Miller11

Josh King

I don’t think Waggott or indeed anyone else at the club even attempt to claim that our season tickets offer good value for money. They have been pretty open about the fact they have financial targets to hit and doing so is their absolute priority. The idea is to charge as much as the core market will bear, it’s not to increase support or provide value. Of course people in the ground don’t think tickets are too expensive for them. If they did they wouldn’t be there! But they are in a ground that is 2/3 empty.

Nothing at all wrong with being proud to be a Rovers fan, that point still stands today even though most of what we’ve got to be proud of is historic. I don’t think it’s particularly loyal to deny things that are blatantly wrong at the club. Would someone who supported Steve Kean have been more loyal than those who protested against him? Is supporting a pricing structure that is steadily eroding our gates and in turn our fanbase really loyal to BRFC?

I’m not even sure they really believe it. There’s a reluctance from some to say anything that might be deemed remotely critical, they wear their “positive” badge with real pride. I think there’s also an element of people being a bit flash. They want to make sure everyone is aware the money isn’t an issue for them to find, then they couple this with a complete lack of anything resembling empathy.

Hi Paul, firstly good to see you on here and hope you are keeping well mate! It’s been a big problem of late that a lot of people aren’t really sure what we’re about, there’s a hell of a lot of misapprehension out there. I’d say the Supporters Trust has gone through several different phases since its inception, in very simple terms it’s looked something like this: Year 1 - Get a mandate from the supporter base that a trust was required and launch Year 2-5 - Focus on gaining an ownership share Year 5-7 - Openly opposing the ownership Year 8-now - Building a working relationship with the club and acting as a critical friend Onward - Push for supporter representation through a shadow board So it’s not completely surprising that there is some confusion if people aren’t always aware, and our comms need to be better. Ultimately the aim has to be to increase supporter influence, our approach has historically changed to reflect the current reality. The Supporters Trust has its fair share of critics (just like BRFCS, the action group, Rovers SAS, or any other collective) but there’s also a great deal of apathy. Plenty of people tell us they are glad we are here, they support the idea, but not enough to pay a tenner a year. We could have carried on with a steadily dwindling membership base, but this rebrand is part of trying to become more accessible and inclusive to all supporters, so I’m not entirely unhappy with the Facebook group comparison of the name. We’ll be more visible and provide more to our members which will hopefully see our numbers grow and more people become involved. The ideal would be to be able to tell the club we are thousands of members strong rather than hundreds.

It’s definitely a concern, and certainly a bad thing. Hopefully given time the association will fade. Part of the rationale was that the regular users on here will be at the very least familiar with the Supporters Trust, and there’s be an opportunity to quickly and directly engage with anyone who was concerned. Here’s a few of the recent reasons we’ve had for people not joking: ”No point yet. I’m glad you’re there for if we go into administration, if we do I’ll join straight away” ”(Insert name of any of several previous board members) doesn’t represent me!” ”Its not the right time to protest” ”Not until you start putting coaches on for kids of all backgrounds” “I can’t because I’m already a member of a different group” Too much of our collective time has been put into preaching to the converted, maybe converted isn’t even the right word, as a lot of the time we are interacting with people who are pretty aware of what the Supporters Trust is, but for whatever reason still aren’t members. To be successful we need to grow the membership base pretty dramatically. We’ve got some things in the pipeline to start offering existing an new members some real tangible benefits, hopefully we can kick off a period of renewed interest.

Yes, completely agree Josh. I raised the issue loudly. I can assure you there is no crossover at all. Hopefully the phrase can be reclaimed and stand for something better. We felt there was a need for a change due to the often incorrect assumptions of what the trust do, and the confusion with the community Trust had started to become problematic. For all the traction we’ve gained over the last decade plus, there’s also a lot of opposition. We looked back on the outcome of the public meeting at King Georges hall a few years ago as a missed opportunity. The new Trust led initiative of “We Are Rovers” was a great idea in theory but it wasn’t capitalised on at all. We didn’t want to go down the exact same route - (we aren’t at WAR, we see ourselves as a critical friend to the club), and we decided to include the word THE very deliberately. WE are - that’s every single supporter, whether you went to QEGS in the 60’s or not. We want to be far more inclusive and attract people of all different ages and backgrounds. Currently our board is pretty indicative of the bulk of our membership - middle aged white males. We have to improve this. THE Rovers is part of our commitment to celebrate our heritage. No club in the world beats us in that department and we want the club to celebrate it more. In terms of the renaming, we remain registered as BRSIT CBS Ltd, we’ve had to move towards using “The Blackburn Rovers Supporters Trust” in our Comms of late anyway, and will probably continue to do so. We have also had something of a breakthrough in terms of our communications with the club, and HOPEFULLY we can start to see supporter influence growing. Our next step is pushing hard for the club to form a Shadow Board made up of supporters. A new name seemed fitting as we enter a new period in the Trust’s history.

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.