[Archived] The Old Gate Debate

[Ricky]

I don't have a daughter.. that's me stuffed then!!

[SouthAussieRover]

I'm taking my two daughters along, who don't usually go, if everyone does that we'll have 36,000 home fans trying to get tickets.

Are people allowed to take their sons?

[Wild Irish Rover]

Are people allowed to take their sons?

Taking my two sons. So yes, I think so.

C'mon you Blues - lets keep the momentum and excitement going after last night's heroics.

See you on Sunday.

[den]

A spokesman for the Premier League, said: "We back any initiative that gets as many fans as possible along to Premiership matches.

"Blackburn's range of accessible ticketing prices is a great example of the good work many Premier League clubs undertake to make top flight football affordable to all

Are they on the same planet as the rest of us?

LET.

[Kinx]

I sent a text to Five Live earlier that got read out about the ticket prices for Sunday and they've mentioned it a few more times tonight as football pricing in general is being discussed.

City are apparantly only taking 2000 to Wigan tomorrow as they are paying £35, £10 more than it was last year.

[Exiled_Rover]

I'm going to that one at the JJB - my friend is a Citeh fan and is dragging me along. I was shocked at the price of the tickets.

[Manchester Blue]

Chatting to a citeh mate at work today who confirmed they had sold less than 2k so far. Prices are an issue of that there is no doubt. However there is also a general apathy amongst many fans of clubs. People have gotten out of the habit of going the games and it will be tough to get them back.

[stuwilky]

We all know that there is a charge to the seller for a credit card but not so for a debit card. It just takes the icing off the offer a bit.

There probably is.

We have to pay the bank 2% for credit and 25p for debit.

Then we have to pay money each day to bank the damn thing electronically!

[Alan75]

I don't have a daughter.. that's me stuffed then!!

It's never stopped you taking someone elses daughter in the past.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

How many have we sold Lee?......surely we can shift 22,000 home tickets at £15 for this game cant we

Tickets still availiable in Blackburn End lower NO4 this morning....never a good sign.

** big sigh**

Edited October 21, 2006 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[FourLaneBlue]

This is one of the responses to the article in the LET which features the Premier League praises Rovers for their price cuts.

"Colm Lambert writes:

While any effort by clubs to make themselves more affordable should be applauded, one has to ask why Rovers don't do the same for games against the bigger teams in the area, ie Man United and Liverpool. It can't be because they're guaranteed a big crowd for these games whatever they charge, can it? The Premiership shouldn't be patting clubs on the back for one-off price cuts, but rather asking why they need to cut prices in the first place and looking for a long-term solution."

Bloody hell! Talk about getting negatives anyway you can! Fifteen quid for a Bolton derby is a very fair price yet it seems they should charge little for games where they already get big crowds. Proof that Rovers cannot win sometimes.

Rovers seem to be trying more than any other club in the Premiership to make football affordable for their fans yet some people still refuse to meet them halfway.

[stuwilky]

Tickets still availiable in Blackburn End lower NO4 this morning....never a good sign.

** big sigh**

Id have thought that people would be buying in the prime viewing areas while they are so cheap.

£15 or £39 (or whatever it is normally!)

[thenodrog]

I'm taking my two daughters along, who don't usually go, if everyone does that we'll have 36,000 home fans trying to get tickets.

Cue.........People moaning then about supporting BRFC since childhood and not being able to get a ticket cos of all t' Johnny-cum-lately's!

Anyway it's all rubbish this initiative! I'm not looking forward to a full house at all ........... parking the car will be absolutly sh1t. Angry and indignant local residents with trumped up, self righteous councillors in tow will be complaining about parking for months from now, and the traffic wardens / local plod will be impatiently sharpening their pencils for a ticket fest as we speak!

£30 a ticket with gates of 15000 is a far more attractive option imo!

[Hannah]

Id have thought that people would be buying in the prime viewing areas while they are so cheap.

£15 or £39 (or whatever it is normally!)

Well that post was quite interesting because I have jsut got off the phone to rovers (Who to be fair to them are still taking phone calls despite stating that they close at half 12 on a non match day saturday!) And I have just had an indepth conversation with the man on the phone (who was lovely) about where me and my mate could sit tomorrow.

He could offer me - seats at the very front of the Blackburn End in the corners (i didnt want them) Only seats in the Jack Walker Lower were right in the corners (which i didnt want either) and then they had some in the very back rows of the upper tier of the Jack Walker. All he could offer me in the Walker Steel was views with posts.

To me this sounds really positive. (ALthough I would have prefered a better view) At a price of £15 we decided to make an unexpected trip up as it is so cheap.

He did say we could have better seat if we sat seperately but i wasnt to keen on that idea!

Looking forward to it now -as i have just booked myself in for sunday dinner at the hotel parents!!!

