15 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

at the risk of repeating myself,if ut was £20 all areas we`de have got a 25000 gate,what a ****whit running this club

Based on what? We didn’t often get 25k crowds in the PL. The prices were £15 for Sheffield United and we got maybe 13k home fans on. Let’s not pretend that there are c10-15k out there who would be attending if not for the ticket prices.

Tickets for today are more expensive than they should be and the club need to be far more creative/brave with ticketing in the future, but until we get back to the PL, we’re not seeing regular 20k crowds at Ewood regardless of price.

17 minutes ago, tomphil said:

That was a week before the game and before Fulham has clumped us 7 nil though. Sheff u would probably have brought another thousand especially if it was pay on the day.

We know though that at 30 quid Rovers will roll out the red carpet for visitors.

 

 

Sheff United ticket prices were £15 so It’s understandable why it wasn’t cost effective to open the upper tier. 

Rolling out the red carpet? I thought we were charging them ridiculous prices?

1 hour ago, booth said:

I'd agree with that.

If you watch him get forward he'll always get to the box then pass to someone else, he never crosses the ball. I imagine he doesn't want to lose the ball by putting in a poor cross. Either he knows his limitations or he's lacking some confidence in that department.

I think it says something that he has yet to score for the club. You don’t expect a full back to be prolific but over the course of 3/4 seasons you’d think that he’d have at least got a couple. Pickering is a good example already.

22 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Well actually we could have it both ways. Cut prices, sell far more, bring in the same cash.

If the club had marketed the Preston game properly - £20 a head and got tickets on sale weeks ago with big promotion behind it then there would have been 20,000 or even 25,000 on Ewood. Many on the food, drink and merchandise.

Instead, due to short sightedness, it is looking like 15,000 on if we are lucky, crap atmosphere.

Meanwhile only this morning the club has released a statement on the website encouraging people to buy their replica kits quickly because they have nearly all run out and there are no large sizes left in stock. It doesn't appear as though there is any plan on getting further stock in. Maybe if we had increased stock levels we would have some to sell over Xmas and bring in some extra money?

 

But there is no guarantee that we’d sell more to bring in the same cash. The Sheffield United game had maybe 2/3k more home fans on and tickets were down to £15. The weekday fixtures are at £20 and we’re getting sub 10k attendances. 

I’m not defending the current price structure and I wish they had reduced ticket prices this season but I don’t think it’s as simple as some fans make out. 

Clearly stock levels have been impacted by wider retail delays and the apparent high demand for the shirts. 

3 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Without a Leeds/Villa/Newcastle in this division this year, PNE was obviously seen as Swag’s remaining banker for a 7,000 cash in.

On what should be a fantastic, bumper derby occasion with our present form, hopefully a less than half full DE, mirrored in the home ends will put to bed the ridiculous pricing in future seasons (he has already dropped the even more laughable Cat A+, so fingers crossed).

I don’t agree with the pricing structure but it’s not ridiculous. It’s consistent with the majority of the league. No match beneath the PL should be £30 a head but that’s the state of the game at the moment. 

The same fans who want us to break the wage structure to re-sign the out of contract players are asking for ticket prices to be slashed. You can’t have it both ways.

I fear Covid rates may deter a few from going on the weekend regardless of price.

30 minutes ago, Bohinen1983 said:

To me at least it's quite simple.

I'll give an analogy.

I have a couple of houses, I've run into some unexpected fiancial difficulties that means I am struggling to pay their mortgages..

I can either borrow some money to continue to pay the mortgage whilst I arrange sale of my assests then pay off the remainder of my outstanding debt and have a bit left over.

Or I can choose not borrow speculatively to protect my expensive assets and lose them for a pittance.

If you translate that to football. We have multimillion pound assets on the cusp of leaving for a pittance. You just need to speculatively borrow the money, offer them what they want, then if you can't afford that within your budget sell them for a premium. Surely that makes better business sense than losing them for nothing....

The fact we have so many assests running down is a major cause of concern...

It’s not as clean as that. The assets may well be looking for an opportunity to play at a higher level not just a pay rise. I doubt any realistic salary increase for Brereton would be enough to tie him down as I’m sure he’ll be waiting for a PL offer. 

