gumboots

My point wasn't that either was right or wrong. Just that if you include the cost of food etc at the cinema then you'd have to include it at Ewood.

Why is it tight to buy nothing. We eat well and don't need to graze whilst watching a film. We go to watch the film and don't eat out afterwards because we don't eat in the evenings generally

And I wouldn't want my husband to take me out every couple of months. We go out together. He doesn't take me and I don't take him.

Precisely. If you factor in food at Ewood and a meal afterwards as you have with the cinema you're coming up with a small fortune. Just because you choose to spend money on food and drink at the cinema, your choice entirely, it's not part of the basic cost

Well I'll tell you that family tickets at peak times for 2 adults and 2 kids are 31.50 to 33.50. Individual tickets are less than the 13 Chaddy insists they are even at peak times

https://movietheaterprices.com/vue-cinema-prices/ Not what chaddy said and look at the family ticket. Also worth noting student reductions and the fact that seniors start at 60 not 65 like at Rovers

But if you add in food costs at the cinema then you have to add in food and drink at Rovers. You're still not comparing the seat prices. If you take someone to Rovers you'll be paying approx £54 as opposed to £26 for 2 cinema tickets. Now obviously you yourself have a season ticket so it wouldn't cost you that but we're not talking about you personally. We're talking about a hypothetical couple of people, neither of whom is a ST holder. My kids wouldn't get anything to eat at the cinema btw. If they can't sit through a film without annoying everyone else with the smell of popcorn, the rustling of sweet wrappers or the slurping of drinks, I wouldn't take them. Scrooge had nothing on me as a mum.

Oh joy. We're discussing transfers and mercer's back! Look forward to some optimistic and cheerful stories

That's still half what it costs to go to Rovers on some of the cheapest match day tickets. That means you and someone else could go for the cost of one of you at Rovers. Given a choice, some people would choose the cinema as it's cheaper, warmer and nobody expects you to turn up every week if you don't want to. If you're spending £40 going to the cinema then you're not in the basic seats without food or drink, so you're not comparing like with like.

To be honest, I couldn't care less who were playing if I want to watch Rovers. I know it's not true of everyone but for me it is

They're not cheap if you can't get to more than half the matches for whatever reason though. And I've told you so many times, we're not talking about fans who want to be there already. We're talking about enticing in potential supporters who don't have the Rovers bug yet or who've so far lost it that they might need encouraging back. ATM you wouldn't say to a mate, " Rovers are at home this afternoon. Do you fancy going?" because you know it might cost them £30 basic. Cinema prices have been quoted as being as high, but I've never paid more than a tenner each. The other things people quote are food and drink prices which I never pay for at the cinema. And many Vue cinemas are now 4.99 any film, any time. I'm not saying Rovers are any more expensive than other clubs. I don't know if they are or not. Merely that if they got more imaginative with pricing they might pull more in. The hardcore have paid for their season ticket and regular walk ons might bring a mate or family member who doesn't usually attend if there was a deal. I just don't get what the club has to lose now by trying it. Half season ticket sales will bring in a few but again, it's a commitment many people, because of work or other things can't make

I don't want targeted advertising. I just want to be able to turn up if and when I choose to watch the match and not be charged extra if I decide to do it at the last minute.

You keep saying the product itself, ie performances on the pitch, have improved but crowds are not back. How can people engage with that product if they're not coming into the ground? Imaginative marketing is needed before people can be engaged by the product

OK. I wouldn't join a reward scheme because I wouldn't use it often enough, I wouldn't arrive 2 hours before any match. I like to be spontaneous or I have trouble persuading the person I want to go to the match with me to do so. I can get there in time to get a ticket but wouldn't preorder in case my husband/daughter/friend can't commit to coming with me. I don't think the policy of charging extra for people in that situation is dodgy, but I just think it's totally unnecessary if you want to increase attendance

So you think a half season ticket is a good promotion? It is if you can commit to matches from Christmas to the end of the season. It's not what I'm talking about. The 1875 is only a good deal again if you're going to go to enough matches. The deals that might bring people in are the kind of thing Franky listed above. Not all of them obviously, but pick a couple and try them.. We're not talking about fans who come already. Not even ones like me who will come back but just have such a busy weekend life now that I've retired that I'm very rarely free on Saturdays. We're talking about people who don't normally attend but might if something caught their imagination. New fans or seriously lapsed ones. People who need to be attracted. Who may not even know who Bennett or Mulgrew are so won't be rejoicing that they've signed new contracts. We need something that offers a bit of sparkle to go with the work ethic and togetherness now evident at the club, something to attract or reattach fans. I'm not advocating making tickets generally cheap but make them more affordable over Christmas or perhaps better in January when everyone struggles after early Christmas pay and more indulgent spending over the holidays. Do something rather than nothing. Monitor it and if there's little difference then don't repeat it. If it's successful, look for another opportunity.

No they wouldn't but they probably wouldn't need to with other spend taken into consideration. And nobody is suggesting they halve the cost. Just drop a potentially off putting surcharge and do the odd promotional offer at a time when cash is a bit tight

We do if players are available. Sometimes you just have to get players before someone else does or their price rises. Remember Souness bringing in Friedel when most of us thought our keepers were OK?

The Only Way Is Essex =TOWIE

I'm probably as old as you and I know ?

I wrote to the club when this happened and received a very shirty reply informing me that I had no right to have been sitting there for years as I had no under 16s with me. The club had happily taken my money for years after my youngest turned 16 and there had never been any issues as the BBE upper was never full so we weren't depriving anyone of a seat. The tone of the letter was so dismissive of my feelings that I wouldn't have set foot in Ewood that season if they'd offered me free tickets. I'm not saying they weren't well within their rights to ask me to sit elsewhere but there are ways of doing it that make customers feel valued and not like something the cat brought in. Making people feel welcome, like you matter, is important in any business. Dismissing their concerns, making them feel like they are an irrelevance is not good business sense. Things like charging extra for late purchase of tickets are just another way of making people less bothered about attending. I don't expect concessions from the club or to be wooed by them but nor do I expect to be made to feel irrelevant

I wasn't having a go at how you choose to spend your money or what your priorities are. Just saying that others may not be able to make the choices you make. There was a time when I went to every home game, youth games, as many away games as I could fit in. Nowadays I am retired and make different choices as to how I spend my cash and my time. But it would be nice if tickets for kids were cheap over Christmas I agree.

For me it's about the precedent it sets. Are we now going to get this for every player who has won a certain number of caps?

I spotted that too but couldn't think of an appropriate comment

From the outside, the bad management of many aspects of the club is still continuing. Once you're aggrieved, cheesed off with the club for all the things that have been done so badly over those years you take more than a little persuading that things have really not just cosmetically changed. It's just a stupid charge that doesn't for any logical reason need to be made. Other clubs, other sports, don't do it. They make it easy for fans to attend. They want fans in the ground. Rover supposedly do, but only on their terms.

We're not necessarily talking about Rovers fans though are we. Or at least not committed, diehard ones. We're talking about people who like watching football for whom Rovers is their local club who may become hooked if they can be brought into the ground or people who have been so worn down by events at Ewood over a number of years that the words enjoyable Saturday afternoon and Rovers don't quite go together in their minds anymore. They may have felt marginalised by the club in the past, even if they can see the sense of some of the decisions that annoyed them. They know the team is doing well. They realise that this is a team that works hard for each other, the manager, the fans and the club but somehow they've lost the passion that took them to Ewood whenever they could get there. They've lost the emotional connection and to get that back they need to be encouraged to attend. Anything that gets them there, any idea that's economically feasible and doesn't diminish the value of being a season ticket holder should be considered.