[Archived] The Old Gate Debate

[pleasure]

rovers have done brilliantly. just look at the interest being rekindled, on this board alone.

with initiatives like this one, rovers are making it more and more difficult for stay-aways to come up with valid excuses, for not going. the only one left is the weather!

just need bolton to conduct themselves better than they did last season (on and off the pitch) and i hope they manage to bring more than 200 this time.

[CAPT KAYOS]

right you rovers men, Bolton fan here!

first of all i can only congratulate the powers that be for actually doing something radical for this match!

all i will say is if you men don't sell out the ground for this one at £15 and £5 to get in you never will and i'd also add don't ever moan about the price of getting in being the reason for folk not turning up again!!!

from a Bolton perspective i'm assuming we've been given the full end if required and to be honest based on interest so far i'll be surprised if we don't sell out.

it's being viewed by many as a great opportunity to show BWFCs board that if you want full houses bring the prices down!

saturday against liverpool was the first time we haven't sold out against them since we got back in the prem, reason being £31 to £39 for pay on the day supporters as it was a 'category A+' game, simple as that.

i'm the first to admit that last season our following at yours was poor, not excuses but charging £30 or whatever it was for a game just after xmas which is on sky at 5.15 with an away trip for 4,500 BWFC fans to marseille coming up it wasn't a surprise!

as i said and this applies to both sets of fans, there are NO EXCUSES for not filling the ground at £15 and £5 to get in. if it's a sell out then both sets of directors are going to have to look long and hard at each clubs pricing policy!!!

Welcome to the board PW

Most likely the Rovers board will have been in communication about this with the Bolton board so hopefully this will be replicated when we visit your place.

Maybe this might just hit home to the powers that be within the game and not just at the Rovers /Notlob - didn't somebody mention on here a while back about Rovers being the club that people that matter would be watching re issues such as this? (Philipl??)

Edited October 6, 2006 by CAPT KAYOS

[cn174]

Another thing that I've just seen on the official site is that they have launched an 16-21 club giving people in this age range discounts on tickets.

http://www.rovers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/New...~908349,00.html

Another good move by Rovers I think as there definately seems to be a bit of a drop off when people reach 16 and ticket prices go right up.

[stuwilky]

Another thing that I've just seen on the official site is that they have launched an 16-21 club giving people in this age range discounts on tickets.

http://www.rovers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/New...~908349,00.html

Another good move by Rovers I think as there definately seems to be a bit of a drop off when people reach 16 and ticket prices go right up.

Shame the front page advertises it as a "16-21/Student" discount for some reason though.

[92er]

Well I'll be doing my bit by attending

Excellent.

[Billinge End Blue]

Great pricing policy - hope the fans take full advantage...

<<i'm the first to admit that last season our following at yours was poor, not excuses but charging £30 or whatever it was for a game just after xmas which is on sky at 5.15 with an away trip for 4,500 BWFC fans to marseille coming up it wasn't a surprise!>> PW

Will BRFC's UEFA games have a positive or negative effect on Ewood league gates? Additional expense v the 'feelgood factor' (so far)? Perhaps the timing of the club's positive initiative is significant....either way, if the Trotters do bring a large following (well as PW reminds us, they've no French distractions this season) there's probably a corner of the Riverside where they'd be made more than welcome

[Eddie]

saturday against liverpool was the first time we haven't sold out against them since we got back in the prem, reason being £31 to £39 for pay on the day supporters as it was a 'category A+' game, simple as that.

Good to hear from you, but did you really? I watched that game on TV and actually commented on the fact that there didn't look like there were manyt there.

[cletus]

I told a Notlobber at work about the £15 offer (he was unaware at the time)

He said he`d definately take up the offer & also said he`d tell all his mates, who are a mixture of Bolton & Rovers fans as he lives in the Houghton/Bamber bridge area.

[thenodrog]

i'm the first to admit that last season our following at yours was poor, not excuses but charging £30 or whatever it was for a game just after xmas which is on sky at 5.15 with an away trip for 4,500 BWFC fans to marseille coming up it wasn't a surprise!

If 4500 can afford to travel away in Europe and spend about the price of a season ticket on just one trip then I hardly think £30 and a 10 mile drive o'er tops is a problem.

Well I'll be doing my bit by attending

Bloody hell eit! BRFC drop the price by a tenner and you can justify a 12000 mile round trip? Any more of this new found, highly contagious spirit and Mr Lar de Dar Gunner Graham'll be getting his rattle out of the attic and turning up in't Blues bar.

Edited October 7, 2006 by thenodrog

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

To be honest,any crowd less than 26,000 will see Rovers losing money hand over fist for the Bolton game compared with normal pricing.

[92er]

If 4500 can afford to travel away in Europe and spend about the price of a season ticket on just one trip then I hardly think £30 and a 10 mile drive o'er tops is a problem.

Bloody hell eit! BRFC drop the price by a tenner and you can justify a 12000 mile round trip? Any more of this new found, highly contagious spirit and Mr Lar de Dar Gunner Graham'll be getting his rattle out of the attic and turning up in't Blues bar.

It is a fair journey from Toronto, but it isn't a 12,000 mile round trip.

[Exiled in Toronto]

It is a fair journey from Toronto, but it isn't a 12,000 mile round trip.

Just over 7,000 miles.

I had to come over sometime or other, so the half-price did influence the timing to take in this game. I'd much rather watcha rip-roaring derby in a near full house than take in an away game darn saaf, which was the original plan. The price is also compelling my brother and his kids to trek over from York (all season ticket holders post the JW revolution until they moved), so it'll be a full turnout by the EiT clan together with my old dad in the JW Upper.

