Waggott also touched on a grant application for work at the BRIC. Plans were approved by BWDC for floodlit Astro pitches there back in 2015. This will obviously have to be a community facility, but I could see them trying to move the younger academy age groups up there... making a mockery of the all under one roof claim, jeapordising our cat 1 status, and failing to meet the terms on which any grant would be awarded.

Two quotes from Waggott just over a year ago at the last consultation meeting.

2027 when Rovers are training at the new Waggott and Mowbray inspired training ground... ”Steve, you said we’d be maintaining our Category 1 status? What happened? We are now Category 3?” ”We’ve done all that we can.”

For a start it’s got 10 full-size grass pitches, one of which is floodlit, an additional floodlit synthetic pitch, training areas for fitness work and goalkeepers, as well as an exact recreation of the pitch at Goodison Park.

Watched it. No fears allayed. Just talk of “state of the art”, “fully integrated”, “football models” etc. None of the very valid logistical issues addressed. He did say Cat 1 was vital, but it just doesn’t seem in any way plausible after basic scrutiny of the plans. a couple of points worth noting... - Rob Coar has clearly given him a brief history lesson on the Brockhall set up after the disingenuous and dismissive comments last weekend. - He mentioned similar projects he’d been involved in at other clubs... not sure I’d be celebrating my track record if it read like his. - Don’t worry Brockhall residents, there will be a community centre that can also be used as a health and wellness facility... possibly providing the services offered by 21st Solutions LTD eh Steve? Propaganda piece.

Interesting to see the Fans Forum have repeatedly brought up the possibility of having a consultation meeting. We are well overdue one, and the club were behind before the pandemic. Presumably the EFL requirements have been relaxed somewhat, however, there would obviously be appetite for a consultation at the present time. Perhaps a meeting using zoom or teams etc would allow the owners to attend too, as owner engagement is the primary reason for these meetings. Usually they reel out Mowbray to regale us with tales of his youth to eat into 60% of the allotted time. Might not have the usual pacifying effect at the moment.

Some interesting bits about ACVs as well.

https://roversradio.airtime.pro/#

Mine too.

This is good to hear. Probably the best hope we have of it not going ahead.

It’s definite sarcasm... but it’s a scarily accurate parody of the reaction a lot of our fans will voice.

To address a couple of those points Joe... This message board is fairly unique in that it’s members have gone out of their way to set up an account and come here specifically to discuss Rovers. Some of the accounts on Twitter/Facebook who pass comments on Rovers related things won’t be as interested. Reacting in passing, etc. There’s also an age thing. Again, this isn’t a dig, but a number of the fans on Social media mightn’t understand what we mean by Jack Walkers legacy. They’ve only known Venky’s and don’t share the cynicism that many of us have developed. Also, voicing a “negative” opinion on Twitter (I don’t do Facebook, but imagine it’s worse) gets you piled on pretty quickly... so maybe people who frequent this board have similar experiences to the one you have had here when they air their views on social media. I’ll acknowledge I’m one of the most critical and sceptical of our fans towards the owners and the board, and my initial reaction to this news breaking was negative. I’ve spent the last couple of days digging, reading up, and admittedly speculating, and I’ve seen nothing to alter my initial reaction. So I don’t think my pessimism, or the pessimism of the people commenting on this thread is blind. A lot of the optimism I’m seeing though, I think it is. To kind of summarise, I read a tweet today saying “The club literally only exists because of Venky’s”. This person needs to put down their phone, pick up a book, and read about John Lewis and Arthur Constantine (this one is absolutely a dig).

haven’t managed to find a document that outlines all the requirements for a Cat 1 academy, but there are some definite areas for concern. The table below shows the minimum amount of coaching hours expected. With the proposed downsizing I can’t see this being possible. Even if they did manage to squeeze it in, I can’t imagine we’d retain the status too long with multiple age groups on half pitches as the quality of coaching would suffer. Based purely on pitch space, you only need to look what other teams have. We will be miles off. No doubt the club will eventually spin us the line that it’s becoming ever more difficult to maintain Category 1 status, so we just shouldn’t bother as we are little old Blackburn Rovers. As I touched on yesterday complete lack of any provision of educational areas says it all. It’s one of the key components they look for, and without it we will be lucky to get beyond a category 3 status. Couple of interesting links. Palace outlining how they got to Cat 1, and Watford abandoning their plans to https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/9877884.what-is-the-difference-between-a-category-1-and-3-academy-as-part-of-eppp-changes/ https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2020/july/crystal-palace-fc-secures-category-1-status-for-its-academy/

All things considered, this part of the official club statement that came out on Saturday stands out... The club is therefore looking at a plan to develop a new coaching structure – to support and accelerate player pathway through the system That just reads as “We are scrapping the academy model”

Ah, ok... very odd. And he got the managers job when his pal walked. More going on with Venus than meets the eye... by all accounts his remit goes well beyond that of an assistant manager here.

So Venus was a director of Otium Entertainment (basically Coventry City) while also serving as manager/assistant manager! Thats... unusual.

The way they’ve been performing lately I’d welcome it!

The fact you can flog your ground or training facilities to bring you in line with “Profit and SUSTAINABILITY rules” just shows what a farce the whole thing is.

The Rovers Trust have taken the first steps with the questions they posed to the club last night. I’m positive there will be more to come from them, and they are best placed to mount or any legal challenge or work with Brockhall residents. I think it’s absolutely certain that sections of our fanbase will oppose this in a number of ways. Whenever we’ve had crises before people have stepped up... however, I am worried that this time round there will be even more opposition to the protestors from the fanbase at large. This ones going to run on for a while I think.

I’ve just been comparing what we currently have to what the proposals are. Most of it is a copy and paste job, we have a pool, we will be getting a pool... now, if the intention was to be all state of the art why are we replacing like for like? Surely a hydrotherapy suite would be the upgrade? There are NO signs of any proposed upgrades, there are however a number of things that appear to be omitted. We will lose carparking, bedrooms and for me, very significantly, CLASSROOMS. Something that will be essential for a Cat 1 (and probably cat 2) academy. The groundsman’s workshop seems to be an afterthought, and it appears we would also be losing an outdoor Floodlit synthetic pitch. Then of course, there’s the fact that it’s a scaling down so all the facilities reduce in size and capacity. Pitches being the main one. The link Chaddy shared earlier to Leicester’s facilities at their new training complex is must see stuff. It’s incredibly impressive, one thing that stood out was 21 playing surfaces including 14 full size pitches. To think their owners took over just 2 months before Venky’s darkened our door.

😂😂😂😂😂

No... I did grow up in Mellor, but wasn’t born til 82

Great post!! I’ve just been revisiting these... a big part of my formative years these books

I’d see it as a pretty pointless exercise. A Riverside rebuild might be nice, but it’s as far from necessary as it’s possible to be. And I am not in favour of downgrading or reducing our training facilities. Also, I must admit I personally like the Riverside as it is.