[Archived] The Old Gate Debate

[stuwilky]

This will be a huge factor in crowds falling away compared to a few short years ago.

http://money.aol.co.uk/tax/income-tax-bill...223040609990001

Mind you I hardly expect any of our red brigade in the moderating team to agree with me.

Attempting to fix the public services costs money Gordo, you should know that. :ph34r:

[ABBEY]

we could take a look at the nfl...having just been to phoenix and witnessed the most unbelieble stadium ive ever seen it was out of this world.

lots of food ,beer merchandise stalls.lots of toilets(clean too) encopuragement to stand and shout for your team.....75,000 seats 50000 broncos there as well for an away game.

10/10

Edited December 24, 2006 by ABBEY

[thenodrog]

Attempting to fix the public services costs money Gordo, you should know that. :ph34r:

Sorry I was unaware of this ............ so whose attempting to fix public services then stu?

[JordnRovers]

We sold out v a very bad Sunderland last season...but not Liverpool this season!!!

No we didnt, we nowhere near sold out.

[roversWASmylife]

I'm going Liverpool game, first game in a while and I'm looking forward to.

I was offered a free ticket as a mate can't go so he gave me his season ticket. If I hadn't been offered the free ticket, I would have been 50/50 on going or not and watching it on Prem Plus.

Just become p*ssed off with football in general, which most have I think. I'll still support Rovers and I'll pay £15 for the Boro game, I'd like to go to Wigan but I'm still in two minds whether to go or not, can't justify paying that amount for 90 minutes.

Sad to say, but it's not worth it.

[thenodrog]

Not really. I just want to hear ihb's response. He obviously doesn't care enough about brfc so therefore imo he could not oppose a 're-alignment' of local football to ensure future progress in making top level football in Lancashire a 'norm' rather than a flash in the pan.

ihb................. are you there or are you happy to let your silence validate my point?

This will be a huge factor in crowds falling away compared to a few short years ago.

http://money.aol.co.uk/tax/income-tax-bill...223040609990001

Obviously no one thinks that our collectively reduced spending power left after Brown has taken his pound of flesh (and more) is a factor.

A deafening but decidedly odd silence imo.

[philipl]

Talking to yourself drog?

[USABlue]

.....75,000 seats 50000 broncos there as well for an away game.

You are starting to sound like a Dingle now abbey, the stadium only holds 63,000 for Cardinals games but it is expandable to 73, 000 for Super Bowls and big College Bowl games. Cards are actually often outnumbered by the away fans since just about everyone in Phoenix is from somewhere else. Dallas and Da Bears are the big ones

[thenodrog]

Talking to yourself drog?

Looks like it Gunner.

btw isn't commenting on the latter your chosen subject?

More taxation of the working class than ever before = Less disposable income = less money to spend on entertainment = lower gates at BRFC.

Surely the facts suggest that I cannot be barking up the wrong tree?

[cn174]

No we didnt, we nowhere near sold out.

He may have been talking about the original Sunderland game, the one that got called off on the 28th? because of bad weather

[ABBEY]

You are starting to sound like a Dingle now abbey, the stadium only holds 63,000 for Cardinals games but it is expandable to 73, 000 for Super Bowls and big College Bowl games. Cards are actually often outnumbered by the away fans since just about everyone in Phoenix is from somewhere else. Dallas and Da Bears are the big ones

was talking to a security bloke and he told me there was 75,ooo on ,i hasked him how many was there because i had no idea of how many it held or was on...

[joey_big_nose]

ihb................. are you there or are you happy to let your silence validate my point?

Obviously no one thinks that our collectively reduced spending power left after Brown has taken his pound of flesh (and more) is a factor.

A deafening but decidedly odd silence imo.

Just trying to avoid turning a thread about the Ewood gate into a long ardous attritition of political argument which 90% of the board will find deathly dull. You could start a thread in ICBINF.

