But it is these days. The only reason this random 4 day game was chucked into the middle of the T20 window is to give the England players a warm up for the 1st Test. There was even talk of Anderson playing for Surrey in the build up if he needed more overs. Central contracts mean the ECB call the shots and the integrity of the county game means feck all to them.

The New Steven Gerrard no less...

Stoke are a sensible club making sensible decisions under a local owner, coupled with parachute payments and 20,000 season tickets sold. I always saw Stoke as a similar outfit to ourselves, a historic, provincial club (though far less trophies), yet we’ve been left behind by such clubs thanks to our appalling owners.

Another defeat. Staring down the barrel of relegation (again).

I don't necessarily disagree, especially with Evans, bloke's been largely an expensive waste of time. However, for me, it shows that the kind of contract that attracted Mulgrew won't be seen again at the club...

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16372541.mowbray-gives-update-on-rovers-contract-negotiations/?ref=mac “We have some big players in the final year of their contract and for varying reasons we are not in a position to do anything on those deals because of the situation of those deals and the current cost. In other words, Mulgrew and Evans earn big money, so no offer on the table. We signed up the rest of the squad on new deals because they're cheap...

That's £30 million more than what another set of idiot offspring sold a Premier League club for...

Wasn't he just 'Mani'? Though he could just have created a new account which folk seem to like doing...

Now I know you're on the wind up!

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/16372999.bizarre-blackburn-rovers-football-tradition-draws-crowds/?ref=mr&lp=1 Totally forgot about tihs. Anyone go?

I’d say we were in a much better position in 2014. A squad of decent players. Plus on the back of an increase in ST holders the atmosphere pre that opening Friday night game against Cardiff was fantastic. A real sense of anticipation. However, Venky’s then did what Venky’s do, that collection of quality Championship players were systematically sold off and replaced with inferior replacements and loanees at the last minute. So, getting out of the third division by ‘winning and scoring goals’ against very poor teams with small budgets doesn’t change anything now we are back in a highly competitive league and I see no evidence that the owners approach has changed one iota from when we last operated at Championship level.

Everyone had clearly got the message because it wasn’t a £2 surcharge that day - it was a £15 one!

Yep, all last season. To compound the completely inaccurate post, Oxford tickets went from £10 to £25 two hours before kick off so of course everyone is going to buy early!

I think one of the reasons they do it is to get folk to join 1875 as members are exempt. The queue at 2.45pm excuse is a load of tripe.

So someone who makes a late decison to come to Ewood should pay an extra £3? We need to be encouraging folk, not putting obstacles in the way. It is all about supply and demand surely? Airlines can do it because they will fill the seats, same as with more expensive flights in school holidays. For us, there is little demand and lots of supply, so it is a crackers policy when there are almost 20,000 empty seats in the ground.

Millwall ticket details announced. £3 surcharge after 12pm on matchday. Was it £2 last season?

Terrible marketing from the club outside the Roses T20. To consistently get considerably lower crowds than Notts and Somerset shows it. Plus, how many members have been lost this past 5 years?

End of the day the market is what it is. A combination of parachute payments and owners desperate for the ever increasing PL riches have transformed the league in our only short absence. The owners either accept that and up budgets accordingly or we come to terms with the fact we will be largely a bottom reaches of the Championship club (at best).

Clubs like Villa are too big to fail now - they aren’t too far away from a promotion team and the vast riches it brings, plus they are a big city club etc. Investors will see an opportunity for a good deal. It happened to Leeds about 10/15 years too early.

Putting Maddison to one side. We cannot compete with the likes of Derby and Norwich (!!!) in the transfer market these days. Crowds of 25,000 every season and thay consistently spend millions of pounds and pay big wages. The second tier has tranformed itself into a city league, much different than it was 15-20 years ago. Doesn't mean we can't compete at this level, look at PNE and Brentford as two examples, but we aren't going to be winning bidding wars with a good number of Championship clubs

Success? A 17% increase on my season ticket (what's inflation currently?) just for returning to the level we were at before the Coyle debacle seems a litle steep in one summer to me (not against incremental rises). Indeed, if I'd have been slow off the mark and renewed my ST today I'd be paying an extra £100 on last season. Huddersfield reduced their prices on promotion, many clubs freeze their tickets once they reach the PL as gate receipts reduce in importance to the eyewatering amounts brought in by TV deals. JHRover produced a stat earlier in the summer that showed we are no longer one of the cheapest in the league.

Wouldn't put too much truck in that either way. Still remember Shearer modelling the new CIS sponsored kit on the back page of the LT in the summer of 96'... then a week later...

4 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat in 2011, and we all know how the 2011/12 season worked out...

Oh how I wish we’d have had Roy Keane in 1993...

I had a chat with John Williams about 10 years ago, he told me about when he joined the club, the board said to him 'you've got 8,000 fans'. His response was obviously 'but our average crowd is 20 odd thousand', 'yes, but the 8,000 will stick with the club through thick and thin' That's always stuck with me (and I've probably told this anecdote before ha!), and he never forgot it either, when he saw PL crowds drop to 16,000 in the mid 2000s as some season tickets had risen towards £500, he brought in the 'Taking Back Ewood' campaign that dropped prices significantly across the board and average crowds rocketed to 26,000. He was aware that Rovers have a limited fanbase in a largely non-affulent area in the most competitve region in the country for clubs. We've seen that '8,000' ring true this past couple of years as even the Coyle nadir and third divison still saw that number of ST's purchased. However, treading water in the Championship (at best) will not see any significant increase in sales if prices are going to head towards £400. Waggott (though his hands are obviously tied by the owners) needs to understand the Rovers fanbase, it's limited in size (and the Kean debacle was a disaster for it, lost us half our match going fans in a single summer) and lapsed fans need enticing back through some imaginative offers. They will not pay big money for an average product in substantial numbers, they never have, well the 8,000 will...