Mattyblue

He’s ‘open and honest’, remember, certainly no shilling for the regime here and he definitely wouldn’t throw his players under the bus whilst doing so.

Bolton Metropolitan Borough is, the town itself isn’t considerably bigger. Majority of our fanbase now resides in other boroughs regardless. We and Bolton have been similarly supported for a long time..until they got new owners.

Clubs generally are bringing higher away followings, we certainly are, so that will account for part of that slight increase, plus a fair bit of time towards the top of the league had led to a few more walk ons - but, as we just don’t sell STs in any good number it soon all falls away. Our STs have generally oscillated between 8.5k and 10k since 2012.

Get all that Parson, Sky etc, same everywhere, but you don’t see some unique issues here? I.e. why has the rest of league and non league football boomed crowd wise (up to 1950s levels), yet not here?

Plenty of the 8,000 have gone way past the sell the granny stage. Some midweeks you are well below that and generally many ST Holders have no qualms in missing plenty, you see that all around you. Take me, I’ll have missed five by mid December and Ipswich will be the first night game I’lll have been to all season and that’s only down to being fairly close by on Tuesday due to a work thing - I certainly doesn’t prioritise it anymore.

We’ve spent three out of four years knocking on the doors of the PL, ST sales haven’t budged. Indeed average crowds have hardly moved in a decade - whereas the entire game from the top flight to well into non league has boomed, so why not here then? As on the pitch it has been not bad at times. These owners are the anchor around the good ship Blackburn Rovers.

Rigger painted himself into the Markanday corner (now in the fourth division) and still won’t put his hand up that he got that one wrong.

Of course it isn’t like for like, it’s just an example of how English football is the place to be, and how potential owners are falling over themselves to get involved.

If they were desperate to do anything over and above an arse covering ‘look we tried, but no take up’ they’d pick a day game, make it a tenner no strings attached and market the hell out of it. But instead pick a night game in December and make you go via somebody else, they’ll sell bugger all… but ‘they tried’

‘Nobody would be interested in Rovers’… but Hollywood stars would be more than willing to take bloody Wrexham through the divisions whilst transforming its infrastructure.

They just don’t understand fandom, why did Wrexham bring so many last time? Because it was a big cup tie for them, on a crest of a wave and a new ground for the vast majority to tick off. Of course they won’t bring the same numbers a couple of years later at £35 for a Sky noon kick off on NYD. Cue surprise from the regime when they bring a third of what they had for the previous game.

Yep, isn’t on by the looks of it… https://www.skysports.com/championship-scores-fixtures/2025-12-01

They really do just wing it day by day down there.

*Cue Merce with his ‘this time next year…’

It’s a midweek in December for a side in 18th who can’t win at home, I wouldn’t be able to give my ST away to a pal, never mind get a tenner out of them. It’s an offer they’ve tried at least three times before for night games, they don’t work as floating fans aren’t interested in them.

‘Bring a friend for a X’ has never worked before and it certainly won’t work at the moment with that home form.

No chance the ‘sold’ tickets were 13,500, so 4,000+ bought walk ons? For a red button midweek in November? That’s considerably more than any Saturday game this season (bar Derby).

Indeed it is as this lot uniquely have no interest in making a fist of it on the pitch or giving it up as a bad job.

Hope you’re right, but I see absolutely no inclination of wanting to sell. For me in November 2035 we’ll be having this same conversation (with no academy and Christ knows in what division).

Their revenue in real terms has collapsed in fifteen years, yet are they any closer to the door now then, say, in November 2015?

They’d still go nowhere in such an eventuality. They’d just mothball the stands and close Brockhall and the Academy

Floating fans and even a load of ST holders aren’t arsed about night games, red button has done them in. Same everywhere just amplified here due to having so few ST holders to start with in a big ground. Its a non-issue to me as there’s nothing that can change it in November.

There’s absolutely no point in worrying about/analysing crowds during the season, as always, the dye was cast in the summer. If you just about scrape 9k STs (not even convinced we’ve sold that many as no final figure has been forthcoming in the FF minutes) then unless you are at the top of the league and thousands upon thousands of walk ons are turning up (for weekend matches largely anyway) then we have what we have when we are in 18th, which is a two thirds empty ground most weeks (more at night). If the club makes no effort in increasing the ST base and we are doing bugger all on the pitch, then this is us.

They don’t want him missing the Portugal group with the likes of Curaçao and Jordan, even at 41 he’d be getting the Siuuu out.

With Marilyn! The Missus’ Aunty and Uncle, small world etc.