As I was the only family attendee in the dark days of the third division, our 500% increase in support will be comfortably above the total increase experienced by the club!

To be honest,any crowd less than 26,000 will see Rovers losing money hand over fist for the Bolton game compared with normal pricing.

Au contraire. Last year only 18,000 odd turned up, of whom c13,000 didn't pay anything on the day. Let's assume the 5,000 all paid full price (wrong I know, but we don't have the figures) and the club will have taken 150,000 quid.

Let's also assume this year everyone pays full price of 15quid, so 150,000/15 = 10,000 walk-ons required to breakeven. 10,000 + 13,000 ST holders =23,000. Not counting increased programme/beer/pie sales, plus the added benefit of a better match experience to tempt people back sooner than they otherwise would have done. Most of the matchday costs are fixed; a few extra stewards and bobbies, so I think it is a racing certainty Rovers will make more money from this game than the corresponding fixture last year.

[cletus]

The sad thing about football these days is the sorry fact that money seems to be the top priority above all else

Me? I`m just looking forward to a 'hot-pot' Lanashire derby , watched by a full house of which both sets of fans seem to be truly 'up for' !

....The buzz about this game is similar to the Dingle FA cup tie. This is what football should be about....not "how much coin we`ll make or lose"

Let`s take the roof off Ewood & make it a day everyone will remember!!

forget the coin....LANCASHIRE BRAGGING RIGHTS ARE AT STAKE!!!!

[ABBEY]

bolton are mancs!!! ...not lancs like us!!!

upsets em too.

[ihateburnley]

The buzz about this game is similar to the Dingle FA cup tie.

I don't know about anyone else, but this is simply not true for me.

Playing the Dingles is about as tense or buzzing as it gets. Everything at stake - years of bragging rights, local pride etc. We play Bolton every year, and what with their unbelievably shyte football and our unbelievably shyte attendances, this is going to be far from a 'Lancashire Hotpot'. Let's just hope the attendances part improves.

[Fife Rover]

I don't know about anyone else, but this is simply not true for me.

Playing the Dingles is about as tense or buzzing as it gets. Everything at stake - years of bragging rights, local pride etc. We play Bolton every year, and what with their unbelievably shyte football and our unbelievably shyte attendances, this is going to be far from a 'Lancashire Hotpot'. Let's just hope the attendances part improves.

Hmmm.... you'r quite a cheery little fellow aren't you IHB

[cn174]

I don't know about anyone else, but this is simply not true for me.

Playing the Dingles is about as tense or buzzing as it gets. Everything at stake - years of bragging rights, local pride etc. We play Bolton every year, and what with their unbelievably shyte football and our unbelievably shyte attendances, this is going to be far from a 'Lancashire Hotpot'. Let's just hope the attendances part improves.

I suppose it depends where you live ihb. For me, I don't live in Blackburn and I don't know any Burnley fans. But I do know plenty of Bolton fans who never seem to be quiet about how good they are, how much better than us they are yadda yadda yadda. So the Bolton game is where "Everything at stake - years of bragging rights, local pride etc" is for us. Of course the Burnley game is something different, but that doesnt come around often so for some people other 'lancashire' games are most important.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Like cn174 says I suppose its where you live and who you associate with but any Rovers fan knows the Bolton game does not create the atmosphere or tension of an East Lancs derby against 'them'.

Personally, Bolton is no bigger a game than Citeh or Wigan these days.

P.S. Please correct me if wrong but are we still waiting for coverage in the LET about the cheap tickets for the Notlob game?

Edited October 8, 2006 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[stuwilky]

P.S. Please correct me if wrong but are we still waiting for coverage in the LET about the cheap tickets for the Notlob game?

Wednesday night wasnt it?

[Neil Weaver]

Please correct me if wrong but are we still waiting for coverage in the LET about the cheap tickets for the Notlob game?

Wednesday night wasnt it?

11:30am on Thursday

[cletus]

I don't know about anyone else, but this is simply not true for me.

Playing the Dingles is about as tense or buzzing as it gets. Everything at stake - years of bragging rights, local pride etc. We play Bolton every year, and what with their unbelievably shyte football and our unbelievably shyte attendances, this is going to be far from a 'Lancashire Hotpot'. Let's just hope the attendances part improves.

OK. Maybe i was going a little 'over the top' . I agree nothing matches the run up to a Dingle match, but the announcement of this £15 game has certainly got people talking where i live/work/drink.

[den]

Bolton evening news

It isn't just rovers fans staying away. "Wanderers, who averaged 26,718 in 2003-04 are currently running at 22,566 and, apart from the game against newly-promoted Watford, crowds are all well down on last season's corresponding fixtures: Tottenham (26,634 down to 22,899), Middlesbrough (22,733 to 21,164) and Liverpool (27,604 to 25,061).

The Spurs and Liverpool games were screened live on Sky TV, which will have had a bearing on the crowd figures, but there is no denying that there is a worrying trend developing, the first signs of which became evident in the summer, when season ticket sales slumped from last year's record 19,000 to an estimated 16,000 (Wanderers have repeatedly declined to reveal the precise figure) despite prices being pegged.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

BOLTON Wanderers are unlikely to follow Blackburn in drastically slashing ticket prices for top Premiership matches at the Reebok, despite sharing their local rivals' concerns over falling attendances.

[blue phil]

They are very likely to follow Rovers' lead .......just not yet .

[FourLaneBlue]

The LET have had the news about the Bolton price on their website for a few days...have they actually put it in the paper yet?