Mattyblue

Thought the club ‘were working in the background to offer us different offers’ for this season? What happened to that? Why can’t they discuss potential discounts to loyal ST holders?

The problem is Waggott seems to never look further than immediate cash flow and unlike John Williams he’s still not worked out the Rovers fanbase and local demographics. So, he’ll plead poverty and ask for ‘loyalty’ when he just prices season tickets as normal, yet when he misses his targets and income projections as thousands don’t renew (and as we know, many non renewers never come back), he’ll be flummoxed, not realising loyalty is a two way street. Instead if he looked to the big picture and discounts them, he would keep many more STs in the camp long term as they’ll feel valued. What’s the old saying? ‘Give a little, get a lot back’

I know long standing ST holders in their 80s who don’t have the internet, never mind smartphones. They can’t go around other folks houses for obvious reasons. So, they would expect a choice, be asked to forgo the money (club owned by billionaires paying execs half a million a year and some second division players 10k a week, but whatever) or a discount for next season to acknowledge they’ve missed 4 games. But in reality it’s just a big f *ck you for them and their loyal support?

You honestly think ‘most fans’ (10,000? people) would have bought 9 matches week after week? The majority would have bought zero. Get real.

I’m afraid the next set of renewal figures will be historic for all the wrong reasons, like the disasters of 1960 and 2012...

I’ve not ‘saved’ anything as I’m not receiving a product I’ve paid for. But I will take the inferior product anyway as I do want to help out the club. But I’m not talking about me, but the thousands of fans with no interest or access to streaming.

I will be watching, like I’ve said already. However, the club has a duty as a business to promote all alternatives.

But it’s not the same content? If I had a monthly cinema pass and they asked me to take DVD’s instead, I would be in the rights to say thanks, but no thanks, as it’s not what I paid for, so could you arrange my refund. My local gym is offering online classes, to try and avoid people cancelling direct debits. Some are partaking, some are asking for refunds. I haven’t cancelled as I appreciate the work the owners have put in to the gym to build it up. But if they can still offer refunds, our billionaire owned football club certainly can. Basic consumer rights.

I know they are, but ST holders pay for home games, so it doesn’t matter if a refund wouldn’t match £90.

£90? £40 you mean, as you don’t buy a ST for away games. ’Reasonable as always next season’, So no loyalty discount for ST holders next season for waiving nearly a quarter of a season they’ve paid for, then?

Hang on? I thought the ticket office were working really hard to ensure YOU WILL GET A REFUND? These quotes say that unlike most clubs there won’t be any refunds, instead going for the ‘are you committed?’, ‘stand with us’, guilt trip line. Anyone would think we were owned by the local butcher, not billionaires. ‘During this unprecedented period, we are urging Rovers fans to stand with us and show their support, as we work towards a successful end to the season and a brighter future for everyone connected to the club. Rovers would like to reassure supporters that the effects of the Coronavirus on our community are of the upmost concern to everyone at the club and we appreciate that fans and their families will have been presented with financial challenges as a result. We also appreciate your understanding of the financial issues the club have and are currently facing, as a result of being unable to host supporters inside Ewood Park. Refunding supporters would come at a significant financial cost to the club, at a time when our revenues have reduced to zero, and would have a serious detrimental effect on the club’s operations going forward. We therefore believe the best value solution for both supporters and the club is providing season ticket holders with free access to all of the remaining live streamed games. In order to safeguard the future of the club, we would ask supporters to stand with us and not request cash refunds, which will ensure the club remains on the strongest financial footing possible in order to work towards our collective goals as #OneRoversTogether. I’ll watch the steams, and I personally wouldn’t have asked for a refund anyway. However, at least half of ST holders wont be interested in a stream, because they aren’t tech savvy, elderly or simply as they paid to watch live football in Ewood Park, not an internet stream. Of course, social media will be alive with ‘great move Rovers’, ‘get behind the club’, ‘can’t believe anybody would ask for a refund’ (many of them who won’t even be ST holders) But in the real world, many ST holders will be bemused and if they expect anywhere near 9,000 people to renew next season (or whenever fans are allowed back) in the midst of a global depression with a fanbase out of the habit of attending, without any discount to acknowledge the loyalty and good faith of the fanbase who have ‘stood together’ with the club, then they are in line for a rude awakening, as history tells us Rovers fans show their dissatisfaction by quietly withdrawing their wallets at renewal time.

Anfield according to Twitter...

Yep, noticed Southgate was hinting at it yesterday...

I read today that the wider sport industry is hopeful of having fans in grounds by the back end of the year, if allowed. On the surface that’s good news. However, the industry is making a big assumption that fans will be happy to flock back to stadiums. Just like hopes for a V-shaped (or a version of V) economic recovery is based on public habits snapping back to the heavy consumer spending we had before, sport will expect fans to come back in similar numbers to before. If the virus is still circulating in the country (which it very likely will be, and to be clear, there won’t be a vaccine this year), many fans (especially older supporters, that make up large percentages of match goers) will be reticent to go back, I know a few myself. And that’s before we even think of the parts of the fanbase that are very worried about their personal finances and season tickets will be way down the list of priorities. A League 2 club that budgets for 4,000 crowds and a few hundred hospitality heads per game, suddenly gets 2,000 and no hospitality, blowing a massive hole in budgets already decimated. Yes, it’s salvageable through wage cuts and the like, but BCD or not, many lower league club’s will take a long time to recover, if they ever do, as the PL and CL clubs carry on with their £60million transfers...

Bet he was very well behaved at school

Remind him of that next time he goes on about potential signings for next season

Hope you’re right, but I feel you are going to be very disappointed (bit like your vaccine)...

Of course that’s right, everybody has been saying the lower league clubs need help, doesn’t take a genius to work out no income = no club. Where you have been consistently wrong is that you actually expect the football authorities to step up...

And I thought we wasted our parachute money...

A lot of things could be offered by the likes of the FA and PL. (Which is what you were saying on the 22nd April, so you’ve been consistent in naively expecting infamously selfish and inept organisations to ride to the rescue). Two months later and bugger all has been offered to these desperate clubs. Soon it will be too late for something to actually happen

That’s the first time you’ve acknowledged that many clubs could go to the wall. Usually it’s been ‘well this could happen’, ‘the FA/PL/PFA could that’. We all hope that loans are offered by the ‘football family’, but knowing the ineptness of the FA and the shoulder shruggers of the PL, it doesn’t seem very likely. Rugby League has already sorted a government bailout, if EFL clubs are going to go down the same road, they and the government need to get into negotiations very quickly...

So you do agree with my original point that the football pyramid is in a real mess?

Exactly. And that’s why some people need to get real on here to the absolute dire straits the lower leagues are in.

You’ve just repeated your last post, what happens if they don’t get these loans (loans that don’t exist currently)?

Sorry Mr Chadwick, I’ll make sure I’ve listened to all SSN interviews before I comment in future! Well obviously they need bail outs, we’ve been discussing that on here for weeks. Indeed it’s the only way for them to start playing again at best, survive at worst from what I can see. However, you can’t just pin your survival on a possible loan that may/may not arrive at some point in the future. For any re-start these clubs will have to service their fixed costs that would need paying immediately. The government? perhaps, considering Tottenham have arranged one with the BofE. The PFA? They are a trade union, they can’t bail out 40/50 distressed companies! The PL? They should, but I’ll believe it when I see it. But there’s no guarantees, so what’s the plan then? Salary cap? There will be no salaries to cap.