[Archived] The Old Gate Debate

[gazsimm]

Queues for over an Hour at Ewood at the moment......

Not making it a pleasurable experience for the casual fan.....

shooting and feet come to mind AGAIN!

have the cockneys arrived then

[thenodrog]

Queues for over an Hour at Ewood at the moment......

Not making it a pleasurable experience for the casual fan.....

shooting and feet come to mind AGAIN!

As long as all the windows are open then it's tough and all part and parcel of our recent success and the cheap ticket policy. I understand that the comp system is rather tardy when people want 3 lots of tickets in various areas of the ground. Yesterday it must have taken me 15 mins to get 14 tickets for the next 3 cup games. btw Not the girls fault... she was lovely!

BRFC really can do no right for some folk can they?

[BRFC4EVA]

Queues for over an Hour at Ewood at the moment......

Not making it a pleasurable experience for the casual fan.....

shooting and feet come to mind AGAIN!

what the hell are they meana do for goodness sake? Critize the TO when it deserves to be, dont just complain for complaing sake! Would you like them to come to your front door and sell em or what

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

14,000+ to see the Champions at £15 + £5,a worthwhile venture for the club?...they must have 'made' a MASSIVE financial loss tonight.

[colin]

Anyway can we have your long term plan for BRFC along the lines of the stipulations that I have put on Colin, Gav and Scotty?

Good to see Scotty in the firing line too. I'm sure that he will be squirming in a very embarrasing fashion at having "stipulations" put on him, as indeed I am.

Just out of interest, you seem to be very aggressive against the people who suggest that your "Lancashire United" idea is not very good. Yet I don't seem to recall you posting any details of the new team.

It's probably just me getting old & confused so forgive me, but I'd like to be reminded of:

(i) Which clubs do you think should be merged?

(ii) Where would the new merged club play?

(iii) What would happen to the supporters of the clubs that ceased to exist?

(iv) Same question for the managers, players, groundstaff, board, shareholders and directors

(v) How do you propose to persuade the directors & shareholders & fans of (say) Preston North End Football Club/ Blackburn Rovers Football Club/Burnley Football Club/Bolton Wanderers Football Club/Blackpool Football Club to give up over 100 years each of history to merge and to put their clubs into voluntary liquidation? (possibly you are considering Bury, Oldham, and Rochdale too. Throw them into the mix too if you want to)

I look forward for your eloquent answers.

For now I will sign off with your sobriquet of

"Plonker"

PS Don't forget the blood pressure test mate, I really think you need to give it a go.

[Tris]

I was listening to The Game Podcast from the Times during my commute this morning and Danny Kelly was chatting to Aki Riihilahti about life with Kaiserslautern, the German second division football club - a town with a population of 110,000 - so comparable to Blackburn, the difference is they have gates of 40-50,000 - are sold out 2 weeks before each game.

Kiwiwannabe and I stopped off in Berlin on the way back from Krakow and went to Hertha Berlin v Borussia Monchengladbach at the Olympiastadion.

From that experience, a couple of reasons why crowds in Germany could be healthy:

- seats very easy to book online, and could choose the exact seat from a plan

- excellent pricing (our seats were 12 Euros (£8.50) in one of the best areas of the ground)

- great public transport

- match day experience really enjoyable with reasonably priced food and beer (£2.50 / pint)

- can take beer to seat, beer "tankards" designed so you can carry 4 pints in each hand (handles lock together) (1 euro deposit on the returnable plastic tankards)

Rovers are clearly at the forefront of initiatives to address falling crowds in the Premier League. They should all head over to Germany for a weekend and see how it should be done.

[philipl]

Debate on the fall in Serie A attendances. Serie A average now barely half that of the Premiership despite four clubs plying their trade in 60,000+ capacity stadiums (five if Turin play in the Alpe) and Fiorentina still pulling 40,000+.

The German example has to be the way to go but given the boozed up moron problem I cannot see alcohol being allowed within view of the pitch in England any time soon.

Interesting to note that nobody, but nobody anywhere near a top league in Europe has to my knowledge gone down the route of combining clubs to achieve success unless the creation of PSG can be claimed as such. Of course, in England, we have the notable achievements of Dagenham and Redbridge and Rushden and Diamonds, one of whom might build enough tradition to make it into the Premiership for the 2107/8 season.....

