Mattyblue

Sam Smith is a unique case I could say, largely due to the highly eccentric owner. The industry generally it all goes back to the 1989 Beer Orders brought in by the government. It was intended to break the near monopoly of the big 6 breweries when it came to brewing volumes and their tied pubs. But all it actually did see instead is Pub Cos come on the scene who slowly strangled the life out of them. Add the smoking ban, huge volumes of rates and tax they need to pay, plus changes in society and no wonder the numbers have collapsed.

Not as simple as that as for a normal game, I.e not the one on Saturday, we will be back to c13k/14k fans. Not particularly impressive that for a team around the top 6, is it? Why? Because we only have 9k ST holders. What do we do to remedy that? Sell more seaso.. . (And how do we do that? Reduce prices. It’s as simple as that).

I’d say 22k-ish out of the 23k seats in home areas, they’ll give a ‘sold out crowd of 26 thousand and something’ (a 31k capacity stadium) Crazy really when the game ‘sold out’ with over a week to go.

And in half arsed fashion they only put a few back row seats for sale in the Riverside too.

Due to higher walk ons all season (not just since going on a run, even earlier when we were plodding). Most weekend games all season have 4/5k of them, so 13/14k home fans in the ground. Substantially more than some other seasons. If you think back to the last Mowbray season when we up the top end of the table, we also saw a spike in walk ons, but as we only had 7k (!) ST holders we struggled to get decent numbers in. We get STs up to 11/12k, which shouldn’t exactly be insurmountable for Blackburn Rovers and we’d be seeing a busier Ewood every week. That has to be the aim for next season, but alas the club just aren’t bothered.

Newcastle’s ‘passionate support’ is one of the biggest myths in football. Big city with one club and one of only three league clubs in the whole north east of England. They are lucky to be able to call on such a vast hinterland, it’s not some unique hotbed. We are situated in football’s hotbed.

Think he was referring to both. No billionaires in the 80s, still ambitious.

Despite not having a pot to piss in In we had six seasons in the second tier top 6 through the 80s, seems pretty ambitious to me.

German = top coach.

14,000 average attendance at Newcastle the season Keegan arrived… so bear that in mind as we are inundated with all this ‘uniquely passionate fanbase’ stuff from the media.

Down to about 6/7k in the mid 80s (the nadir for English football). But other local clubs were down at 3/4k. Even the likes of those ‘passionate Geordies’ (and Leeds) were down in the teens.

We had poor gates in the mid 80s… as did the whole Football League, the game was at its lowest ebb re status and attendances.

Wrong code, he’d be Lord Sinfield of Saddleworth by now if he’d spent his career in Union.

What money did the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers that owned Rovers in the 80s have to bankroll a team to promotion? They did the best they could to keep a competitive side at the top end of the second division. Indeed we were often the best performing side in old Lancs/north west outside Liverpool, Everton and Man Utd. Where were the likes of Bolton, PNE, Dingles in contrast? Some feat that, no comparison to those billionaires.

Saudi awaits…

An MBA is more his bag, surely?

Don’t feel sorry for me Chadster, nothing to be bitter and twisted about as I support the fantastic Blackburn Rovers, 6th generation. A sense of belonging with my fellow supporters. Something those glory hunters that pat you on the head in your little chats with will never understand.

Wasn’t particularly a disagreement with you, I’m merely musing generally that we now need to give executives with made up titles ‘time’ these days as much as managers.

The ‘Head of Football Operations’, whatever that means, needs a ‘few more windows’ Modern football ay

I feel sorry for them more than anything. Especially young lads who miss out on so much, I.e. memories of great seasons, wins, away days with their mates watching Rovers or whoever because they are a ‘United fan’, often because his glory hunting dad says he’s one.

Now that’s a 70s image.

There are folk across the country that have great stories as to why they support who they do, all part of this wonderful game of ours. However, I doubt the vast majority of the *millions* of people across this country in Hemel Hempstead, in Guildford, in Darwen have much of one as to why they support Man Utd.

Not a prediction if you have a set rule that says you won’t ever predict a defeat. Just a weekly ‘let’s hope we get a result’ post. Which is fair enough, but it’s meaningless as a prediction of how a game may go.

Presumably they’ll be putting more on shortly, not just a hundred on the back six rows…

The way it is these days on social media ‘POSITIVITY’ before any rational thought.