[Archived] The Old Gate Debate

[thenodrog]

The Prime Minister in the 80's played a big part in the loss of this century of working class heritage.

Eh? Scouser from the red half was she? Cos it's them that are mainly responsible for

1. Fences.

2. Banning of same.

3. All seater stadia.

What sentimental tosh...... you sound like the Joe Gladwin voiced over Hovis ad from that era............ "eeeeee rife were grrrrrrand wen i wur a rad and't crogs were rubbin t'skin off me ankles" There's a piccy on that vid of some kid peering through iron bars surrounding the pitch ffs! Who the hell wants them back?

You need to become aware MCM that "the only constant in life is change"

Oh and finally Thatcher went in 1990, the Prem started in 1992 and successive PM's (and bitter political opponents from that time) have since risen to power and had plenty of chance to redress any perceived wrongs which she may have done to the working class heritage. And they've done sweet FA haven't they?

[Tris]

Hats off to Rovers.

It's 15 quid a seat (£5 concessions) for the Boro game on December 30th.

And to appease ST holders, a special offer on the home leg of the UEFA Cup game in Feb.

We are the luckiest bunch of fans in the Premier League when it comes to pricing.

[JAL]

Hats off to Rovers.

It's 15 quid a seat (£5 concessions) for the Boro game on December 30th.

And to appease ST holders, a special offer on the home leg of the UEFA Cup game in Feb.

We are the luckiest bunch of fans in the Premier League when it comes to pricing.

True, but the cost to watch Rovers means nothing if the exitement isnt there. Who's generating the excitement the want, the need to go to Ewood to watch a bottom of the table game against an ordinary team in Boro?

The club need to start generating a positive, exciting feel at Ewood Park its something that is sadly lacking at the moment and it isnt the fans or more importantly the missing fans fault.

If you drag a horse to STALE water can you really make him drink it !

[stuwilky]

Eh? Scouser from the red half was she? Cos it's them that are mainly responsible for

1. Fences.

2. Banning of same.

3. All seater stadia.

What sentimental tosh...... you sound like the Joe Gladwin voiced over Hovis ad from that era............ "eeeeee rife were grrrrrrand wen i wur a rad and't crogs were rubbin t'skin off me ankles" There's a piccy on that vid of some kid peering through iron bars surrounding the pitch ffs! Who the hell wants them back?

You need to become aware MCM that "the only constant in life is change"

Oh and finally Thatcher went in 1990, the Prem started in 1992 and successive PM's (and bitter political opponents from that time) have since risen to power and had plenty of chance to redress any perceived wrongs which she may have done to the working class heritage. And they've done sweet FA haven't they?

Yer man to blame is Colin Moynihan.

Much as it pains me, I cant blame that woman.

[MI ROVER]

[blue phil]

Hats off to Rovers.

It's 15 quid a seat (£5 concessions) for the Boro game on December 30th.

And to appease ST holders, a special offer on the home leg of the UEFA Cup game in Feb.

We are the luckiest bunch of fans in the Premier League when it comes to pricing.

Not good enough , Tris . Not nearly good enough .

Middlesbrough are hardly a great attraction , so let's look at the other two games we're playing this month.

Newcastle - Cheapest concession £13 ; Adult prices range from £24 -£37 .

Liverpool (Boxing Day) - Cheapest concession £16 ; Adults from £27 to £39 .

Now this is December , a time when there are other priorities for families . Thousands of potential fans are going to look at the price of the Liverpool game in particular and laugh at the club's feeble , half hearted attempts to get the crowds back . They are NOT going to be tempted by Boro !!!

It's time to get real . If the crowds are going to be tempted back then the price of tickets have to come down drastically ALL the time - not just for the crappy games . If adult tickets are going to remain above £20 then concessions have to come down to £2 or £3 to get the families in .

Those who determine the pricing structure has a long way to go yet , I'm afraid .

[MCMC1875]

Phil is absolutely correct here, anyone at Ewood Towers listening??

We seem to be on a marketing strategy akin to the superstores: 2 for 1 to drag 'em in.

A longer term approach is needed simply because footie fans, like everyone else, are habit forming and get hooked on regular games at 3pm, at regular prices.

Moving kick off times (granted beyond league control) and varying ticket prices just makes the habit harder to form (or easier to shake off) - not difficult is it?

Edited December 7, 2006 by MCMC1875

[thenodrog]

Not good enough , Tris . Not nearly good enough .

Middlesbrough are hardly a great attraction , so let's look at the other two games we're playing this month.

Newcastle - Cheapest concession £13 ; Adult prices range from £24 -£37 .

Liverpool (Boxing Day) - Cheapest concession £16 ; Adults from £27 to £39 .

Now this is December , a time when there are other priorities for families . Thousands of potential fans are going to look at the price of the Liverpool game in particular and laugh at the club's feeble , half hearted attempts to get the crowds back . They are NOT going to be tempted by Boro !!!