Frankly, with his injury record, I’d be impressed if Nyambe attracts a bigger club than us right now. 

1 hour ago, Mike E said:

Of course it is. It always is. Failure to secure your assets is BAD management.

Better to sign him up on a deal that breaks the wage structure by, say, another £20k/week (£1m/year) if it puts his value up by another £5m or more.

Would you have broken the wage structure for him last season? Very easy to blame the club but if the players are refusing to sign, what more can the club do? Brereton will be holding out for PL interest at this rate so I doubt any pay rise would be enough to tempt him to sign. 

19 minutes ago, 47er said:

Imagine what we could achieve if we had a good manager is another way of looking at it. For example was it a wise decision to pay good money  to Boro for Pears? I fear we might be about to find out.

We always said on here that the young lads we have should have figured over the old uns he kept picking.

Mowbray should have gone last year but I don’t think anyone can criticise how this season has gone, even with the Fulham defeat. How many fans predicted that we’d be sitting 4th at the end of November? I doubt we’ll sustain it but given the squad, this is as good as it realistically could have gone so far.

7 hours ago, Ulrich said:

We should have signed him up prior to the copa America, we'd spent 7m on him and needed to protect that investment. We drag our heels so badly with player's contracts, and with some it will bite us in the ass. Imagine BBD doesn't sign, and all we can do is exercise our 1 year option, what can we demand then? Peanuts, maybe our money back or a little bit more. It is rank bad management.

This is getting dull.

A new deal has been on the table for months, he is not signing it. We may struggle to compete with wages on our budget but if the players refuse to sign, it’s not simply down to bad management. 

Brilliant result. We never win these tight games against top 6 teams. Fourth. Outrageous. For all that went badly last year, this has been a remarkable season so far. Didn’t think Mowbray could turn public opinion around but you can’t fault results so far. Surpassing expectations massively.

24 minutes ago, islander200 said:

You are obviously referencing my post with your use if the word "privy".

If you read my post in caps i said we dont know if it is ALL down to the owners, which we dont.

Plenty of money was found to extend ageing and past it players.

Those past it players were probably not demanding massive increases in wages.

I don’t blame the players for wanting to look at options, especially Brereton who would be mad to sign a new deal with a championship team given his stature right now.

I don’t think Lenihan, Nyambe or Rothwell will attract much attention from PL sides though. Rothwell might get some interest but the other two are solid second tier players and no more. Wouldn’t surprise me if a couple of them re-sign eventually.

7 minutes ago, Herbie6590 said:

A few people have asked….it’s a Red Button fixture. It’s not a Sky main game though so I *think* RoversTV still carries it as well…

 

I reckon they’ll hold back from advertising RoversTV until short notice to try and get more people to attend in person. 

18 minutes ago, USABlue said:

Early on, shortly after he had made the forced breakthrough.  He was dripped a few times, keeping his place when he started going sideways and back more than his usual turn and look forward.  Mowbaryized.

That’s very selective thinking. Travis has established himself as a solid Championship midfielder. I don’t remember him looking like he was capable of ‘better’ than that. Don’t think it’s fair to suggest he’s been held back.

I think Mowbray has done reasonably well with developing players. There are always going to be some players who fail to reach their potential (arguably Chapman) but Dolan, Armstrong, Brereton, Lenihan, Travis, Rothwell, Lenihan, Nyambe, Wharton, Buckley and JRC have all improved under Mowbray.

There are plenty of sticks to bear TM with, but not sure this is one of them.

Thought he was trying too hard last night. Had a few good runs but lost the ball on many occasions. Chile’s passing in the final third was appalling though and there were certainly moments when a good final pass would have given him a chance. Awful game otherwise. 

In a funny way, Fulham are in their own sort of purgatory. Too good for the championship but not good enough for the PL. Falling into the same bracket as WBA and Norwich. League beating one season, cannon fodder the next. 

Would take a point. Hope we put up a fight.

36 minutes ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Ya its the main match. If its red button you can't view with a day pass, snakes 

If it’s on the red button then you can watch it on Rovers TV for £10 so it’s the same either way. The quality of the broadcasts on red button is very poor anyway. Standard definition and no replays isn’t worth paying for separately.

