Mattyblue

So no change then?

Depends what you want from your club. Some fans have an expectation that they should see ‘entertaining’ football (mid table Championship level entertainment, at least), as well as winning matches. Me? Honestly, I really only care about winning, though the more games you win, the more entertaining the football becomes anyway as the team grows in confidence. I get the most pleasure in seeing a win, looking at the table, reading the reports, watching the highlights etc, plotting where we’ll be if we win the next few etc. It’s wins for the first team that improves a club over everything else, the whole point of the operation. We don’t win and I feel only frustration, especially if we ‘played well’. I’d say our crowd is a fairly even mixture of the two stools - as proven with the fractured fanbase under Sam.

6,000 rattling around a 31,000 all seater ground? I doubt it! At least mid 80s Ewood had some terrace induced atmosphere to fall back on...

I do, but I know many fans with much more of a transactional relationship with the club than I have. They certainly wouldn’t dream of coming somewhere like this to muse on the health of the club, they just aren’t that invested. They will find it much easier to just not bother going back.

8 months later, no? Still hard to get your head round, as we entered 1991 in a bad place. The team that were perennial promotion challengers had begun to be broken up, some were over the hill or constantly injured and we did well not to end up in the third division... fast forward to that October and what a ride!

Those posts above outline another reason why our TV money doped game is built on sand...

And I imagine a fair few folk will be thinking just that once out the habit; ’Did I spend so much time and money on bang average football’.

I’ve noticed you ‘don’t see the logic’ or find the views ‘bizarre’. Humans often aren’t ‘logical’, we are emotional beings, and there will be many, many fans far less committed than arbito or Parson coming to the exact same conclusion next time STs on sale. It’s not just about ifollow. Health and financial worries coupled with being out of the match day habit will create a perfect storm.

Sobering post. If fans with the passion and commitment of Parson and JH, dedication going back decades are considering knocking it on the head, then we really are staring down the barrel of the end to football as a mass spectator sport in this country. The authorities, a bit like some on here, are completely in denial to what’s about to hit the game.

Ha Waggott will be kicking himself, they’ll be out in January in future...

Massive revolt by Sunderland fans. Not only would there be no refund for ST holders if games re-started this season, they’d been told to just watch ifollow. Though L1 will probably be curtailed next week, so it won’t be tested. But what’s really getting their goat is those that had already renewed for next season have been told that they won’t get that refunded either, told to watch ifollow for the foreseeable. A full price ST (or 2,3 STs for a family) is obviously much more expensive than just buying an internet match pass for the house. And many older fans don’t do streaming and the like. Only 14% in a poll say they will now renew...

Course he doesn’t really believe it (well I bloody well hope he doesn’t for his sake), but I assume it puts his mind at ease as he watches BCD game number 46, the mouthwatering clash between Crystal Palace and Southampton or whoever, that these greedy and/or inept organisations are going to ride to the rescue of the wider game. ’Yeah, but we could all be vaccinated in September ’, ‘but the PL could pay loads of extra cash to the EFL’ ‘ the FA could pay for all the EFL tests’ (the FA! That well known interventionist organisation that did so much for Bury). None of this will happen, of course.

I’ve told you my view, we play BCD, but that will finish many clubs, I’m gutted about that. Just collateral damage to you by the sounds of it. Since when? All they’ve done from what I read is advance payments already due. No more money. Feel free to post the link if there’s extra cash being sent. ACTUAL more money from the PL would be another idea of mine. So the PL would help the EFL in their hour of need the very clubs that have developed most of their English talent one way or the offer.

But you don’t have any ideas? You just post links and parrot sound bytes from EFL press releases etc. My view is we will be playing BCD as we have no choice, but it will undoubtedly lead to many clubs going under, so I’m not exactly dancing a jig over it like you just because there’s football in empty grounds to watch. If being gravely concerned about the future of the game in this country is ‘moan after moan’ then fair enough, rather that than post a load of ignorant and callous nonsense like you.

You don’t have any ideas, you just parrot the plans of the authorities (and your League 2 playoffs can be filed with your September vaccine). We will play BCD until the powers that be deem it ‘safe’. That’s the reality, and if it goes on for a year plus, it will mean many clubs go to the wall. No income= no team = no ifolllow = no club. There is no way round that without a government bailout or a large solidarity payment from the PL. You don’t seem to have got your head around the absolute dire straits of the lower leagues in your desperation to see football matches on your tele.

