His tirades were a sticking point for a while on the rebrand. We decided to go ahead in the end, he’s not in any way affiliated.

Thanks John

It states in the minutes that the Her Game Too presentation was attached to the minutes but it doesn’t appear to be uploaded. I’d be keen to see that, please could you ask the club to add it?

Just received an email telling me to use my old season ticket card. Well worth that £2 booking fee. Having said that last time they posted one out to me it was stuck in an envelope with my brothers and posted out to his address rather than mine, and that cost me a quid.

Yes, I suspect that was the plan. It hasn’t worked anywhere near as well as they expected/hoped. I’m pushing Waggott on a rethink, even more so since he told me that the players are on at him to get more fans in the ground, and specifically Hyam constantly mentions running out of the tunnel to see a wall of fans directly across from you.

I’d charge less everywhere, but I do think the Riverside offers the opportunity for the club to offer entry level pricing. Personally I’m happy enough with my season ticket in the Riverside being the same as those elsewhere, I don’t really subscribe to the worse facilities argument… the toilets are much the same, there’s a place to stand and have a beer or a pie, I forgo a view of the big screen for my better view of the pitch and more leg room. Rather than lower every ticket in the riverside by 50/100 quid, I’d lower the uncovered seats on the first 6 or so rows significantly. £150 for a season ticket in an uncovered seat would really open them up to people who’d otherwise be priced out.

I renewed mine on the day they came out, I was skint at the time and decided I’d have to go the direct debit route. The 20 quid saving wasn’t really a factor, I’d be saving £2 a month… well £1.80 when you factor in the booking fee, it was purely based around wanting to spread the cost. My circumstances have changed for the better in the last couple of months. I’ve already forked out £120 quid and could’ve happily found another £280 this week to pay for it in full. I’ve given the club 20 quid less in doing it the way I have, but it’s cost me £30/£50 more than it should’ve. It’s all a convoluted mess. Early bird offers, cut off points, deadlines, people paying different prices for the same products, they all need scrapping. Imagine if they put in half as much thought into providing some imaginative different options that would encourage sales rather than discouraging and punishing people.

The mindset. We have massive potential on and off the pitch, and we need to be better. No more embracing mediocrity. Time to get promoted.

So does this mean that if we end up with a new manager this summer, you won’t be happy with any excuses of him having not had time to implement his style? Supposedly this means the transition should be fairly seamless. I only ask as “give him time to implement his style/ideas” or “he needs x amount of windows to build his squad” are always used to excuse poor performances or a drop off in form.

He’s an idiot if that’s the case.

Really depressing reading that “we can’t compete with Feyenoord” and having to acknowledge its true, particularly having seen us literally compete with them not too long before Venky’s came along and fucked us up for generations. If we are in a position where we are looking for a new manager the worry is that once again it just becomes a big reset button on “the project”. The usual lack of urgency, the same old dumbing down of expectations. The only question I’d be asking any potential new manager this summer would be “So, what’s your plan to get us promoted this year?”

Well pleased for Darren Moore, had some horrendous abuse this week. Always seems like a thoroughly decent fella. I would say it’s crazy how we had him on the coaching staff a few years back, but they were ridiculous times.

Silly concept kit season is even worse than silly transfer rumour season. Saw this absolute abomination the other day… One supposed Rovers fan said it was nice, but “the dinosaurs” among us wouldn’t like it. Well, I for one am a massive T Rex in that case. You really ought to have some mandatory education in your clubs history and traditions before being allowed to call yourself a supporter. On a more serious note, the sooner the Macron deal is up the better. It’s massively restrictive in terms of order numbers and lead times. Our own willingness to be treated like a poor relation is certainly a contributing factor too, but their inflexibility and the frankly terrible deal we (Fielder) have agreed is the reason nobody could buy a shirt since October.

Not as things stand. They have a 99.9% stake in a club worth the hundreds of millions they have put in, on paper at least. No way will they sell us for a small percentage of that “value”, they don’t need to. Promotion gives them an exit strategy. I think if we went up they’d crawl out from under their rocks and lap it up for 6 months, but soon get bored. All of a sudden we’d be a different proposition for a buyer, and Venky’s might be able to recoup the bulk of their losses and save a bit of face. Probably wishful thinking, but it’s a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for me, and a big part of the reason I’m so disappointed at how the last couple of seasons have panned out.

Regarding the match day experience, we haven’t got into a great deal of detail on that yet. In fairness it’s probably more of a discussion for the fans forum. The ticket pricing and strategy has been our main focus, but we’ve made some suggestions like the one I mentioned about fans having input to a pre-match play list was one. I have the exact same thoughts about the Riverside. Wouldn’t want to sit anywhere else. Steve Waggott actually said “you tell us the Riverside is the best stand and has the best views… maybe we should be charging more in there?” - just to point out this was tongue in cheek on his part (I hope!).

