd November. I think this is timed to be just after the next trip to India during the November international break. A number of people have raised questions, on this and other threads, about the origins of the Fans Forum at Rovers. This short summary isn't intended to be comprehensive, but should answer a number of the points that have been raised. The Forum was very much the brainchild of John Williams. He invited a number of people to be members of the Forum back in early 1999 (I think)- these included representatives of the Supporters Association (BRSA) and the Disabled Supporters Association (BRDSA). As for the other members of the original Forum, the common denominator seemed to be that they had written in to JW (then the Chief Executive) to raise specific points, proposals or concerns about the football club, and usually had been invited in for a meeting with John to discuss things face to face - this was JW's normal approach to anyone who seemed genuinely to have the club's interests at heart. I believe the intention of the Forum was to establish a dialogue with a range of supporters with different views (note, not necessarily a representative cross-section of supporters). Membership of the Forum was never fixed and people left if they wished (or failed to attend a run of meetings), and were co-opted on, typically at the invitation of JW. For example, the early Forums felt it important to have an Asian fan at the meetings, and this was done: similarly the newly-established Lancaster branch of the Supporters Association was represented in those early days, and brought a different perspective on the club. To quote from a letter I have seen, sent by John Williams to the then Chairman of the Forum (Phil Lloyd) in late 1999: "I am very happy that the Forum acts as a sounding board for the Club's ideas, this was, after all, one of the main reasons for setting it up." Later in the letter he says: "I will from time to time submit new names for inclusion on the Forum...this will ensure a freshness of views and exchanges, although clearly we don't want the numbers such that the Forum becomes unmanageable." Representation from BRFC has always varied, according to availability and also in relation to the issues being discussed (as has been stated elsewhere, playing issues have always been off the agenda of the Forum), such as safety matters, marketing, pricing, catering, ticketing, stadium "atmosphere", new playing strips, media, etc. John Williams himself attended several of the early meetings, as did Ken Beamish and ALan McColgan and later Nick Hall (then the Club's Marketing Manager) - when Tom Finn joined the club, he too was sometimes present as the senior club official. From the fans' side, I don't have a definitive list of those who were involved right in the Forum's very early days (so apologies for any errors or omissions here), but I am fairly sure that they included Jimmy Leaf, Duncan Gardiner, Guy Wignall, Pauline Perkins and Tony Shaw (BRSA/BRDSA), Jim Catlow and Vicky Watkin (Lancaster branch), Phil Lloyd (who at that time wrote the "Down by the Riverside" column in the Lancashire Telegraph), Neil Duckworth, Bill Toland, Ian Ferris, Paul McKenna, Susan Samme, David Slater and Martin Haworth. Clearly the Forum and its remit have developed and grown over the past 12 years, but it has become an established channel of communication between the club and its supporters and it is interesting that, despite it being something that JW conceived, brought into being and personally supported along the way, the new owners chose to include some of its current membership in the visit to Pune, which will hopefully being them a little closer to the fans and their feelings and opinions. I hope this is all of some help by way of the background to the Fans Forum.

Or M6, M5, M50 and Head of the Valleys road

I'm a bit lost here - has Jack Rodwell found an Irish grandparent?

Stepping away from local bias surely Chris Wilder is currently the best manager in the Championship? An excellent team built at low cost. Bielsa hasn't been managing in this league for 5 minutes.

Ah - I didn't have the option of iPads/kindles when my lads were young!

A bit of expectation management for you - at 2 1/2 she will have little interest in the football and be more interested in going to the loo and eating and drinking. She is also likely to be uncomfortable with the noise as well. We might think the atmosphere is quiet often at Ewood but for young kids it's a big shock. With our boys they were 5 or 6 before they were really interested in going and watching the game.

Last year Rovers put half season tickets on sale on 6th November and my gut feeling is that's about when they have always done it.

Too right perthblue. As far as i'm aware the ladies' team have the full support of the club and presumably therefore the owners. The club appealed the decision not to allow the club to be promoted despite being asked not to by the FA. At the appeal no one from the FA attended but just sent their lawyers. The whole thing stunk. Never mind Man Utd, Leicester were promoted despite finishing 10 points behind Rovers in the league. There were also two other clubs from the Southern Division promoted to the Championship - Lewes and Sheffield United. West Ham, who finished 7th out of 12 in the the Southern Division, were promoted to the Super League! The positives are that the rules have been changed and if Rovers win their division this year they will be automatically promoted to the Championship. The way they have started, top of the table on goal difference with two games in hand and a goal difference of +29 after 6 games, it looks like they might do it again. They are currently playing home games at Bamber Bridge.

Paul - sadly I’ve seen at away games that being a Rovers fan over 60 is no guarantee that they might not be happy to do something stupid. Given that some time soon someone is going to be seriously injured by a flare somewhere it’s regrettable but unsurprising that Rovers are keen to be on the look out. I’m sure there will be searches of Leeds fans but sadly I’m fairly sure at least one will get through.

Even for you chaddy, that’s spectacularly missing Paul’s point.

And Mark Birchall has a second star at Moor Hall, only 18 months after opening. Having been I’m not surprised in the slightest.

Mowbray was saying on Radio Lancs just now that Nyambe told him that he signalled but he didn't see him.

Congratulations - that bit in bold is in today's i newspaper.

If Rodwell was just told he was playing at Bournemouth and now has been just told he’s not being considered then that would be poor. But I imagine it’s more likely he knew in advance he would play in the cup but not in the league for a week or two. A decent manager would have all this planned and discussed with the player.

Lancashire's relegation confirmed when they failed to get 300 in the first innings. They can now only finish level with Notts on points and they have won more games. The only hope now is that if Notts are docked points, extremely unlikely.

That was my thought too, although there's also one at Dunham and I presume at least one more....

Which one?

The Freemasons is excellent, as is the White Swan at Fence and the Red Pump at Bashall Eaves is good too. The Parkers Arms at Newton has a great reputation, although I've not been. In Preston Fino has recently opened and is an outstanding tapas place.

No we aren't. We get £100K for a home match live on Sky and £10K for an away game, but nothing for the red button games.

Derby is around twice the size of Blackburn.

Brentford are owned by Matthew Benham, who made his money from online gambling and is a fan. they will also be moving to a new ground next year. Bournemouth have been majority owned by a Russian with plenty of money.

If you can get to Preston you can take the train - 12.17 gets to Stoke at 13.31 or 13.17 arriving at 14.32. Coming back at 18.02 getting back to Preston at 19.54. Advance tickets available now. Station car park at Preston £6. From the station take a cab or it's about a 40 minute walk along the canal towpath.

No. I haven't even finished writing the minutes yet.