I’ve provided a playlist for every game since about January. Previously the club were using a very small pool of songs. In the early part of the season you’d often hear most of the same songs I provided for the fans takeover games being played on repeat. At one game they got someone external in as a one off to do the PA and he turned up with his decks and played World of Our Own by Westlife at the final whistle, after another crap result, which loads of people felt strongly enough about to email in complaints.

Every home game there is almost an hour and a half of music to play before kick off. Most of it is played to a very small audience, but I’ve tried to stick to the general rule of thumb of never picking the same song twice (with one or two exceptions), and every game songs are played that are by local bands or supporters who are in the crowd.

They won’t change the actual walk out music from that rubbish Red Hot Chilli Peppers rubbish, this was apparently picked by the players - I complain about this on a weekly basis, but I’m hoping that will be different next season. My biggest bugbear is that if my timings are slightly under they fill the gap with Thunderstruck by AC/DC which is about as generic and unimaginative a song as is possible to play - it’s Clitheroe’s (and almost every other non-league teams) walk out song for gods sake.

Off the top of my head the following have all been played in the 15 minutes before kick off over the last few months…

Oasis, Stone Roses, Metallica, Motörhead, New Order, Joy Division, Judas Priest, Faithless, Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, Green Day, Status Quo, Hard-Fi, Charlatans, Kasabian, Led Zeppelin, Reverend and the Makers, Talking Heads, Bowie, Buzzcocks, Prodigy, The Clash, The Who, Shed Seven, Chemical Brothers, Thin Lizzy, James, K-Klass, Kiss, Dario G, Depeche Mode…

As mentioned above, Hardcore Uproar was played against Newcastle, and in fact has been played every single time I’ve compiled a playlist this season. It’s THE Blackburn acid house tune and was basically born in Ewood Mill. The feedback on this has been really positive and it was trending on Twitter when it got played in the FA cup game.

Another myth that still persists is that the version of Wild Rover by Morning Call still gets played. Well, at the start of the season this was accidentally deleted by someone at Rovers so they don’t even have a copy of it. I sit in the Riverside with the singer who has provided me with it, so if it does make a comeback you can blame/thank me.

As for 2Unlimited as the walk out music, I’m not dying on that hill. During the build up on occasion, no bother.

53 minutes ago, Groundhog said:

My worst fear with this game is that he might buck the trend and actually try and go and win this one, compared to when he should have against Millwall, SW at home. I've got this worry that he'll think they won't be up for a fight, and it'll cost us as they'll raise their game. 

I've stuck a tenner on us to lose, Plymouth and Brum to win, and SW double chance at 90/1, as to me that seems a totally normal day in the madness that is this season's Championship. My bets never come off.

It should be an easy game to get them up for, it's one game, one cup final to give it their all, in our hands, just give fucking everything for one game! What is playing on my mind is that after 15-20 mins there's a chance that Brum and Plymouth could be 1-0 up, and the players will hear about it and then start to wilt under the pressure, as we know they're well capable of doing. 

You’ve got a very generous bookie offering 90/1 on that! Who is the bet with? 

Unfortunately the above scenario is a lot more likely than those odds would suggest.

12 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Is this what you heard @Miller11 @Mike Graham  @We Are The Rovers @K-Hod @only2garners? 

Haven’t heard anything, just had discussions. This would be very disappointing.

“We love it when the away team bring a big following. Like Preston and Wrexham. There is really only an atmosphere when the away end is full. We want to play in front of a full house.”

- Aynsley Pears. In that infamous meeting at the start of February.

Gallagher and Hyam were in agreement.

Just witnessed a very good performance from the U21s who came back from 2 down to draw with Arsenal. 

I’d start Leo Duru on Saturday and have Nsangou on the bench.

                           Michalski

Carter   O’Riordon    McFazdean   Pickering

                    JRC         Tronstad

Dolan               Szmodics (c)          Gilsenan 

                              Big Billy

Brilliant that. The perfect reaction. Great to see Carter back, he makes a big difference and for me is our best defender. I was very nervous when McFadzean came on but he was excellent today. JRC MOTM.

You’d have to say that Eustace executed the perfect game plan today. With no excuses around P&S/FFP this summer we should be in a position to build a proper squad again based around things other than just “the numbers”. Obviously the cashflow and court case issues will be the biggest factor though unfortunately.