That’s actually really helpful. I know people who have been knocked back for direct debits who have attended every home game this season, obviously this idea would really benefit them. How many of those fans there are would be an estimate, so trying to find different supporters or scenarios and weighing up how effective it would be is important to consider. I’d personally push it along the lines of “you can still be a season ticket holder if you can’t attend every game”. The habit point you mentioned is again something we’ve discussed at great lengths. Aside from the price issue we’ve tried to convey how the mood of supporters has changed over recent times.

Out of interest would you buy the following… Membership to a “pay as you go” season ticket scheme - £50 That would then allow you to purchase individual tickets for £23 in your preferred area of the ground, £19 if you wanted to sit in the other areas. You’d also get the same priorities on away tickets as season ticket holder, along with any other fringe benefits. I ask as I’ve put this idea to Waggott. He said he liked the idea, but I sensed there was again a fear it might impact that base revenue target. Rather than see any positives in terms of potential uptake from people such as yourself with other priorities, they worry that a % of people who will still buy ST’s in the knowledge they will miss a number of games might opt for this instead.

From a Trust point of view I’d say there were discussions rather than consultations. They key recommendations we put to them included 1. Entry level pricing 2. Focus on ST retention after earlier start of ST sales 3. Flexible ST offers 4. Market more effectively in the wider east lancs area and beyond 5. Improve the match day experience So I’d say they listened to point 2, but then negated any benefit by increasing the price a few weeks later. There’s quite a bit more detail about the discussions we’ve been involved with back across this and the Trust thread. Glen’s 5th point is where we face difficulty - we have to prove there is enough appetite in the non-attending fanbase and persuade them to risk a price cut. It’s a battle. Edit - just seen Glen has posted the full response. Hopefully you’ll see what I mean in my last 2 sentences.

That’s me on the podcast. My response to Waggott was “Steve, that’s what we’ve been telling you for years”

Speaking from a Rovers Trust perspective, regular focused two way dialogue has only really started after their plans will have been broadly in place. The main feedback the club took from last years sales were that revenue targets were hit and the figure was up on previous years. If the Supporters Trust, fans forum, or any individual fan said to Waggott “reduce ticket prices”, he’d point to potentially missing revenue targets. We’ve spent recent meetings trying to prove that this wouldn’t happen and that there is enough appetite there from supporters to ensure that they can still meet these targets while growing the fanbase.

I’d not really considered the idea of Klarna and the like for season tickets. A quick google search shows Hibs, Celtic and Roma all have it as a payment option and It’s probably something every club will jump on soon. I can see them tightening (or implementing) regulation around this type of credit sooner rather than later though, no doubt Rovers will miss the boat. I have to say that recently the discussions have been a lot more two way, and a lot better received. We should be able to announce some more detail in this soon and provide a lot more depth at our AGM in June. I wasn’t expecting anything remotely dynamic or revolutionary with this seasons offering. The timescales they seem to operate on wouldn’t allow for it, and the “sign off from India” seem pretty arduous. The ultimate argument is always that failure to hit the revenue target is absolutely unthinkable, and there is a real fear of cutting prices. My personal point of view is we need to keep banging the drum and making suggestions (and back them up) over the next few months. If there isn’t a significant change in the clubs approach, and a far more varied/flexible offering for the 24/25 season, I’ll be disappointed.

Completely agree Chaddy. Another point I’ve made repeatedly is why do we ever take season tickets off sale? For example what if someone who is out of work gets a new job in August, they may have to wait until September til they get paid, but they’d have to wait til Christmas for a half season ticket. I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t make them available at a pro rata rate, so if they buy one two games into the season they get around £38 off.

I’ve put this to Waggott and co repeatedly over the last 2 years in pretty simple terms… You are giving people one, or if they are lucky perhaps 2 paydays to find the money for a season ticket. It’s not enough time, you need to get them on sale earlier. Give them a chance to get the funds together. I was happy when they were released at the earliest date in living memory, a breakthrough maybe? But no, the earlybird means that there’s a price hike if you haven’t bought within 5/6 weeks… or one payday, two if you are lucky.

Generous for that particular game!

Steve Waggott has said these exact words to me: ”We invested £6 million on Ben when he was one of the brightest prospects in the country”. While the fee will have been paid in instalments, as is the norm, I don’t think that it was dependent on any clauses, the conversation around this didn’t suggest so. I went for 7 based off that 6, plus a signing on fee and possible additional fee due to him becoming a full international.