[Archived] The Old Gate Debate

[ihateburnley]

Quite shocking really, something needs to be done ASAP.

Yesterdays 'atmosphere' was terrible, and despite the win I very much doubt that a first-time supporter at the game yesterday would have any incentive to go back again.

Some suggestions for Rovers:

- Turn the bloody speakers down. I'm 21 and I think they are way way too loud - christ knows how the older supporters feel.

- Drummer out. When the attendance is poor, he basically does a fantastic job at drowning out any crowd noise. In the past I've been on the fence with this issue, but he really does get on my tits now.

- Why not just have the team lineup on the bigscreen before kick off? What's with all the shyte video compilations that they show nowadays - they look cheesey and nobody watches them anyway.

- The club should generally let the crowd motivate themselves. I'm really getting the impression we are moving towards the Manchester Unitedesque approach of creating a 'fake' atmosphere - they are just trying too hard.

- I, like others, love going on Ewood but yesterday was so pathetically crap. I'm sorry to be blunt and I know there are members on here that will defend the club and the people that run it whatever, but the matchday experience is half of what makes someone come back. Yesterday was the first time I've gone on a game and not sang a single word. Not a single syllable of vocal support. Why? I'm basically sick of having to compete with the drummer, the cheesey commercialised and obscenely loud RoverVision/PA system and the fact that I'm expected to sit down and be quiet.

And that's in the Blackburn End.

Edited December 3, 2006 by ihateburnley

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Theres nothing more the club can do IHB....its only going to get worse.The club must now be at a stage where they are losing money hand over fist everytime we play at home,at a guess the 'break even' mark is now being fallen well short of.Local folk seem to be finding plenty of other things to do when Rovers play at Ewood.

People talk about the lack of away support hitting our gates but lets be honest here,less and less people are turning up to watch Rovers...the pride and passion seems to be fading fast.

Edited December 3, 2006 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[ihateburnley]

Theres nothing more the club can do IHB....its only going to get worse.The club must now be at a stage where they are losing money hand over fist everytime we play at home,at a guess the 'break even' mark is being fallen well short of.Local folk seem to be finding plenty of other things to do when Rovers play at Ewood.

But SG194, there's so much more the club can do. The frustrating thing is that they seem to be channeling their energies into the wrong areas.

That guy on RoverVision - the lad that used to be on Radio Lancs - what exactly does he do? What a bloody waste of money the whole setup is. All we want at half-time is a pint, a pie, a chance to see the goals on the big screen, and the half-time scores from elsewhere. Instead we get 50 adverts, ticket news for the next decade, some crappy compilation of Rovers goals from last season, more ads, replays of the goals from approximately 16 different angles and then whooose - the circus is back on.

We play Wild Rover when we come out. Why not sack the music? No, Nay, Nevarrrrrrgh - don't make me laugh what a bloody joke. We've got an entire stand at one end of the ground completely empty - oh sorry I forgot the sprinkling of away fans - and then we've got some kids allocated in the upper tier of the Blackburn End. We've got an ancient stand that's pretty full with awful facilities and restricted views, yet we house the away fans in the Darwen End. I just don't get it.

Put the away fans in the Riverside, move the kids to the Darwen End and relax the stewarding slightly in the BBE. Turn the music OFF, get rid of the Radio Lancs man, turn the big-screen on at half-time, and lets get some ATMOSPHERE back at Ewood.

[thenodrog]

Theres nothing more the club can do IHB....its only going to get worse.The club must now be at a stage where they are losing money hand over fist everytime we play at home,at a guess the 'break even' mark is now being fallen well short of.Local folk seem to be finding plenty of other things to do when Rovers play at Ewood.

People talk about the lack of away support hitting our gates but lets be honest here,less and less people are turning up to watch Rovers...the pride and passion seems to be fading fast.

To summarise, the town and the stay aways are taking the p1ss out of Jack Walkers legacy and that's that! How they reconcile themselves with that knowledge I do not know. No matter what anybody says no one will convince me that the price of a tckt is more of a factor than the listless apathetic disinterest that is spreading like a disease.