Edited December 26, 2006 by joey_big_nose

[American]

You are starting to sound like a Dingle now abbey, the stadium only holds 63,000 for Cardinals games but it is expandable to 73, 000 for Super Bowls and big College Bowl games. Cards are actually often outnumbered by the away fans since just about everyone in Phoenix is from somewhere else. Dallas and Da Bears are the big ones

You talking about the new stadium or the old one?

[ihateburnley]

ihb................. are you there or are you happy to let your silence validate my point?

Obviously no one thinks that our collectively reduced spending power left after Brown has taken his pound of flesh (and more) is a factor.

A deafening but decidedly odd silence imo.

Lancashire United in favour of Blackburn Rovers? No.

Lancashire United if no Blackburn Rovers existed? Yes.

The fact that you are so keen on the whole Lancashire United thing really negates the fact that you care so much about the club. You are willing to sacrifice the pride of a town for that of a club that represents an entire county. To me it really doesnt make sense - you are willing to team up with fans from Burnley, Preston and Blackpool in the hope that it will put us on a level pegging with Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal? You will give up all the history and everything you have ever supported involving football?

Football would be classed as dead and buried the minute Lancashire United was suggested by someone involved in the running of Rovers.

[Fife Rover]

Just trying to avoid turning a thread about the Ewood gate into a long ardous attritition of political argument which 90% of the board will find deathly dull. You could start a thread in ICBINF.

Oh I think you have got that wrong Joey; more like 99.9%!

[BRFC4EVA]

I'd be very surprised.

Many people are going to be watching this game in the pub (it's on Sky), and I'm sorry to say I will be joining them. I hate this alternative of watching a 'live' game, but at the end of the day I can take the entire family down to the pub with a couple of drinks each and watch the game and I would still have change from £36.

I hope the attendance figure proves me wrong, but like I say I'd be very surprised.

I hate to say i told you so, but there were even more on then i estimated, 29350 our highest crowd for over 3 years. Goes to show that the potential is there. Imagine how many we could have had on if the prices were 12pnd adult & a fiver for kids, and the game wasnt on tv; 40k? More maybe. Our board know that they can get away with charging the prices for l'pool and man u, we musta made our highest ever gate reciepts for a league game considering the prices and the amount of season ticket holders we have. Half the crowd were walk ons!

[FourLaneBlue]

The reason the club can charge those prices against Liverpool is because their supporters will pay it. If the club lowered prices the ground wouldn't get much more full although more and more Liverpool fans would be scrambling to buy tickets.

It's also about time that Rovers let us know what the actual capacity of the ground is as it certainly doesn't seem to be the 31,367 as claimed.

How many Liverpool fans were there yesterday? I'm sure there must have been many in the home ends who know how to keep quiet.

In other words...exactly how many Rovers were there? Presuming Boro bring about, say, 2,000 (just a round number for convenience of adding up) then how many can we expect?

The obsession with the Big Four seems to have spread to our fans too...if ain't a big cheese rolling into town (or a local derby)...then it ain't going to get a good crowd along to it whatever the ticket price.

[Exiled in Toronto]

I am surprised this thread hasn't been more lively given that the Liverpool crowd provided us with a real outlyer of a data point, one that contradicted all the accepted 'wisdom' to date.

Biggest crowd for three years for a game that had top dollar pricing, was on TV, and we got tonked 6-2 three days earlier.

No-one would have predicted a three year high for any game this season, as we have supposedly lost a couple of thousand of ungrateful wretches in each of the last 2 seasons. A++++ pricing was supposed to be out of reach for all but a miniscule band of bloated plutocrats. And of course, TV could alwasy be counted on to knock 110% off the gate.

But there has to be a rational explanation. My theory is that there is still latent demand when many of the traditions of the game are maintained. A 3pm Boxing Day home fixture against Liverpool is about as good as it gets in terms of stirring the couch potatoes. But don't expect too many of them to be 'converted' by the result - I think many went for the occasion; just like those who crammed the cinemas to see the new Bond movie won't be back the next week to watch Rocky - The Epitaph, even if it was half the price.