The lower leagues aren’t re-starting this season, so I assumed your ‘Lower league fans can still watch online’ was about next season. The PFA/FA going to pay the ongoing outgoings of the clubs too? Ifollow sales won’t come close to ticket and hospitality income for these clubs, very flippant remarks that shows you have little clue about the finances in the lower leagues.

Oh no worries then, just fire up the laptop. These lower league clubs are in all likelihood going to have to pay an entire squad and non playing staff for all of next season, plus all the other business overheads with a few ifollow subscriptions and a tiny slice of TV money as their only income. How many L1/L2 clubs will survive that?

He did when he bought Warnock a few weeks later...

Great post JH. I’ve certainly missed away days, as I go with a good crowd of folk and it’s always good fun taking in new towns and cities, boozers and all the rest of it. Ewood? I thought it was a shite experience before lockdown, largely down to the managed decline policies of various executives. It doesn’t take long for a human to get out of a habit, and if even a fanatic like you isn’t that arsed about it coming back, then we are in big trouble whenever season tickets finally go on sale in 2021 (or 2022?), as so many of our ST holders will have found other things to do with their time and money. ‘How did I find the time to go?’ is a familiar refrain I’ve always heard from non-renewers a year or two down the line, this is of course magnified with the incoming economic depression. Let’s be honest, it takes up a fair chunk of our precious weekend - especially if you have to travel a decent distance, which as the town of Blackburn has changed, more and more of our fans do. Yet, many supporters did spend nearly half of their weekend travelling and watching bang average second division football as they were in the routine of doing so, will they be queuing up to do it again in 18 months time?

I’m sure you would be just as understanding and happy for players to refuse to turn out for the club in a relegation battle if it was Dack or Lenihan...

I agree, I can’t imagine Ewood with social distancing tape and all the rest of it. So, if we do go back in say 6/9 months time (there won’t be a vaccine for the general population, simple as that), it will be in front of a much diminished crowd (as if our gates haven’t been diminished enough already) , as I’ve spoke to many a long standing fan this past few months who won’t be setting foot in the ground if the virus is still prominent in the country. One way or the other, the game is going to be in a very bad place in one/two years time.

And that’s what will be happening and that’s fine. Chaddy however is all for BCD as he doesn’t agree with trying social distancing in grounds as it’s logistically difficult and there’s no point anyway as he believes BCD is only a temporary measure as there’s every chance of a vaccine for the entire country in 3 MONTHS. It’s cloud cuckoo land stuff and in reality if we are waiting for a vaccine to let fans back them it’s going to be years BCD and therefore the end of our fantastic league structure. To get this season done, BCD is here and we’ll just get on with it, but the game is in big trouble medium term from where I’m standing. Something he’s in total denial about, largely on the word of a professor at Oxford, by the looks of it.

Chaddy, you seem to think there’s nothing to worry about as we will spend a few months BCD then we’ll get our vaccines and back we go. When told that vaccines are notoriously difficult to produce and can take years/decades, if one arrives at all, you just go ‘well I’ve seen that Oxford are working really hard and we’ll have one by September (!!!)’ or ‘we’ll see’ So even though I imagine you’ll have a whale of a time watching BCD matches 6 times a weekend for the foreseeable, what is your solution if we get to this time next year with no vaccine? And how many clubs will be left, BCD comes at a cost, it’s not just beamed into your living room as a means of altruism by the clubs, there’s a whole infrastructure to support. BCD will finish most clubs outside the top flight if it goes on indefinitely...

Though the lack of communication nicely sums up the inept EFL

QPR Chairman not happy - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52875186 "I am absolutely stunned by this announcement," "Incredibly, there has been absolutely no consultation with individual clubs nor with the Championship doctors' working group by the divisional representatives - or anyone else in the Football League - regarding this matter," Hoos told the QPR website. "Having spoken with our director of football Les Ferdinand and our manager Mark Warburton, they share my views. We are vehemently opposed to this schedule." The EFL - who have been contacted by the BBC for a response - said the 20 June date was "provisional" and "subject to the strict proviso that all safety requirements and government guidance is met". "The players haven't even returned to full-contact training at this moment and yet they are now expected to be in a position to play at a competitive level in just three weeks' time," Hoos said. "I have made our feelings known to the EFL and, having spoken with a number of CEOs at other Championship clubs, I am not a lone voice on this matter. "We are absolutely appalled."