[Hughesy]

14,732 aint bad for last night I don’t think.

Some major factors against people going last night would be the long journey from London, weekday night match, terrible weather and also the possibility of 2 weakened teams.

I think the rovers are doing a great job in giving plenty of offers out on tickets and I think that the Ticket Office and John Williams should be praised.

Whichever Moron mentioned earlier that the club was shooting themselves in the foot because there was a half-hour queue then answer this ‘What else can the club do to help you’? Would you like them to have a personal telephone line just for you to get your ticket, then pick you up in a limo, drive you to the game and then feed and water you, before letting you sip champagne from your seat and then finally being chauffeured home?”

Get a grip and support your club!! Stop moaning over a minor things which are bound to happen given the amount of tickets currently available for up and coming games.

[BrianPotter]

One can only wonder what the gate would have been had there not been reduced ticket pricing. In all honesty though, I don't think that the gate was too bad taking into account the current amount of home fixtures we have. Also, gates at all last nights other fixtures (excluding Liverpool) were also very poor. Only 25K at Newcaslte and 10K at Charlton. Declining attendances are a worrying trend across most of the Premiership. Heard on Talksport that Fulham are now reducing ticket prices.

[Ozz]

And it rained like it was Noahs era too.

[Paul]

Queues for over an Hour at Ewood at the moment......

Not making it a pleasurable experience for the casual fan.....

shooting and feet come to mind AGAIN!

Bought my tickets for Chelsea and the Euro bundle about 2-3 weeks ago. No queue, no problem, no hassle. Folk had three weeks to buy a ticket, get organised people if you want to avoid a queue. Can't say the club didn't give you a chance to buy just 6 hours before the game.

I thought 15000 was a good turnout on a miserable night

[thenodrog]

14,732 aint bad for last night I don’t think.

Some major factors against people going last night would be the long journey from London, weekday night match, terrible weather and also the possibility of 2 weakened teams.

Alternatively...... £15 per ticket, a chance to see our teampitted against the best team in the country along with their household name superstar players (congrats due to both managers for playing strong teams), the euphoria of our recent form, a cup competition that we have a superb recent record in and it appears to me to be a damned p1sspoor do.

Thanks to all the stayaways for rubbing the noses deep in the doo doo of

1. the players,

2. the team management

and

3. most of all the directors, some of who must have argued long and hard to get ticket prices reduced.

No doubt their be a great wailing, gnashing of teeth a renting of clothing when Mark Hughes / Benni / Nonda etc all ferk off to teams with more committed support and obviously more POTENTIAL!

Question for all............ If Jack Walker were alive today could anybody blame him if he just simply shrugged his shoulders and walked away from the club? It really is dying on it's feet.

Debate

[92er]

Was it an acceptable attendance against a club who have used obscene amounts of money to succeed, who have no joie de vivre in their approach to games and who in many ways represent what is going wrong with English football?

I don't know; all I know is that my wife and I attended in order to support the current effort by the Directors to lower ticket prices and to get as good a crowd as possible. I would probably not have attended at full prices.

[OhmiBRFC]

I got to ticket office about 6:30/45 and got 8 tickets 4 for last night and the 2 european games, £40 Bargain

Did take a while to do them all but worth the wait, was an attractive blonde on ticket office

[thenodrog]

worth the wait, was an attractive blonde on ticket office

Things are looking up........The one that sorted me out with ticketts was an attractive brunette!

[only2garners]

One can only wonder what the gate would have been had there not been reduced ticket pricing. In all honesty though, I don't think that the gate was too bad taking into account the current amount of home fixtures we have. Also, gates at all last nights other fixtures (excluding Liverpool) were also very poor. Only 25K at Newcaslte and 10K at Charlton. Declining attendances are a worrying trend across most of the Premiership. Heard on Talksport that Fulham are now reducing ticket prices.

Did anyone else hear John Williams being interviewed on Five Live last night just after 7.00? We caught it on the way to the match. He was asked primarily about Rovers's efforts to reduce prices and encourage fans. He made all the right noises for me about trying everything they can to encourage attendances whilst making the point that Rovers must look after their season ticket holders as the first priority. He indicated that more offers would come later in the season, which suggested that they must be at least comfortable with the response to Sunday and last night.

