Thanks for that Paul, based on your informative model, and assuming JW"s figure is correct, I guess that shows that not only are we not shifting enough ST's we aren't shifting enough adult season tickets in particular. Back to to tnr's experience, I guess it's a moot point as to whether a discounted block ticket should be available but assuming ST holders/half ST holders do get a discount surely there could be no argument whatsoever against a block ticket card being available at full face value. That isn't even available let alone at a discount!

Sorry, I know that's the theory but how can that be the case in practice if the average take overall is only 13 quid per seat i.e. significantly less than the equivalent cost of the CHEAPEST adult season ticket? Unless of course the crowd is predominantly made up of juniors/ OAP'S An absolutely crucial issue for BRISA to take up with the club I would say, not adopt a "I can't be bothered doing the maths" stance.

Don't be silly Paul, that's a ridiculous response based on your personal animosity towards tnr. Why should he or anyone else pay an eleven game price fora 6 match ticket with the stadium one third empty?

You're right, it obviously helps, I just meant from the point of view of someone having already thought of this obvious possibility arising and putting the appropriate sliding scale system in force.

Errr....... obviously not if Paul's figure of the average take being 13 quid per seat is correct. And obviously there's no reason to believe it isn't. Assuming the figure is right i.e. 247 quid per season, then either season ticket holders are paying at least full whack if not more, or there are an enormous number of juniors/ OAP's bringing the average take figure down. I was under the impression that the cheapest adult ST was about 280 quid (Average c15 per game.And that there were only a limited number of those) I always thought most adult ST's weighed in about the 400 mark (average c21 per game) Mine in JW upper costs over 500. (average c26 per game) Junior ST's are 5 quid per game. So on tha basis of the 13 quid average there's as many of them sold as standard adult ST's at 21 per game? That can't be right surely?

I can fully appreciate the argument against a sliding scale seson ticket or half season ticket, if the reduction is directly proportionate there's little or no point in getting a seson ticket in July or a half season ticket at Christmas. Also in the case of the half season tickets from memory they were very good value originally. But in tnr's case if the club were prepared to meet halfway and knock something off the eleven game price then tnr (and many others) may be more inclined to make a purchase. The fact we've just beaten Arsenal to go 5th is surely irrelevant. It surely can't be that unforseeable that people at any stage might want to buy a ST or half ST late can it?

Looking at the games individually, if Bellamy stays fit, I would predict: Spurs away draw Villa home win Boro home win Sunderland away win Wigan home win Portsmouth away draw Liverpool home draw Birmingham away draw Chelsea home defeat Charlton away draw City home win Total 20 points and 63 finishing total. That's spooky. I didn't make my last two posts up to coincide, I really didn't. The worrying thing is you look at Arsenal's last eleven fixtures and normally you would expect them to win nine of them. Although that obviously doesn't work for them this season otherwise they wouldn't be where they are in the table.

It's frightening really. Looking at the fixtures you would expect us to win four out of the six home fixtures with anything from Liverpool or Chelski as a bonus. Whilst only Spurs out of the five away games doesn't immediately look to fall into the "eminently winnable" category. so 24 points it is then. Or knowing Rovers, 9 points from Spuds, Pool and Chelski. and hardly anything from the rest. At this stage I predict 20 more points (63) will be the Champions League mark.

1) No, but as I understand it you can get huge discounts with Virgin/most airlines by booking long enough in advance instead. 2) The Tesco option would be useless unless you wanted exactly the same order every week. As I said above the Watford chairman claimed on the radio at the weekend they were still actively pushing half season tickets on the basis tnr suggests and that they had shifted 500 in the previous seven days alone.

It's enough to make you weep isn't it!. How much do we pay our executive directors? half a million a year? Hence my idea above of "a champions league charge" (or similar) ticket to cover the remaining games. Doubt my idea, or yours, will be taken up though. They make far too much sense.

Because the Utd fan will only be there one game a season but the floating Rover might return several times that season and many times in the future. A pound is a bit of an extreme example to use for ManUre, prices wouldn't have to be that low.

