Mattyblue

Still 12 games including WHU, though every chance he makes a fair few changes for the cup with that schedule…

Yet here a decision was made against the grain of the league to raise STs by 30% in two years, obviously that tactic will only ever lead to a just a core of purchasers when you note our fanbase and demographics… and the results are there to see.

We’ve 12 games to play between the 1st of October and the last game before the World Cup (Dingles) on the 12th of November. If we get through that period in a decent position, we could be well set for the rest of the season.

End of the day the pricing is set for this season, so all of these offers can only be pro-rata versions of a full ST. We’ll still sell decent numbers of half STs if we are up there at Christmas, but apart from that, it is what it is, and at least it’s better than the 7k sales of this time last year. We’d have seen a c9k crowd last season for a September night match, not nearly 12k. Let’s just hope lessons have finally been learned for next summer (they won’t be, of course, as Professor Quantum will still be here).

Still more expensive than a *full* ST at many clubs…

At £430-£530 a ST, yes.

‘Like a little car being passed by a tanker’. You can only imagine the disdain and good laugh those three stooges had at this grand old club of ours (as they trousered a nice wage)…

With 8.5k ST holders, it won’t be a sub 10k crowd (well not officially).

The death of the Queen, which I believe was rovernout’s point. If we should cancel football tomorrow is a different issue and I can see both sides.

‘Most don’t care’, well that’s certainly not the impression I’m getting.

Cracking player in his pomp, but his performances declined markedly in his later years here…

‘Why is the Queen dying a bigger deal than Joe Bloggs in Blackburn Royal? ‘ Hmm, tough one that!

We might not have played ‘elite’ clubs in 06/07, but the trips were great. Salzburg, Krakow, Feyennord, Bayer Leverkusen.

I suppose because of all the plastic Old Firm fans you see across England…

Aye, if we we going to get knocked out in the group stage anyway, at least let it be a glamorous group.

Sorry, thought Joey was after *good* boozers.

Wigan Central in the railway arches is a favourite, always plenty of Blues in there. The Anvil and John Bull are also good ‘uns in the centre. Nowt near the ground though.

My rule of thumb is that £25ish and under most fans reckon it’s reasonable enough and buy without giving it much thought. Once you start hitting £27/£28+ people start thinking twice with £30 being an even bigger psychological barrier.

Both games were/are £29.

8.5k ST holders, they’ll probably get around 5k if there’s a bubble. So to get around 30,000 we’d then need c16,000 walk ons at £30/35… not a chance we get remotely close.

Is a derby match the best gauge of that though? If you only went to the Dingles game, you’d think ‘bloody hell, these Rovers fans are full of pride and passion!’ And on the flip side with Boro, I can’t imagine passion would be flowing from the stands if you watched them play out a 0-0 with QPR in front of a half empty ground instead of winning a derby in front of a near full house. Ewood is no more or less passionate than most other second tier grounds, it’s just bloody empty due to ridiculous ST prices.

*Real* Lancashire is the heartland of the game, end of. How many clubs in a 40 mile radius of Ewood? And as you say the whole north east of England only has three clubs in the top 3 divisions! Three! There’s four between Preston and Burnley alone! So it’s no wonder that clubs like Boro, who have support across Teesside/County Durham/North Yorkshire can muster 27k for their only derby.

Makes me laugh when we get ripped off somewhere the reaction on social media is always ‘charge them bastards the same’, like it’s Dave from Standish setting Wigan’s or whoever’s prices. Let you into a secret, those that actually set the prices get *paid* hundreds of thousands of quid to watch the match, oh whilst they quaff a load of food and drink in corporate hospitality…

Unfortunately when pretty much every away is now around £30 it makes folk think twice, a bit of a psychological barrier, when at say £24/25 folk just buy without giving it much thought.

Unlike a few years ago, if they came next week they’d get a largely decent reception, but as they don’t give a flying feck, they won’t come, so won’t get any reception. Not sure what else there is to add and why we have this debate every season. The ball is in their court, there’s nowt stopping them - the fanbase doesn’t need to roll out the proverbial red carpet (though the nouveau riche cretins would expect the pleb staff at Ewood to lay one down anyway).