J*B

NFTs will take over in the next 5-10 years and - much like Crypto - there’s serious money to be made. There’s also tonnes of con artists already swarming all over it.

Assombalonga? Toni?

I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford a £25 ticket if I want one. But unfortunately the poverty level in Blackburn means that a £25 ticket 2 weeks before Christmas is just far too expensive. Every year it’s the same - the people of Blackburn can’t afford to spend £25 this close to Christmas on non essentials. I’d have priced it at £20 for an adult ticket and an additional £1 to bring an U16 with you.

Whoa - one minute: 19/20 Newcastle Attendance (Mike Ashley) - 35,551 out of 52,300 (67% full) 19/20 Nottingham Forest Attendance (Marinakis) - 21,617 out of 30,445 (71% full) 19/20 Birmingham City Attendance (Cho Hung) - 15,975 out of 29,409 (54% full) 19/20 Sheffield Wednesday Attendance (Chansiri) - 18,573 out of 39,859 (46% full) 19/20 Bradford Attendance - 14,257 out of 25,123 (56% full) 19/20 Blackpool Attendance - 8,770 out of 16,220 (54% full) 19/20 Bolton Attendance - 11,511 out of 28,723 (40% full) 19/20 Blackburn Attendance 11,460 out of 31,367 (36% full) Granted Rovers are bottom of this list - but they've also got the third biggest stadium which skews the numbers and are a town club in the Championship. The reality is any bad owner has a negative impact on tickets sold and the longer that ownership continues to be considered 'bad' the more the number drops. When Venkys took over Rovers average attendance was 25,000 out of 31,367 (79% full) which tells its own story. During Venkys ownership we've lost 13,540 fans on average. Where do you work? Would your boss accept a 43% drop in anything? Mine wouldn't! Some of these will have been away fans, but there's no hiding from the big issue here. Fans have either: stopped following Rovers because they're not a PL side (up to Rovers to fix), stopped following Rovers because they no longer enjoy it (see our huge away followings - this is up to Rovers to fix) or stopped following Rovers because they don't agree with the ownership/management (this is up to Rovers to fix).

A few points on this - 1) There's no such thing as freedom of speech in the UK. 2) I know of at least two Ribble Valley football teams that have had tickets through this scheme - their demographic is very much 'white British'. It's not certainly a scheme devised to be 90% ethnic children. 3) In the 2011 census, 28% of people within Blackburn with Darwen identified as 'Asian/Asian British'. When you attend Ewood, would you say that 28% of attendees fit this demographic? I wouldn't - I would guesstimate much closer to 5%. Therefore this demographic is hugely under represented and I commend Rovers for doing more to get it closer to 28%. 4) The key to building back attendances is to get kids hooked whilst they're young. I'm sure that we can all agree that we don't give two damns what ethnicity or religion these kids are from as long as it benefits the club.

Keep it to the politics thread please Chaddy.

We’ll support it financially if there’s a genuine interest in doing it.

I’ve no idea - but that’s the rumour which is going around at the moment. I don’t know how true it is, but I wanted to tell you what I thought he was talking about. And his subsequent reply makes it sound like I’m right. @1864roverite care to share anymore details?

It means what it says, I thought it was clear but I will try again. I really, regularly, attend matches. I buy tickets on a game by game basis. Over the course of a season - mostly because of Waggott’s surreal pricing structure - this is more expensive. However, as a lapsed season ticket holder, the club ring you and ask if you’re interested in a season ticket - or, as they are recently - a half season ticket. I use this opportunity to give feedback to the club, which I ask to be fed back up to senior management. They always tell me it will be, but I’ve no idea if it is. There’s other reasons eg I think average ST sales tells a story, whereas nobody ever talks about average match day ticket sales. This might sound insane to you. I can accept that. But I spent many years refusing to go to Ewood and did away games only, which I hated. I feel happier doing it this way.

They ring me a couple of times a year asking why I haven’t bought a season ticket. It’s the only way to give them feedback.

OK, one last time. The reason many people boycott isn’t to do with the success of the club, or the money spent by the owners, it’s to do with the lack of respect that the owners and their chosen senior management of the club have both purposely and accidentally shown the town and it’s people. Respect costs absolutely nothing.

I refuse to buy a season ticket and instead spend more money buying individual match day tickets for both home and away games. I appreciate it makes absolutely no sense but I feel like I’m making a point and will continue to do so until I see a proper operator running the club.

Whoa, hold up. The club have hurt the boycotters. That’s the bigger issue.

That’s a shame, most people I know have already left because they felt like Waggott and Pasha didn’t offer them any support. They might have stayed with change on the horizon.

Do you think he’s off even if Mowbray has us finishing 4th and gets an extension?

In all seriousness, it takes some strong CEO work now. Get the tickets priced well. Flood the ground with anything to improve support, make home games hell for away teams. Commit what is needed to keep this side together. Spend what is needed to get them over the line. Roll the dice, have some belief.

Give Lenihan and Rothwell 3 year contracts and let them decide the numbers at this point.

He’s talking about Venkys buying a huge area of land in the Ribble Valley, which they’re hoping to get planning permission for to create a new academy.

http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/financial-fair-play-explained.php

The amortisation is only relevant to buying, not selling.

I’m going to stop after this one because I fear I’m taking everything off topic, but in response to each of your paragraphs: 1) I agree with you! I’d want to have a go, I’m loving watching this team, I think we could go up. 2) I can only assume you haven’t read the FFP rules and compared them to our balance sheet. Top line - even with the Armstrong money and Training Ground sale, we don’t have much play left in the budget. 3) I agree, I’d roll the dice. Waggott won’t.

We could have trillionaire owners, until as a football club we generate more money ourselves they’re actually quite restricted what they can do because of FFP. The irony is I’m convinced a good CEO is all that is needed to begin generating more money, although it would take a period of time.

It’s all ifs and buts, anything could happen. He could get a bad case of COVID. His form could U-turn like it has done this season. He could do his ACL like Dack. Or perhaps he will score another 17 goals and fire Chile to the World Cup. We’re looking at this in different way though. Yes, of course, if there’s a guarantee that we can keep him until summer, maybe get promoted and if not still sell him for good money then YES - of course - keep him. But his case is different because he shows on the balance sheet as a 7M investment. We’re already only just FFP compliant and that’s after selling our training ground and Arma. If this is decision is left to someone that isn’t a ‘roll the dice’ type character then Ben will go and the true reason he will be sold is because we paid so much for him initially.

It might not be risk related for Brighton - as it stands they’re 3 points away from potential European football. They’re looking to sign him to win those extra three points this season you would expect. We only just got the 15M for Armstrong, only Southampton where willing to pay that money. I think we would be looking at 10M for Brereton in the summer. I personally would sell Brereton in January for 20M because he’s a high value asset, as I’ve already explained. The second his value falls below 7M - whether that be because his form drops off, or that’s the best offer we can get for him, or he’s leaving on a free, he is a negative on the FFP balance sheet and that’s a risk we can’t take.