I think this is 10 or 11 games for Gallagher without a goal. That’s a drought to any normal striker, but with him it’s just what you come to expect.

That substitution has me worried.

They clearly watched the midweek game and have decided to target us down our right hand side after seeing how calamitous Brittain and Hyam were. Carter has been left isolated out there a few times but fortunately stood up to everything pretty well.

Gallagher offering absolutely nothing in their half. We’ve been sloppy with our passing when trying to break, but you can see the idea with that good chance Szmodics carved out. Still a long way to go and I’m not sure we can sustain this. Better than expected so far though.

47 minutes ago, G Somerset Rover said:

Mods can we get the Samaritans number pinned in anticipation for 5pm tomorrow please? 

5pm will be too late. 12:30 kick off so I’d get the number pinned by 12:45.

                 Pears

JRC   Carter   Wharton  Pickering

            Tronstad  Garrett

Dolan        Szmodics      Chrisene

                  Gallagher

Wahlstedt, Billy, O’Riordan, Buckley, Moran, Gilsenan, Tyjon, Duru, Markanday

18 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Thanks for your efforts Duncan, We Are The Rovers and Fans Forum on these issues. 

Can I ask what is slight reduction to standard ST prices? 

I agree with most of points there. 

I can understand your previous post about our revenue needed to remain the same but we also need to increase the ST based and surely we should be looking at growing the fanbase and filling Ewood Park where we have 12k ST holders and by having ST lower means Match day prices can be lower. 

My idea is, ST prices for Riverside of £200, BBE and LJW for £250, JWU for £300. ST's for under 12 a pound for the season. Match day prices weekend games £15 for Riverside, BBE, JWL and JWU of £20. Midweek game £10 for Riverside, BBE, JWL and JWU of £15. 

We have had a lot of discussions over the past couple of years about making a significant reduction to ticket prices but it’s always been countered with the need to hit a revenue target that Venky’s have set. They don’t believe that a big reduction would improve sales enough for them to still meet that figure and have dismissed the idea in previous years.

I should also point out that we first pitched our ideas for next season to them months ago, before the transfer window debacle and the complete collapse of our form. We’ve continued to have discussions and since pointed out that they ought to be expecting a significantly bigger drop off in renewals than they have seen for the past couple of years, and that they need to think about doing something drastic to mitigate this before they start thinking about attracting new season ticket holders or re-engaging with lapsed ones. 

Not sure how the two worst culprits by far survived the half time cull

8 minutes ago, Polky said:

Broughton said in one of his interviews during the international break that fee agreed with Rochdale for Tyjon was similar to the Brierley deal.

How much did we pay? 
 

Surely we wouldn’t pay north of £100k for someone we could lose for a compensation fee?

We paid something in that region. I presume recouping the fee would form part of our compensation, but there’d only be about 15 grand on top.

17 minutes ago, B16Rover said:

Isn't there some tribunal benefits to these kids (eg. Finneran) being on the bench 

Compensation fee. A pittance.

Tyjon is wanted by Man City, so giving him some first team exposure is about the best way we can persuade him to stay when we can’t offer him a pro deal yet. Telalovic hasn’t proven to be much of an option so I’d rather give this lad some minutes.

39 minutes ago, superniko said:

I wonder what the contract with Sodexo is.

If they had half a brain between them, then there would be a clause depending on ST sales i.e. if we sell 8k, 10k, 12k, 15k+ season tickets we should be getting different income from Sodexo. It's bad enough they just offload all that to any old 3rd party, but financially it gives us no incentive to have more people in the ground if it's just a fixed fee regardless.

I’m not sure of any initial fees, but Rovers do get a percentage of concourse sales. Don’t quote me on it but I think it’s a third.

3 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Appreciate your efforts, Miller, but those proposals are tinkering around the edges and won’t move the dial.

Following on from a piss poor season at the bottom end of the second division and still big ST prices, you just aren’t going to see crowds increase, as we won’t be selling more STs than the present 9k (I’d actually be happy with that figure next season after this shambolic campaign, well, maybe not ‘happy’, but I’d just be relieved that sales hadn’t fallen off a cliff).

A substantial reduction in prices and/or success on the pitch is the only thing that could lead to c11/12k+ sales… and we won’t be seeing either under this regime.

Obviously success on the pitch is the main driver and the only thing that will significantly increase gates.