Does nobody believe me when I said that this is simply history repeating itself? Rem I've seen all this before and heard / read all the same pathetic but apathetic stuff before in the 60's. And we all know what happened next don't we?

There is only one solution no matter how unpalatable to some it may be.

Some suggestions for Rovers:

- Turn the bloody speakers down. I'm 21 and I think they are way way too loud - christ knows how the older supporters feel.

- Drummer out. When the attendance is poor, he basically does a fantastic job at drowning out any crowd noise. In the past I've been on the fence with this issue, but he really does get on my tits now.

- Why not just have the team lineup on the bigscreen before kick off? What's with all the shyte video compilations that they show nowadays - they look cheesey and nobody watches them anyway.

- The club should generally let the crowd motivate themselves.

................ and the fact that I'm expected to sit down and be quiet.

And you think that those measures will ensure gate improvements? I'm sorry that I have to do this to you ihb but ......

but at least you are bothered enough about it to offer suggestions.

[MCMC1875]

Well said IHB.

Compare Gerald Jackson's sanitised Ewood matchday 'experience' with an Accy Stanley home game.

Much less expensive ticket (it is "div 4").

No crappy music opn the PA.

You can stand up.

Stewarding reasonable.

The pitch is so close so you can hear the players & the tackles.

No big screen.

NO DRUMMER.

No Gerald Jackson.

Decent pies.

No childrens section in the home end - Hallelujah!

No Rovervision.

Half-time devoted to refreshments & scores.

A crackin' experience.

[ihateburnley]

And you think that those measures will ensure gate improvements? I'm sorry that I have to do this to you ihb but ......

Well thanks for that Thenodrog

Anway, I didn't actually say that "these measures will ensure gate improvements" did I? No, I don't think I did. What I was getting at was the fact that these only add to the negative feeling about attending a game, and possibly add fuel to the fire so to speak.

These are big issues for me, and whilst they may not initially get people through the door, it may help in persuading them to attend more games and come to the opinion that watching footy live at Ewood is better than on some dodgy Arabic TV.

This is possibly an issue for BRISA to address, but really you would think that our high flying mega-bucks board of directors could come up with the idea of turning the friggin volume switch down.

Well said IHB.

Compare Gerald Jackson's sanitised Ewood matchday 'experience' with an Accy Stanley home game.

Much less expensive ticket (it is "div 4").

No crappy music opn the PA.

You can stand up.

Stewarding reasonable.

The pitch is so close so you can hear the players & the tackles.

No big screen.

NO DRUMMER.

No Gerald Jackson.

Decent pies.

No childrens section in the home end - Hallelujah!

No Rovervision.

Half-time devoted to refreshments & scores.

A crackin' experience.

Well you've sold it to me MCMC1875!!! Maybe we should recruit you to the BRFC marketing team?

Edited December 3, 2006 by ihateburnley

[thenodrog]

Well said IHB.

Compare Gerald Jackson's sanitised Ewood matchday 'experience' with an Accy Stanley home game.

Much less expensive ticket (it is "div 4").

No crappy music opn the PA.

You can stand up.

Stewarding reasonable.

The pitch is so close so you can hear the players & the tackles.

No big screen.

NO DRUMMER.

No Gerald Jackson.

Decent pies.

No childrens section in the home end - Hallelujah!

No Rovervision.

Half-time devoted to refreshments & scores.

A crackin' experience.

and

No Tugay, no Brad, no Bennie, in fact no international players whatsoever, no famous opponents, no media coverage, no superb stadium etc etc

sorry but my last word on that subject..........NO piggin way.

[ihateburnley]

and

No Tugay, no Brad, no Bennie, in fact no international players whatsoever, no famous opponents, no media coverage, no superb stadium etc etc

sorry but my last word on that subject..........NO piggin way.

I think you've missed the point dear.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

'There is only one solution no matter how unpalatable to some it may be'.

sorry but my last word on that subject..........NO piggin way.

TOUCHE DROG!

[MCMC1875]

I think that the Rovers officials are trying too hard.

Everything they throw at the matchday 'experience' detracts from the crowd atnd the atmosphere they can and used to generate. Attending has become more passive and less active.