The flip side to that argument is: How much do you make out of that City fan per season? 32 quid? If you attract a floating Rovers fan in for 12 quid , you may lose 20 quid on the City fan initially but if the Rovers floater comes three or four times the following season as a result you're well in pocket.

Problem with that is officially of course the club have to be seen to be completely opposed to all illegal broadcasts. I have to hold my hands up here and confess to being a bit hypocritical as I actually like watching a lot of the away games on the dodgy channels.

Good point. It's up to the Rovers to get that point across properly with their marketing. Especially with the newly self styled "Accrington Stanley Evening Telegraph" promoting Stanley's cause.

The point is the "what more can the club do?" argument doesn't wash anymore. We aren't doing very much at all different to what we've ever done. ie. offer the odd price promotion. Circumstances change all the time (as with the current foreign TV fad and in Rovers case demographics) and you have to react accordingly.

Another thing I would advocate is making a section of the ground cheap 10 quid pay on the turnstile on a first come first served basis. Left hand side of the darwen end ideally or possibly move the family stand and use the top of the Blackburn End for that purpose?

Similar scenario. Now chasing Champions League/UEFA spot.

Au contraire we saw that when we were chasing promotion in 2001 dropping the price to 5 quid saw a gate of 27,000 plus for a midweek game v Sheff Utd and very nearly 30,000 v Portsmouth at Easter.

All of it. That's why I didn't select part of your post to quote.

The kids season tickets and half season tickets are exceptional value sure, and should be continued and marketed to death. But once you've missed them the club need to be sensible about pricing for individual games. To charge 15 quid as with yesterday for kids for any game with the stadium nearly a third empty is ridiculous. You may only earn a pound if it's a quid a kid but it's one pound more than you earn from an empty seat! You don't have to go down to a quid every game but I don't think there's any excuse for kids tickets being more than a fiver at the moment. Rovers are going to have to be a lot more creative than we've been in the past due to the new "watch it in the Pub on dodgy Arab TV" phenomenon. I caught the end of an interview with the Watford chairman Graham Simpson yesterday and he sounded like a breath of fresh air. They seemed a lot more proactive than us at getting fans in as opposed to smply talking about it. They're gunning for automatic promotion but he didn't see it as the fan's duty to dutifully troop through the turnstiles. Quite the opposite. He said they were the only professional club in Hertfordshire and it was their duty to share the "Watford experience" with the masses. They were bussing people in from alll over the County. They were still selling season tickets for the remaining few games at discounted rates and had sold 500 that week. He himself was going round the area giving talks at places like Stevenage sharing what they were trying to achieve. Their academy was absolutely crucial to their business plan. Most interestingly they were doing a cheap block ticket for the remaining 5 home games at 60 quid for adults and 40 quid for kids. Rovers are very much in a similar boat. With all due respect to our smaller neighbours You simply can't get the "Premiership experience" or excitement like yesterday anywhere else in East Lancs. An imaginatively promoted and priced "Champions League Charge" ticket for the remaining games perhaps?

Absolute garbage.

I understand the point you're making but billhooks to that, let's have ManUre winning sweet FA (again) and us qualifying for the Champions League!

If we get 15 points out of the next 18, as long as the solitary defeat isn't against Spuds, I'd say we'd be nailed on for the Champions League. Over the last 2 seasons 60 and 61 points have been good enough for 4th spot. It may be very slightly more this time but there's nothing in Spurs recent form to suggest that they will get anything like 2 points per game over the last eleven matches. (Which would give them 68) 63 I think would certainly do it. Anything in the 60-62 range may yet be good enough again however. The trouble with us as we've seen countless times over the last 5 seasons is that we come to a difficult looking fixture and win, then facing a subsequent easier looking run of fixtures things go pear shaped. Find the answer to that one and we will be cooking on gas.

Arsenal are very much like ManUre these days, stop Rooney and you stop United, stop Henry and you stop Arsenal.