If, and it’s a big if, we sell 12k season tickets at £250 a pop we’d bring in less ticketing revenue than we do now. Obviously there is an argument to be had about additional income (average spend of 2-3 quid a head on the concourses with the bulk going to Sodexo), and the intangibles like better atmosphere (although would 12k season ticket holders make that big a difference?), plus would we just end up cannibalising our walk ons?

There’s no magic wand that can be waved to automatically double our attendances overnight, apart from maybe promotion, that includes drastic price reductions. It’s a long term rebuilding job that has definitely become more difficult this summer.

48 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

What was their initial reaction to your proposal? 

 

It was part of a bigger presentation with various ideas, some were better received than others and hopefully some will be incorporated.

The basic gist of it was:

- Need for entry level priced tickets in under occupied areas (limited number, very cheap)

- Slight reduction to standard ST price

- No change/slight increase to premium ST price

- Removal of barriers to stop people buying one (alternative to finance company backed DD, pro rata prices available into the season without deadlines)

- Additional benefits for those willing to pay more (the exact wording being instead of milking the hardcore offer them something extra), we suggested a number of “bolt ons” that could be sold with a ST

- Family discounts throughout the ground

- New category for U8s

- Flexi/PAYG tickets - a lot of discussion here particularly as we will have even less Saturday 3pm kick offs next year, and there is obviously a need to make sure a full season ticket remains more cost effective

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

Interesting ideas, and I’d have no issue in the club trying any of them - but none of those would move the dial anywhere close to a simple reduction in ST prices, as STs make up a substantial majority of our bums on seats and crowds ebb and flow on the back of the numbers sold.

 

The question is would say a £100 reduction move the dial sufficiently to maintain the level of income we currently have? 

1 minute ago, wilsdenrover said:

I wonder whether the turnstile technology would allow for a season ticket which costs (say) £100 and then you’re charged (again say) an additional £15 each time you actually use it?

I also wonder whether any of that makes any sense whatsoever 😄

We have proposed almost exactly this - effectively a “pay as you go” season ticket.

22 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

And what is this dynamic, out of the box pricing if it isn’t a reduction?

Cheaper tickets in certain undersubscribed areas, flexible tickets for those who can’t make all games, family discounts, added value products for those happy to spend more, etc

27 minutes ago, JHRover said:

If, after the shenanigans of the last couple of seasons, the Club had any concern about attendances (which it damn well should given the numbers) then there's no ifs or buts, prices should be cut in all areas and for this to have any serious impact on the numbers turning up this would require adults to be no more than £300 plus a serious sustained push at trying to tempt people to buy.

As you say, dreamland stuff, not because it isn't possible, Nob end and Notlob have proven that it is possible and that it does work, but here we will be lucky to get prices released before June (as usual one of the latest to get them on sale, thus shortening our sales window) and we know for a fact there is going to be zero serious or imaginative approach to increasing sales other than the usual tired efforts

'We're committed (and getting paid a load for it) Are you?'

So combine expensive prices, poor quality product, no ambition to do anything other than survive and cut costs, a short purchasing window and disgraceful conduct by the owners and their underlings = another drop in numbers signing up.

In our two latest sets of accounts PNE brought in £3.8 million in matchday revenue. In the same period Rovers total was £5 million. I believe this was the first year that Preston heavily reduced their early bird tickets.

There has to be a sweet spot that we definitely aren’t at yet, but I don’t think that there’s any way we’d double the amount of season tickets sold by halving the price. It’s certainly easier to make a case for a more dynamic and out of the box pricing structure than big reductions across the board based on those figures.

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

Anything mention about Shirt sponsor or possible more sponsors around Ewood Park? Has more sponsorships been mentioned during these meetings with Waggott/Rovers? 

Regarding the shirts there is a contractually obligated period in which the company can look to extend/renegotiate. I think we are in that period now for next season. I don’t think anything has been finalised either way as of yet, and even if it was that would be information too commercially sensitive to share with negotiations ongoing.

We’ve spoken more broadly about sponsorships when discussing commercial revenue. The accounts will give a clearer picture, but generally those revenues are going up year on year, though I’m sure everyone would like to see them go up more.

Another good performance, draw a fair result although we could’ve nicked it. Any sort of squad depth and I think we win that - but there’s no way of us changing the game positively with subs.

Dolan, Brittain and Markanday were all absolutely fantastic! The reverse fixture against this lot was probably our worst performance of the season, so a very good point.