1 hour ago, JHRover said:

I can only guess that the 'Safety Advisory Group' have said to Rovers that if we sell the whole Darwen End then they will need a significantly greater police and stewarding operation at a significantly greater cost.

Notice how there is no issue opening the BBE upper tier for a few hundred people on free tickets which has happened several times this season.

Looking forward to the Rovers tweets warning of a very busy day at Ewood with a massive 15000 expected.

Just how did the club ever cope with regular 25000+ crowds?

I assume it’s the numbers of away fans attending rather than just having a larger attendance. Having a few kids in the upper tier is different to having another 3k away fans. 

The home attendance will be very interesting. We’ve all been saying that ticket prices need to be lower so it’ll be interesting to see how many more (if any) attend, especially as we’re in relatively good form (as of today..), we’re scoring goals and our key players are doing well. If we don’t pull in many more fans at £15 a ticket then pricing clearly isn’t the main issue.

55 minutes ago, Wheelton Blue said:

How on earth can selling more tickets not be 'financially viable' ?

 

Presumably it will mean opening the Darwen End upper tier which involves additional stewarding, catering staff etc. With the reduced prices it can’t be financially worthwhile and it gives them an even bigger away following. 

2 hours ago, Darrenbot said:

There's no way Clarkson will be sent back,Mowbray wouldn't want to upset his mate Klopp by saying we don't want Clarkson anymore.

To be fair, he’s resisted the temptation to play Clarkson which may tempt Liverpool to recall him (with our consent) and send him somewhere else.

I think the club underestimated the resentment and frustration from last season. The terrible run of form in Feb/March and falling woefully below expectations. Off the back of that, it’s hardly surprising that fans are reluctant to return.

11 minutes ago, rigger said:

Well I think you are manipulating statistics to your agenda, just forget the three previous seasons. If he scores 36 in 45 which is the same ratio you have used, but over almost a full season, I will hold my hand up and say he has exceeded my expectations. 

Those are the stats for this season, how have they been manipulated? Im not pretending that Brereton is going to necessarily sustain that record but there aren’t many strikers at this level I’d rather have in our team at the moment.

Scoring on both the domestic and international scene is impressive. He’s raising his level.

10 minutes ago, rigger said:

Because I would, it is my preference of the type of striker I want. I am glad Diaz scored again, but having watched the game, he did very little else.

Who is Sam Sturridge ?

12 goals in 15 for club and country isn’t the type of striker you want? 

I think you’re just being contrarian.

14 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

Keep reading about him having a resell clause. We paid well over the odds for him when we bought him - whoever negotiated the transfer from Rovers really need to be brought to account if it is anything more than 10%

I’ve not seen anyone mention a resell clause. I’d expect that the inflated transfer fee would limit the size of any clause, unlike the Armstrong deal. 

43 minutes ago, islander200 said:

He was poor in his cameos but he was  mismanaged also.

Mowbray paid the 7 million fee for him.He had made enough starts at Nottingham Forest for the manager and club willing to shell out 7 million to know what that were buying.

15,10,5 minutes was doing nothing for him only draining any bit of confidence the guy had left with the groans of the crowd etc.

Regular gametime in a settled position has brought his game on.His involvement with Chile has taken his confidence to another level but his improvement started after the covid break .I think his movements off the ball and dragging players out of the box was underestimated in the way it aided Armstrong and we looked a much better side with Brereton in it although his form did dip after he got injured.He isn't an elegant looking footballer but he does look to frighten defenders a little in this division with his power and awkwardness,he wins us a load of frees and I like the fact he is always in the refs ear and he gives it back when he is getting it from the opposition.

Let’s not re-write history in order to paint the management in a bad light. Brereton had plenty of opportunities and offered very little for two seasons. He didn’t get more game time because he wasn’t performing, which is exactly how it should be. He eventually earned more starts and has improved. Why make it into something it’s not?

Just now, islander200 said:

Mate he didn't start a lot of matches when he joined he was getting 15 minutes here and there

Because he was useless..