One thing North American sports do well is in maintaining traditions - even though they have had less time to develop them in the first place.

[FourLaneBlue]

It does show how Sparky's comments about getting rid of games on Boxing Day should be ignored...Stick to managing Mr Hughes!

[thenodrog]

Oh I think you have got that wrong Joey; more like 99.9%!

Right Fife lets all pretend that diminished spending power through higher taxation amongst the working population of Blackburn and surrounding districts does not matter at all and will not make one jot or iota of a difference to the attendances at Ewood Park.

Buckets of sand all round then eh?

[only2garners]

In truth it would probably be better for Rovers' finances if we didn't play Liverpool on Boxing Day. We would get a pretty good crowd whoever we played and we can guarantee a big crowd against Liverpool even on a wet Wednesday night in January (probably a lot more than we will get for Arsenal). If the Liverpool and Middlesboro matches had been reversed I would guess we would get more spectators in total and the club would charge high prices on both days. Not an argument to appeal to non-season ticket holders with not much money though...

[Tris]

I think the gate for the Liverpool proves two things -

1) The club has got pricing for top category games absolutely right. The Darwen End has to be milked whenever it can be, and will have brought in over a quarter of a million quid on Tuesday in seat sales alone.

2) If the occasion is right, there is still interest out there in Blackburn. Approx 3000 more home fans than against Man Utd 6 weeks back - both televised games.

OK it's Boxing Day so there's a tradition - but surely those who came down and paid £36 to watch the Rovers because it's Boxing Day will pop back when we play Leverkusen?!??

If it's special on Boxing Day then surely it's pretty damn special when we're in the last 32 of European Competition!

And it's pretty special this Saturday - the same lads battling for 3 points against Boro - for a £21 discount over what was payable earlier in the week. Again - we have to hope that the public responds and the team benefits.

[thenodrog]

OK it's Boxing Day so there's a tradition - but surely those who came down and paid £36 to watch the Rovers because it's Boxing Day will pop back when we play Leverkusen?!??

If it's special on Boxing Day then surely it's pretty damn special when we're in the last 32 of European Competition!

And it's pretty special this Saturday - the same lads battling for 3 points against Boro - for a £21 discount over what was payable earlier in the week. Again - we have to hope that the public responds and the team benefits.

Fraid I'm not holding my breath Tris. I think you are guilty of affording far too much rational thought to the average supporter of BRFC.

[RevidgeBlue]

Fraid I'm not holding my breath Tris. I think you are guilty of affording far too much rational thought to the average supporter of BRFC.

It was 3 p.m. boxing day, always a one off, always decent crowds nationwide, always lots of exiled fans from other parts of the country home for christmas, always lots of occasional attenders being taken along.

And at best still only 22,000 home fans in due to our policy of giving up one side of the ground to away fans.

I don't think there's likely to be any correlation at all with an 8p.m. Thursday night match in the middle of February.

I think the gate for the Liverpool proves two things -

1) The club has got pricing for top category games absolutely right. The Darwen End has to be milked whenever it can be, and will have brought in over a quarter of a million quid on Tuesday in seat sales alone.

2) If the occasion is right, there is still interest out there in Blackburn. Approx 3000 more home fans than against Man Utd 6 weeks back - both televised games.

It all proves one thing, we can get away with charging category A+ prices for either Liverpool or ManUre on boxing day, the other 364 days of the year it doesn't work!

[thenodrog]

And at best still only 22,000 home fans in due to our policy of giving up one side of the ground to away fans.

I don't think there's likely to be any correlation at all with an 8p.m. Thursday night match in the middle of February.

1. You sound as if you disapprove of that policy Simon.

2. Correct! You are indeed spot on there..............The match in the middle of February is just outside Cologne.