[Hughesy]

Alternatively...... £15 per ticket, a chance to see our teampitted against the best team in the country along with their household name superstar players (congrats due to both managers for playing strong teams), the euphoria of our recent form, a cup competition that we have a superb recent record in and it appears to me to be a damned p1sspoor do.

Or alternatively.

Game on sunday just gone in which alot of confidence will of been damaged by the way we lost a game we controlled. 2 european home games to pay for, aswell as away ones for many, away games against West Ham, Villa on sale.

Chelsea team missing superstars - Lampard, Shevchenko, Drogba, Carvaliho, Cech.

Rovers team missing - Savage, Tugay, Reid, Nelsen, Ooijer.

15,000 aint bad - not when you consider 25,000 at Newcastle when they usually get 50,000+

[cletus]

14,000+ to see the Champions at £15 + £5,a worthwhile venture for the club?...they must have 'made' a MASSIVE financial loss tonight.

How do you work that one out? I`m sure the club, like most other clubs see cup competitions as an 'extra' source of income when they plan their financial year, seeing as you`re never guaranteed a home tie.

Obviously the further you go in a cup comp the more money you`re likely to make, BUT i`m sure most clubs 'hope' for it rather than 'bank' on it.

With 2 games a week for the next 2 months, i see last night as alot lower on the priority list than it normally would be........& 14k gate wasn`t too bad in my view.

[pick32]

ive got to admit i didn't fancy going last night. i herd chelsea sold 700 tickets but thier was alot more than that their just shows the glory supporters who are chelsea fans from the surrounding areas like preston and darwen.

[roversmum]

Isn't it normal to reduce ticket prices for such matches?

I thought it was a fair attendance given the circumstances and I enjoyed the match despite the rain and the loss (though the cold I seem to have aquired could be done without....

[thenodrog]

Ingleby has been appealing for Burnley fans to shell out their £17-£20 to go down and support theteam v PNE. Kinda makes our £15 for our Prem fixture with Notlob and our Cup game with Chelsea seem really cheap doesn't it?

Maybe if we use Sky dosh to maintain £10 and £15 ticket offers in the long term we will woo the walk on fans from both and drain the very life out of our neighbours. I've said many times in the past that BRFC needs all our close neighbours to be in the doo doo to allow for us to profit and grow.

[Fife Rover]

Ingleby has been appealing for Burnley fans to shell out their £17-£20 to go down and support theteam v PNE. Kinda makes our £15 for our Prem fixture with Notlob and our Cup game with Chelsea seem really cheap doesn't it?

Maybe if we use Sky dosh to maintain £10 and £15 ticket offers in the long term we will woo the walk on fans from both and drain the very life out of our neighbours. I've said many times in the past that BRFC needs all our close neighbours to be in the doo doo to allow for us to profit and grow.

So now you have come clean Theno! That is your evil plan. All of Rovers neighbouring clubs and rivals go bust financially and Rovers collect their ex- supporters who all roll over and accept the situation and become Rovers fans without a murmur of discontent. Only now (as a sop to them) Rovers change their name to Lancashire Utd.

Brilliant! Why did none of us think of that?

[colin]

........we will woo the walk on fans from both and drain the very life out of our neighbours. I've said many times in the past that BRFC needs all our close neighbours to be in the doo doo to allow for us to profit and grow.

So that's a big "yes" or a big "no" for Lancashire United?

[cletus]

I`m not sure it works like that.

....after all, if the roles were reversed & it was Rovers who were cr@pper than belief, i wouldn`t just 'up sticks' & go & support Preston, Burnley or Bolton. It`s just not done is it?

I don`t know how many 'floating' supporters are out there, maybe loads? but even if Rovers do attract more of these fans to Ewood.....they`re generally labelled 'glory hunters' or 'bandwagoners' by the people on here who like to shout about how much better a fan they are, how long they`ve had a season ticket or how many games they`ve been to. They`re onto a loser from day one, aren`t they?

I certainly wouldn`t pay good money to get ridiculed for having the cheek to be a new fan.

[FourLaneBlue]

I don`t know how many 'floating' supporters are out there, maybe loads?

Generally I think this is a myth, there might be some people who like to go along just for the game even when not supporting either team but the numbers must be tiny. I'd expect most of those in the nineties who started coming back were either lapsed fans or locals (from East Lancs) anyway.