Not faulting it, it’s important, especially with an Asian community that we need to see through the gates in increasing numbers in the future. But fanbases don’t neatly fit into 1970s created arbitrary lines on a map, especially now as people have become more transient (as your under 50% figure outlines). We must have a bigger presence in the Ribble Valley and Hyndburn to name but two as we have a big latent support in those council areas. Indeed not being ‘their’ borough doesn’t stop Burnley in Pendle, PNE in South Ribble or Bolton/Preston in Chorley.

Thanks for confirming. And that under 50% figure incudes Darwen, of course. So the town of Blackburn itself must be at historically low numbers as a percentage of the ST base… something that seems to be lost on the club as it is still very Blackburn focused in its outreach, school engagement, advertising etc.

Fair dos EiT. Hoisted by my own petard there I did miss the late 70s. But ok, generally speaking. If you look when in the same division in the 60s, similar, 2000s and 2010s, similar - so you get the point that it is recent pricing policy (half the price of ours) that has seen them leave us for dead as it just wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Us, Burnley, PNE, Bolton are very comparable as clubs and should be used as a benchmark whenever possible, I.e what attractive ticketing can achieve.

It’s my view, it’s an estimate. If you honestly think the majority of our support still resides in Blackburn you’ve been away from the place longer than you think. *Though through the work the Trust is doing I would wager the likes of Mike Graham would know for sure if he’s privy to share it.

A ‘link’ to what? The club’s ST holder spreadsheet? Yep, you’re right it is a fact that Bolton borough is bigger than BwD, case closed then, support, of course, ends at arbitrary local council borders. So we obviously can’t compare ourselves with Bolton Wanderers.

Not that old chestnut. More of our support is based outside of Blackburn than it. Using council areas as ‘catchment area’ is old hat. Bolton have never had substantially higher gates than us when playing at a similar level of football in 150 years. Very evenly matched clubs when it comes to support. £219 STs is the start and end of it.

They now have more ST holders in the third division than they had for a load of their PL seasons. Vastly reduced prices and a club that *actually* engages their support shows what’s possible and what fans will get behind. Our day will come, Christ knows when like.

£219 early bird… pretty much the same as our HALF season ticket.

Sell 15,500 STs instead of 9,000 and it’s easy peasy.

That obviously isn’t any kind of ‘wow’ factor, Chaddy as we sold 9,000 STs.

Don’t follow, sorry. We now have 18 months not 6. So the club has space to work on signing him up for longer next season instead of him walking out in May. He may not sign, that’s the nature of the beast, but at least we have a chance. Don’t see how that means ‘fuck all’.

There won’t be significantly lower STs on the back of this whatever happens. We’ve had odd tenner games throughout his time here. I enjoy it for what it is, a well populated, but a one off well populated Ewood. He will see it the same way, not a chance he’s taking a single risk re potentially missing his ST revenue targets, why would he? He’ll be gone soon enough in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t want to miss out on that bonus. The long term health of the support base means feck all to him.

Course it means something, the club now has breathing space. He could well sign another at some point next season. Or he could not. Either way he’s not walking out the door for nowt in a few months.

Sammie’s ‘levels’ have looked like they’ve dropped a little in recent games. No surprise as he’s run himself ragged game after game for months. Never ideal with this stretched squad but a 10 day break before Huddersfield may do him/us good.

Bang on tomphil. Ewood was redeveloped with the thought that we would be THE club of the north west outside Liverpool and Manchester for a sustained period of time. Coaches were arriving from all over. Indeed our gates weren’t much different than Everton and Man City at that stage. The likes of Burnley, PNE, Bolton were languishing in the third/fourth tier. Alas it all fell away very quickly in the grand scheme of things as mistakes were made at the top of the club. Yet, the leadership of John Williams brought those gates back, but only on the back of cheap prices and PL football. Alas, we know what happened next and we now have neither, so it is a total white elephant as we plod along for a decade in second division mid table, but with top end prices.

So *actual*, sustainable change with common sense solutions. Shows what you get from a club with grown up leadership, not one off silly gimmicks.

So he hasn’t improved the sales and marketing output of the club, thanks Mike, sorry we had to go around the houses. I don’t need to go into his office and listen to a load of corporate waffle, I pay my subs to the Trust who I think are doing a very good job in driving ideas/potential policies on my behalf, ideas that I have banged on about for years on here (and I’m sure I’ve bored the pants off posters with). They are actually getting (some) implemented too. So that will do for me.

I’m willing to have my mind changed. So what has he improved on the sales and marketing front in 18 months?

These games are great, who doesn’t love seeing a substantially busier ground? It will be a vastly bigger crowd than if it had been left as a standard Cat B. Ergo big success. But yes, season tickets are by far the most important ‘consumer’ product they need to get right. Unfortunately I just can’t see any offer that will move the dial with this current CEO.

‘Tit for tat’? I asked you, politely, a very straightforward question and I’m disappointed that you would dodge it. Especially as I’ve been extremely supportive of everything you’ve been doing re Watford. I’ll ask again, what improvements to sales/marketing has he brought in?

Not at all, Mike. I’m just asking you to expand on your view. I have seen no improvements in the ‘consumer’ offering in his 18 months plus here, but maybe I’ve missed something.

I asked Mike what has improved marketing /sales, sorry ‘consumer’ wise since he arrived… I didn’t get a response.

A ‘thriving marketing department’, good to know, bet we’d be seeing a right shambles otherwise…

Balls weren’t a ‘sodden leather lump’ ten/twenty years ago either. You telling me that an unchallenged professional goalkeeper should be punching a floated in cross?

Not how it works here. We have a core of 2/3k that buy matchday tickets, that doesn’t particularly change if we have 8k ST holders or 12k. Our average gates wax and wane purely on the back of ST holder numbers. Which makes sense as I know plenty of folk that just aren’t interested in buying a ST and others that just wouldn’t bother at all if they stopped their ST. Indeed it isn’t unique to Rovers. Bolton’s gates have boomed purely on the back of much higher ST sales.