[Lee]

If you haven't yet got your tickets for the game against Bolton, fans are advised to get down to the ground early to get their tickets on Sunday. Huge queues are expected at the Blackburn End ticket office as kick-off time approaches

[Simon Says]

Chatting to a citeh mate at work today who confirmed they had sold less than 2k so far. Prices are an issue of that there is no doubt. However there is also a general apathy amongst many fans of clubs. People have gotten out of the habit of going the games and it will be tough to get them back.

Wigan v Man City was played in front of just 16,235.

[Manchester Blue]

If you haven't yet got your tickets for the game against Bolton, fans are advised to get down to the ground early to get their tickets on Sunday. Huge queues are expected at the Blackburn End ticket office as kick-off time approaches

Lee would you know if there would be any facility for people to drop off applications for Feyenoord or not? I don't fancy queueing for ages but understand if they want every window just doing tickets for the match? Will the TO be open after the match?

cheers

[MI ROVER]

Hoping the game is well attended and of course we win. If my family reaction is anything to go by should be a success my brothers who I have previously posted watch the games in the pub are attending and one of them is taking is wife and child so that an additional 5 who haven't attended a game this season. Hopefully this is a scenario being played out in many households across East Lancs.

Wish I was there !

[philipl]

The Observer and Guardian bloggers join in the Rovers' gate debate.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Expected crowd as of yesterday according to Lee is 25,000 including 6,000 from Bolton.

[thenodrog]

The Observer and Guardian bloggers join in the Rovers' gate debate.

Very interesting take on future fans by Wigan.

and look what I found in the replies!

Metatone

October 22, 2006 08:18 AM

Aylesbury/gbr This isn't a criticism of Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan, they've all acheived great things as clubs, but the North West is basically oversaturated with Premiership football. That is strong testament to the football culture of the area, but there are too many teams for the population.

The big cities of Liverpool and Manchester have two teams each, which leaves Bolton, Wigan and Blackburn scrapping over "people who live North of Manchester" and it's just not enough people to keep three teams on a sound economic footing.

If one were to prognosticate (always dangerous) then you'd expect the "Yorkshire cycle" to repeat here. For example in the period around 98-99-00, Yorkshire had three teams generally hanging around, with Leeds doing fairly well at the time and Barnsley, Sheff Utd, Sheff Wed, Bradford all on the cusp. (One went up, one went down, typically.) Financially/economically however you'd be struggling to argue that the region was producing enough fan income to support more than 1.5 clubs at the top level. And eventually the economics hit home. Currently there is just Sheff Utd making up the numbers.

It may take a while, because of the disparity in TV revenue between the PL and the Championship, but you'd have to expect the "North of Manchester clubs" to go down to two in number. Strangely enough, I can see the trigger for that being a revival at Preston. Once you have 4 "North of Manchester" clubs all fighting over the fan base the economics would really start to bite.

Of course, this assumes that Man City don't mismanage them selves out of the top flight in the meantime.

[BlueMonday]

Very interesting take on future fans by Wigan.

and look what I found in the replies!

Metatone

October 22, 2006 08:18 AM

Aylesbury/gbr This isn't a criticism of Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan, they've all acheived great things as clubs, but the North West is basically oversaturated with Premiership football. That is strong testament to the football culture of the area, but there are too many teams for the population.

The big cities of Liverpool and Manchester have two teams each, which leaves Bolton, Wigan and Blackburn scrapping over "people who live North of Manchester" and it's just not enough people to keep three teams on a sound economic footing.

If one were to prognosticate (always dangerous) then you'd expect the "Yorkshire cycle" to repeat here. For example in the period around 98-99-00, Yorkshire had three teams generally hanging around, with Leeds doing fairly well at the time and Barnsley, Sheff Utd, Sheff Wed, Bradford all on the cusp. (One went up, one went down, typically.) Financially/economically however you'd be struggling to argue that the region was producing enough fan income to support more than 1.5 clubs at the top level. And eventually the economics hit home. Currently there is just Sheff Utd making up the numbers.

It may take a while, because of the disparity in TV revenue between the PL and the Championship, but you'd have to expect the "North of Manchester clubs" to go down to two in number. Strangely enough, I can see the trigger for that being a revival at Preston. Once you have 4 "North of Manchester" clubs all fighting over the fan base the economics would really start to bite.

Of course, this assumes that Man City don't mismanage them selves out of the top flight in the meantime.

If you gave an infinite amount of Monkeys typewriters to play with, they would eventually produce the entire works of Shakespear.

[Flopsy]

Yeah and we know who posted that dont we?

[BlueMonday]

Well a good response today with £15 admission to all areas. But will the club be satisfied?

27+K is a huge improvemnet on recent gates but the ground wasn't full.

Also revenew would have been down compared to an 18k gate with higher ticket prices.

I wonder if this will influence future promotions and will other clubs take note?

[ihateburnley]

Where were the the four thousand empty seats? The only part of the ground I couldnt see was the family stand above me in the Blackburn End.