It's time to get real . If the crowds are going to be tempted back then the price of tickets have to come down drastically ALL the time - not just for the crappy games . If adult tickets are going to remain above £20 then concessions have to come down to £2 or £3 to get the families in .

Those who determine the pricing structure has a long way to go yet , I'm afraid .

Tell you what.... sod it! .... take the gates off the hinges and let anyone in. Thats the answer. Get the players to play for nothing and the jobs a gud un.

I really am warming to my earlier idea of charging double or even treble and playing in front of about 8000 'nice' people. We could all then have those nice Recaro seats with heating elements built in, parking close by on the car parks, creche facilities, with nice well prepared and wholesome snacks and drinks in proper cups / glasses all served by attractive scimpily clad waitresses. Lounge suits and very smart casual only. No scruffy low lifers present in stupid Lacoste tracksuits and Burberry hats, no obscenities and intelligent conversation. With all the oiks paying a tenner, standing in the rain and bravely chanting insults at 20 opposing fans at Accy Stanley. Who needs folk who are constantly skint and cannot pay their way in life anyway? No use to BRFc or anyone else for that matter are they? It may even incentivise em into doing better at school and 'getting on' in life, instead of whingeing and sponging all the time. It'd be superb. The prospect certainly does have much merit.

Edited December 7, 2006 by thenodrog

[stuwilky]

It would be interesting to see what a sustained ticket pricing campaign of, say, £20 per adult and £5 per child would do.

Of course ST holders wouldnt be pleased. But these one off's are simply not advertised widely enough to guage any kind of effective response.

[AggyBlue]

I really am warming to my earlier idea of charging double or even treble and playing in front of about 8000 'nice' people. We could all then have those nice Recaro seats with heating elements built in, parking close by on the car parks, creche facilities, with nice well prepared and wholesome snacks and drinks in proper cups / glasses all served by attractive scimpily clad waitresses. Lounge suits and very smart casual only. No scruffy low lifers present in stupid Lacoste tracksuits and Burberry hats, no obscenities and intelligent conversation. With all the oiks paying a tenner, standing in the rain and bravely chanting insults at 20 opposing fans at Accy Stanley. Who needs folk who are constantly skint and cannot pay their way in life anyway? No use to BRFc or anyone else for that matter are they? It may even incentivise em into doing better at school and 'getting on' in life, instead of whingeing and sponging all the time. It'd be superb. The prospect certainly does have much merit.

No one, not even me, will bite at that

[Neil Weaver]

Not good enough , Tris . Not nearly good enough .

Middlesbrough are hardly a great attraction , so let's look at the other two games we're playing this month.

Newcastle - Cheapest concession £13 ; Adult prices range from £24 -£37 .

Liverpool (Boxing Day) - Cheapest concession £16 ; Adults from £27 to £39 .

Now this is December , a time when there are other priorities for families . Thousands of potential fans are going to look at the price of the Liverpool game in particular and laugh at the club's feeble , half hearted attempts to get the crowds back . They are NOT going to be tempted by Boro !!!

It's time to get real . If the crowds are going to be tempted back then the price of tickets have to come down drastically ALL the time - not just for the crappy games . If adult tickets are going to remain above £20 then concessions have to come down to £2 or £3 to get the families in .

Those who determine the pricing structure has a long way to go yet , I'm afraid .

Gord replied pretty well. If I may add just one point - how do you think season ticket holders would react? Few less next year?

Reduced prices for this sort of game (not particularly attractive) will go a long way towards telling the powers-that-be how much effect ticket prices have on gates. Not as much as some posters think is my guess.

[stuwilky]

Interestingly,

Given this massive increase in the TV kitty next season wouldnt it be interesting if Rovers announced a new "simple" pricing structure for the season 07/08.

ST renewals JW Upper £300 (£65)

ST renewals Family Stand £200 (£19)

ST renewals other areas £240 (£57)

New ST's JW Upper £350 (£80)

New ST's Family Stand £220 (£30)

New ST's other areas £260 (£40)

with matchday tickets priced at

JW Upper £22 (£5)

Family Stand £13 (£3)

Other Areas £15 (£4)

For the sake of argument

Note - no scientific method has been used here just a rough example.

A sustained period of cheap prices to see how many are brought back (or in)

[langhoblue]

Taking the Liverpool game as an example, the priority for football fans on Boxing Day has traditionally been to go and watch their team - especially a game at home against another local(ish) team. This would always be a game which has drawn a near enough full house.

This year will be no different - will be a very decent crowd, with a very big away following so no real need for the club to make the effort on pricing.

Instead, surely they are better making a big push on the less attractive games in the hope of getting more people through the door?

[thenodrog]

A sustained period of cheap prices to see how many are brought back (or in)

And if as Neil Weaver and I suspect it all makes little difference to attendance then what then? My idea?

[Jan]

Tell you what.... sod it! .... take the gates off the hinges and let anyone in. Thats the answer. Get the players to play for nothing and the jobs a gud un.

