QEGS is probably 75%+ Asian these days, yes. But I digress. I’d say some of the problem will be lack of walk on crowds or weekend drinkers. Clubs like Darwen, Enfield, Lowerhouse etc attract big crowds for their 20/20 evening games etc. Even historically much smaller clubs like Cherry Tree, Feni have a packed clubhouse night after night. There just isn’t that local demographic in the Dukes Brow/Revidge area anymore that will wander to East Lancs for some beers or to watch a game.

Following the lead of the Old Blacks, St Mary’s College, Hole it’h Wall. So much heritage in north Blackburn, especially in sport with Blackburn Olympic and Alexandra Meadows going back to the very foundation of association football. Yet, demographics are destiny.

You said ‘last few years’. Obviously it isn’t as toxic as 2011 to 2013, but Christ that’s a low bar to gauge against.

In what ways have they ‘improved’?

Of course. Rev showed over Brockhall what a targeted protest and PR campaign can do. There are lots of potential avenues to take, but we need to move away from the constant cries of ‘empty ground’, ‘total boycott’ to tactics that are achievable.

You will never, ever get a total boycott under these owners. There is a substantial number of fans that don’t particularly have an issue with the Rao’s - semi regular LT stories of ‘cash injections’ will only reinforce their views. Or if they do, they see putting up with a badly run club as part and parcel of fandom. So feel free to keep wistfully dreaming of it, ‘the message it will send’ etc - but what will actually happen is what always does here, more and more will just walk away - and we will see a dwindling of support down to mid 80s levels.

Proper club back then. They did the same for Celtic away. Bacon and sausage butties in the BEnd concourse. Never forget his face when saw the thousands turn up and he realised that he should have asked for the 7,000 allocation instead of 2,700.

Many elderly people don’t have the internet or smartphones. That’s just how it is and I’m not getting into any more of a discussion over such a bloody statement of the obvious.

Why would I have ‘figures’, am I the information commissioner now? But of course many folk in their late 70s/80s/90s don’t have internet and smartphones. That’s plainly obvious.

Many older fans, of who we have plenty of.

Those lines will have been uttered in May by all accounts and just taken out of the ‘Quotes for when there’s feck all happening in June’ file. The LT is in blood out of a stone mode until there’s a pre season campaign/training and actual incomings and outgoings to talk about.

It will be interesting as with ifollow looking likely last season you’d imagine a fair few of the 2.5k would have bought just one ST to cover a match going household. So perhaps if said households now buy multiple we’ll actually break the magic 5k barrier! 🎉 (obviously we used to be not far off from selling that amount in the BBEnd lower alone, but hey ho).

‘I said to the manager that you don't really do business that way ‘ Been like this for 10 years, Stewy. Though takes someone who’s obviously winding down their playing career to tell it straight.

I reckon you should go down the Magna Carta route.

I thought it was O2G of this parish that proposed the ‘discount’ swizz? With a ‘Fans’ forum coming out with pearlers like that, we’ve no bloody chance, have we.

For me, the ‘club’ is now what that famous Bobby Robson quote largely described it as - I.e us fans keeping the flame going though our collective bond and histories. That shell of an organisation at Ewood Park doesn’t remotely resemble a ‘football club’ and it certainly isn’t the institution I’ve spent my life obsessed with anymore.

I’ve heard plenty of reasons why folk aren’t renewing over the past decade, cost was never mentioned… until now. Had a half a dozen conversations with people over the last few days who have stuck it out so far and I’d class as part of the fabled ‘8k’. We lose a fair chunk of those, coupled with those out of the habit and the anti-Mowbray element and we are looking at mid 80s crowds next season. Everything that had been so passionately built up by Jack and then John Williams and had been slowly run down now finally dismantled and we are right back to where we started, well apart from the fishing balls out of the river at Pleasy training sessions bit… though looking at the Brockhall skullduggery give them a bit more time on that…

So Rovers being one of the few clubs to lose fans this summer is because our fans are uniquely disloyal and negative, then? Not because there’s, you know, perhaps some underlying issues at this club? Interesting view.

You are correct Bizzle. People have a choice to make, and if we do see our sales go down substantially … again, whilst most other clubs at least get back to where they were in 2019/20, if not considerably higher, they’ve made said choice and the only conclusion to draw is that there’s something seriously amiss at this club, no? And without root and branch change to its set up, from executives to team manager, a change the owners seemingly just aren’t interested in pursuing, I just don’t see how the club climbs out of this hole.

Well they won’t actually over perhaps 1/2000 or so extra walk ons (though with match day tickets at £30/£35 that will put many off) as our gates have always consisted heavily of ST holders, season ticket sales go down, so will gates by the same figure.. We sell 10,000 STs and we’ll have 12/13,000 of home attendance. We sell 5,000 and it will be 7/8,000. The way it has always been here. That’s why JW always banged the drum of how vitally important it was to keep that solid core of ST holders and to work hard to increase it, as we just don’t sell match day tickets in any real numbers here, in comparison to clubs from bigger conurbations .

Indeed. And even discounting Bolton and Blackpool as a comparison as they are increasing sales on the back of a promotion doesn’t read across here - as we somehow managed to not increase sales at all on the back of ours… even though we finished the season with 28,000 in the ground. Let’s be frank, the club is in a very deep hole.

Not what I’m finding reading around other local papers and websites. Yes, Blackpool et al, but even clubs that have been treading water are reporting strong demand.

Agree largely Roversider, however the evidence points to something else re your last sentence - as most clubs are reporting strong sales, the fact we certainly won’t be doing the same tells me there is something rotten in the state of Blackburn Rovers.

Will our season ticket sales be much higher than even Accy will be getting through their gates?

Yet Bolton will have bigger gates than us next season. A perfect example of how BRFC is just merely existing at this point.