[stuwilky]

Nice to see that the "refresh express" idea that has worked so well since about the 4th game of the season went tits up yesterday.

No one turned up to serve the ale.....

...then when the stroppy cow did (at 3.55pm!) she started being all aggressive with some lads who cheered, pointing and shouting "im not serving him, or anyone who tries to use his ticket"

And they say customer service is dead.

Edited December 3, 2006 by stuwilky

[ihateburnley]

I think that the Rovers officials are trying too hard.

Everything they throw at the matchday 'experience' detracts from the crowd atnd the atmosphere they can and used to generate. Attending has become more passive and less active.

Spot on.

The club always seem to make things more complicated than they need to be. If there was no on-screen entertainment and no music, people would have to talk to those around them and dare I say it start a song....

We'd save a fair bit on the lecy bill aswell. Those bigscreens aren't half energy inefficient

[thenodrog]

Well thanks for that Thenodrog

Anway, I didn't actually say that "these measures will ensure gate improvements" did I? No, I don't think I did.

Ooops and here's me assuming that posts bore some relevence to the threads title. My mistake.

[MCMC1875]

Spot on.

The club always seem to make things more complicated than they need to be. If there was no on-screen entertainment and no music, people would have to talk to those around them and dare I say it start a song....

We'd save a fair bit on the lecy bill aswell. Those bigscreens aren't half energy inefficient

That's maybe how the singing came about in the first place.

And now the more they throw into the mix, the less the incentive to sing.

[FourLaneBlue]

Ooops and here's me assuming that posts bore some relevence to the threads title. My mistake.

Pot.Kettle.Black.

Not like you to ever take a thread off topic now is it?

Declining attendances continue to affect many clubs in the Premiership, Has any club ever brought so pitiful an away following as Fulham did yesterday for a top-flight game at Ewood? The Middlesbrough-Man U game was down over 2,000 from last season. Villa can't seem to fill their ground despite having their best season for years. Wigan are now struggling with attendances as the Premiership is no longer a novelty.

Could it be that football as a whole has to look into this, not just Rovers, for any real progress to be made?

[Ozz]

Decent pies.

Whose pies are they?

[den]

Could it be that football as a whole has to look into this, not just Rovers, for any real progress to be made?

Absolutely FLB.

Unfortunately as I said before, we'll have to wait until OT is feeling the squeeze, before anyone in a position to do something about it, actually does.

[Scotty]

Could it be that football as a whole has to look into this, not just Rovers, for any real progress to be made?

Of course it could. Some of us have been saying it for years now. Sadly, others choose to use our attendances as an excuse to vent their spleen and make hysterical outbursts.

Rovers could independantly make all the changes in the world but until football as a whole sorts out some key issues then those changes aren't going to make much difference.

[MCMC1875]

Whose pies are they?

Oz

Hollands last time I went - no mother-in-law flavour on sale though.

ps

Tried a couple of liveners in Corbieres last week. Still the best jukebox in the northern hemisphere.

[Ozz]

Corbeires-Manchesters subterranean gem.

[Paul Mellelieu]

I like the Riverside and under no circumstances do I want to sit in the Darwen End. There's a good reason why all football matches are televised from the half-way line, because it's the best view of the game. BBenders take note.

It's part of a genral malaise effecting the game, and the nature of the Rovers support, the local economy, demographics are all factors. And not winning for two months in the league might be a factor too.

And it seems to me that the club is doing everything in its power to address the situation.

[blue phil]

Could it be that football as a whole has to look into this, not just Rovers, for any real progress to be made?

By "football as a whole" presumably you mean the club chairmen and chief executives should be working together on the issue of attendances . That might mean working together without the "big" clubs - it should be remembered that they need the rest of the league just as much - if not more- than we need them . Sky should be made aware that that is the case as well ....

[philipl]

Well they seem to have started...

[RevidgeBlue]

Well they seem to have started...

John Williams is whistling into the wind if he expects a more equal distribution of TV money. The only pressure from the big clubs is likely to be for an adjustment the other way.

[Wiggy]

I'll bet the odious little sh*t Kenyon contributes some really helpful and constructive input..................