Mattyblue

Of course they can’t watch it for real, but it’s fair enough that if you can’t watch a stream you should expect either a refund or a discount next season. People that live far away haven’t paid for a season ticket, so a bit of a daft comparison. End of the day, it doesn’t matter if you think people are unreasonable for expecting a rebate - though most other football clubs and gyms and cinemas etc etc are providing them, it’s about if those with no means to stream or no interest to think it’s unfair - and many will and you won’t see them next season. You may think ‘well feck them! They should just forgo the cash and help the club anyway’, but a moral high ground by people like me and you won’t stop the sight of even more empty seats next season...

I’ll tell the 80 year old couple I know that have been shielding and don’t have the internet to do just that. Cheers!

Good deal for you, it’s a good deal for me, but what about those that don’t want/can’t watch a stream?

I’ve never blamed a fan for anything since this lot darkened our door, every issue we have had in this lost decade is the Rao’s fault and their fault alone. My point is very simple Phil. If there’s no discount for existing ST holders next season, sales will collapse. You seem to think they will offer one and I pray you’re right. But I see no issue in fans lobbying the club, be it groups like the FF or individuals to try and focus minds of its importance.

Change ‘problem’ to ‘worry’ or ‘issue’ if you want? But yes, the problem/issue/worry is very few people will contact the club as they don’t see/aren’t particularly bothered about the bigger picture. So, coupled with ‘great job Rovers!’ on social media they will carry on down a path I think will cause great harm to the club, I just know how our ST base behaves. And that’s just the way it is, most fans aren’t like me, I knock about with a few that are as fanatic as me, but the majority of Rovers fans I know have more of a transactional relationship with the club. They will be either happy with the package, so will crack on, or they think the club are taking the piss and won’t renew. Neither group will give it much further thought than that. But it’s us that remain that will have to pick up the pieces/see us decline ever further, so if the likes of me, Arbito can write to the club, then we will, even if we know it will fall on deaf ears...

A club owned by local people, that are also fans, just contrast the warmth and connection to their community that you can feel in that letter to the hired hands running our hollowed out organisation...

Don’t you worry I will be doing.

Eh? Think you’ve completely mis-read the post. I am happy enough with the arrangement personally, I’m eagerly awaiting moaning about ifollow already, nobody should feel guilty about watching it, I won’t be, but I’m looking at the bigger picture of the fanbase, and if the no refund turns into no discounted rate for existing ST holders next time round, we will see mass non renewals, in my opinion - and as we know non-renewal usually means a lost fan. The 5,000 of so ST holders that were happy with the arrangement will simply have even more empty seats surrounding them and the future support base of our club becomes ever more eroded, that matters more to me than the fact I got to see a mid table clash at an empty Milwall...

Problem is too many fans just think, ‘well, I’ll watch the stream, don’t see the problem?’ I’ll be watching it, but I know many fans aren’t like me, and more importantly I know the ‘collective’ mind set of many Rovers fans, and history has shown us they don’t take too kindly to having the piss taken (doesn’t matter if you think the club isn’t taking the proverbial, it’s what they feel), and that retribution is normally doled out by not renewing STs and quietly walking away - see 1960 and 2012 for prime examples.

Any other clubs available to hand us a thrashing? It’s great for development!

@only2garners Did the FF make it clear to Waggott, not withstanding the obvious cash flow issues the club has, the potential cataclysmic drop in ST sales if the club brushes off the need for any kind of discounted price for next season? (Apologies if you didn’t attend)

Car parking season passes too? Best not pull at these threads, don’t want the bailiffs in...

It just shows why the modern game turns the stomach of so many. Smallwood has wasted a season of his career sitting out the last year of a juicy contract, the Gladwin oddity, Mulgrew being paid big money to not play...yet a narrative is being painted by a well remunerated executive carpet bagger that it’s a small discount/refund on STs to fans that have dedicated decades of time and money to the club could lead to its demise!

U23 football isn’t any kind of barometer. Glorified training matches against players coming back from injury operating at half pace, de-motivated first teamers and some young lads that just won’t make it and are passing time until they are released. Doesn’t mean you can’t pull diamonds out of there, look at Travis, but you can only judge them from what you see in the first team. So give JRC a run of games, but it’s fair enough to say apart from the cameo against Sheff Wed who were a well beaten 10 men by the time he came on, he hasn’t looked particularly impressive. And that’s fine and to be expected for many young lads, by the way, Travis has come on leaps and bounds with first team experience.

Back of the Times made me laugh. Trent Alexander-Arnold battles for the ball with * “err, anybody have a clue who the other fella is”... “no? Right we’ll leave it out”

And who’s to blame for that?

Back in the days of yore, didn’t the owners personally pay for the coaches and refreshments for fans to go to Wolves for Survival Sunday? Now £25/£30 a head for 3,000 is obviously a smaller figure than say, £45 back for 8,500 paid STs, but it is still chicken feed, and you know, an actual olive branch that could go a long way to repair relations, and remember, they are billionaires that ‘never refuse to sign a cheque’...

Most fans will accept no refund for the here and now. However, in the back of many fans’ mind will be the expectation that there will be some kind of discounted STs for next season (making the assumption that next season is normal-ish. When that doesn’t arrive (because knowing how Waggott has run the club, it won’t) then we we will see the lowest renewals since the nadir of the mid ‘80s and crowds of 4/5,000, many of those non-renewals lost for good at a club that has already seen thousands of fans disappear in recent times from its already limited fanbase. End of the J*B, if we are in as dire straits as you outline, we are f*ucked either way as pursuing this plan of action will lead to a collapse in ticket sales and hospitality income that far outweighs a relatively small refund on STs that at least gives us a chance of keeping many more fans in the tent long term.

I noticed there was a Fans Forum yesterday, hopefully he was made aware of the very precarious position we will find ourselves in fanbase wise if this is handled wrongly... but I doubt it. The importance of re-stocking player photos in the club shop and concourse shelving I imagine took precedence.

Reading your posts, obviously not.

Thing is Chaddy, you have no credibility, because even though now you are ‘surprised’ there is no deferral offered and you believed it was a ‘poor action’ that there was no refunds offered, we all know that when STs are finally on sale, if there is no discount, you’ll be all... ‘The club has handled this very well’ ’The prices are very reasonable’ ’It’s only £15 a game, why can’t fans just support their club?’ ’You can’t expect the club to offer discounts, what about FFP?’

Or flip it, people getting all excited over a friendly because BB was ‘running riot’ against the reserve team of a club about to be thrown out the EFL...

Sounds to me that legally they know they can’t refuse but they’ll make it as difficult as possible...

Blame PeteJD. He’ll cling on to ‘But Lyndsay Talbot said...’ for dear life for the next 6 months Oh look ⬇️

Yes, to show they value our loyalty, that we are a CLUB. Doesnt have to be week, month specific. A pre-emptive positive PR gesture that keeps the fanbase onside and will in all likelihood lead to us maintaining more ST holders in the long run. ‘The club is not yet sure when fans will be allowed back into their cherished seat at Ewood Park. But as a recognition of your loyal support, we will discount your ST for our long awaited return. #onerovers #together’