Mattyblue

Changes were agreed in the summer. The income from future increases in international TV revenue will be weighted towards those at the top of the table - https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.skysports.com/amp/football/news/11661/11397468/premier-league-clubs-agree-new-way-of-sharing-international-broadcast-revenue

No wonder, tired room with little drink choice plus a flatter atmosphere then what you’d get in the Blues Bar. A better idea would be some kind of craft beer lounge etc. At least something a bit different. Charge an entry fee unless you’re in the 1875 club etc. I’m all for increasing revenues but the powers that be need to show some initiative.

Fair enough, I suppose. But what about games like Brentford with a few hundred away fans?

Also, what’s craic with Lenihan, heard he’s injured too?

Speaking of revenue, what happened to the 1875 club lounge in the old Legends Lounge? Big fanfare about it last season, nothing this. Unless the club is reserving it for all these fabled big Championship away followings?

You can imagine the fawning now: ‘Madame, the fans are always asking when they will see you again’. Pathetic really, but if that’s the game they have to play with this bunch to ensure they keep the club going then it is what it is.

They’ll see weekend games and games in school holidays, or all of them, depending on the parent, like they always have. We are going round in circles chaddy so I’ll leave it here. I’m not interested in you getting to see games you couldn’t see before, just the well-being of the club. If you think going on for half our home games being shown on TV is a good thing with no negative effects, fine, the proof will by how much crowds in the EFL fall in the next few years, because that will prove the folly of this initiative.

So you can’t see a midweek game and you lose interest in the club? No course you don’t, that’s life. The very best way to get folk interested in watching football in the ground.

So do I, but not at the expense of bums on seats. Why not show every game live then? Where does it stop? I would love to see every game I can’t get to on TV, but I’m happy I don’t get to. As I care about the well being of the club and the game much more than my selfish wants.

It’s a shame for those fans living far away, but no they shouldn’t get to watch every midweek game, just like I shouldn’t get to watch all the away ones. A stupid idea that could damage attendances - something much more important.

The impact of the red button will only be properly seen in future seasons. If the crowds of EFL clubs substantially fall then yes the league have made a big error. The EFL does not have the attraction of the PL, having 10+ home games a season live on TV could make a lot of folk question their future ST purchases* The deal before this one was fine, 1 or 2 live matches a weekend. I had no expectation to see every midweek away game on my TV, there was no demand for it amongst fans. Will I watch the Swansea away game? Too right I will but I wouldnt shed a tear if it was scrapped - bigger picture. *Yes I know not you chaddy, you’ll be there regardless.

Not with our fans, only remotely full because our away allocations were much bigger than anyone else. Most Premier League clubs offer 3,000. Jack didn’t build it to sell 8,000 away tickets a handful of times a season. If you all think we need it, fine, my opinion doesn’t really matter because that’s the ground we have. But on this mythical promotion, there will still 10,000 or so empty seats for most matches if we continue with our present pricing. So we need to be creative to fill a ground that was built for an entirely different football club.

There’s no point harking back to the 90s, we were the best team in England with all the hangers on that came with that, that club and it’s extended fan base has gone. Jack was right then, he wouldn’t have had the foresight to see the changes in the game and our fairly rapid decline from the elite, we didn’t have the time to fully cement ourselves as THE club outside Liverpool and Manchester in this area for fans wanting to watch top football before we fell away. But modern BRFC, I personally don’t believe will ever need a ground this big. Much better comparisons would be with the post Jack club, we’ve only come close to filling it with the ‘Taking Back Ewood’ campaign. End of the day it’s 31,000 and that’s that. But we will never fill it at the prices we charge now, even in the PL. But with TV revenues we certainly could have a go with reduced pricing.

I personally think it is too big. Think we sometimes look back at the PL era with rose tinted glasses. Post 90s, we rarely had more than around 20- 22k home fans in the ground, often lower. Slightly higher with the £199 ST period. Which is excellent for a club with our demographics, but it doesn’t need a 31k ground. Sell outs only really happened with 7,000 away fans and they often didn’t occur either - the famous Bentley hat trick against Man Utd had around 18,000 home fans in the ground. Since that time to compound it we’ve shed 10,000 ST holders from an already limited fan base. If we did go up and kept STs at £330-400 levels and I personally think we get nowhere near filling it. Now go Huddersfield pricing, like the 2009 era here then we’ve much more of a chance.

Generally agree EiT. If we ever do make it back to the PL it would be interesting to see just how much our crowds would go up by. There’s this expectation that thousands upon thousands will suddenly re-emerge. Of course, some will, as there are those that are only interested in PL. However, our already limited fan base was decimated in 2011 and 2012, this coupled with enormous demographic change in the town this past 15/20 years - ergo an ever more geographically disparate fan base, may mean we never do reach those kind of gates again - though Huddersfield esque pricing would undoubtedly help. Only one way to find out - get us up Tony!

Good insight into the world of management with Mogga: https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2018/october/tony-mowbray-life-as-a-manager/ What did that bloke say in the LT, ‘he doesn’t speak well’ or something. Rubbish! Love listening to him.

So what if the ground’s bigger? Doesn’t make our fanbase any bigger. 12,000 is a decent core to work with and not too bad considering the decade we’ve had, it just looks poor in a ground our size 31,000 seats is a capacity similar to other clubs stadiums from cities with 3/4 times our catchment area. It was built in a time of great strength for the club, but since those halcyon years it has rarely been close to being full - the £199 Premier League season ticket period aside.

I was simply stating a fact Howie, pretty much every club in the country gets substantially bigger gates then they did in the mid 80s, it was the nadir of football in this country, so it isn’t a fair comparison. We obviously have a core support of 11,000 as they’ve kept going through a horrendous period.

Of course, it’s not the Premier League, we won’t be seeing 20,000 gates, but they can improve on what they are now and we need to get away from the eye watering prices we see at the moment. I’m always up for deals, but they need to be decent, last season’s offers (apart from Oxford) were all a bit half arsed to me.

They are one off purchases to see A list musicians, who have a massive national fan base to draw from. Supply and demand. We have bi-weekly tickets to see second tier football with a relatively small, non affluent catchment area. And lots of supply and low demand. Come on chaddy, be sensible.

There needs to be a fan liaison committee set up urgently in my view, separate from the Fans Forum.

Everyone’s crowds were shite in the mid 80s, even clubs like United and Arsenal had half empty grounds, so a daft comparison. And as for chaddy, if you think £30 is reasonable for one game of lower league football you must have a serious amount of disposable income.

Of course Gav, but £30 is not in any way reasonable for lower league football.

Don’t talk tripe chaddy, match day prices are anything but reasonable. £27 in the Blackburn End (£30 with surcharge), £31 in the Jack Walker centre (£34) for one game of Championship football is absolutely insane. Bolton’s prices are bloody stupid too and all EFL Lancs clubs have thousands upon thousands of empty seats, so obviously local fans don’t think they are reasonable either.

Read that they only flew to Israel last night. 5 hour flight, then a two hour coach journey. Doesn’t seem the best preparation to play a game in your best condition...