I really am warming to my earlier idea of charging double or even treble and playing in front of about 8000 'nice' people. We could all then have those nice Recaro seats with heating elements built in, parking close by on the car parks, creche facilities, with nice well prepared and wholesome snacks and drinks in proper cups / glasses all served by attractive scimpily clad waitresses. Lounge suits and very smart casual only. No scruffy low lifers present in stupid Lacoste tracksuits and Burberry hats, no obscenities and intelligent conversation. With all the oiks paying a tenner, standing in the rain and bravely chanting insults at 20 opposing fans at Accy Stanley. Who needs folk who are constantly skint and cannot pay their way in life anyway? No use to BRFc or anyone else for that matter are they? It may even incentivise em into doing better at school and 'getting on' in life, instead of whingeing and sponging all the time. It'd be superb. The prospect certainly does have much merit.

I'm probably the only other person posting on here who likes this idea. Especially the heated seats bit!

[CAPT KAYOS]

I'm probably the only other person posting on here who likes this idea. Especially the heated seats bit!

And basing it on your comments on various threads ... who can afford it.

Except of course TND and Chesh

[Ray-Von]

Jan and TNDR could turn into Blackburn's version of the old Harry Enfield character "I am considerably richer than yeow!"

[OJRovers]

I had a thought the other day that why should the core support of Rovers (season ticket holders and others) really want to beg / fund those people who don't really care to come down to the games?

If they don't want to come, then they obviously aren't bothered by it, which is fair enough.

I'm sure that everyone not coming to Rovers has other hobbies, which - whatever the cost - we all wouldn't be interested in.

We all want the ground to be full and the atmosphere to be good but I think people need to think; this is what we've got, how can we make it better for ourselves (ie season ticket holders / regulars) - rather than focussing on people who are NOT going to matches!

[stuwilky]

And if as Neil Weaver and I suspect it all makes little difference to attendance then what then? My idea?

Which idea?

Youve had so many terrible ones

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

This is absolutely amazing - we already have some of the most competitive ticket prices in the EPL - we have more offers than any other club (in doing so the club have been careful to ensure season ticket holders get some benefit) - and yet some people still aren't happy.

Yes we need more bums on seats - but we also need to balance the books. I feel sorry for the board - this season they have gone to huge lengths to increase attendances - and yet people still moan.

[Harrier7]

oiks paying a tenner, standing in the rain and bravely chanting insults at 20 opposing fans at Accy Stanley

As one of the brave oiks let me say it is infinitely preferable to enduring the passionless fare served up at Eerie Park. You can keep your over-hyped, over-paid Premiership cheats, divers and strolling front men!

[ihateburnley]

The suggestion that the club should not drop prices further because it may ###### off the season-ticket holders is pretty pointless. At the end of the day, if we continue to get 16000 on to every home game, the season-ticket holders themselves are unlikely to renew their tickets because of the effect on the atmosphere.

I don't know what the soloution is - I wonder if anybody has the soloution. Football is dying on its arse and at the moment only selected sections of football supporters can see it. Man United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and Everton fans (probably a few I've missed there) all think it's great because the supporters of those clubs are either:

a)seemingly in endless supply

b)or have nothing better in their lives to entertain them

The fact of the matter is that there just isn't enough Blackburn Rovers supporters. Cheap tickets may lure fans back that are already Rovers supporters and have stopped going, but ticket prices aren't going to make you support a particular club.

Having said that, I am convinced that the club should reduce ticket prices if it means getting more people through the doors - even if we lose money. At the end of the day, if I cannot afford to go and watch my team then there is little point 'supporting' them. I don't want to have to save for weeks so I can go and watch a team in a 2/3 empty stadium with no passion, no connection to me and no identity of being the type of team that we have always been - a proud, ambitious and confident Northern team always trying to overcome the so called 'bigger' clubs.

Until football changes, football will be shyte. I'm sorry to say that the state of the current game is terrible and totally alien to the way that it used to be played - in the days it was successful. Even upto the mid-nineties we still had true legends of clubs and proper professionals. I'm not just talking about the likes of Alan Shearer, David Batty, Mike Newell, Tim Flowers and Colin Hendry that we can associate with our club. I'm talking your Steve Bruce, Denis Irwin, Mark Hughes, Ian Rush, Craig Short etc. There is nobody we can relate to in the current game - it's just a bloody mess of foreign imports, obscene wages, SkySports Ford Super Sundays, billionaire takeovers, divers, cheats, agents, high ticket prices and Christiano Ronaldos.

What a load of ######. Can have more fun watching Sunday league football.

[Ozz]

Wigan ticket details announced, they have put the price up £5 from last year to £30, a modest 20% increase. And yet we are still given 5100 allocation. Can't see us selling out this year...

[Paul]

Can't recall what we paid last time at the JJB but I'm looking at £108 for our tribe..............plus I'll have a hangover and want to sleep. Is the Great Escape on the telly?

[Exiled_Rover]

Wigan ticket details announced, they have put the price up £5 from last year to £30, a modest 20% increase. And yet we are still given 5100 allocation. Can't see us selling out this year...

I'm not paying that lot £30 this year. They rip off all the away fans (£35 a ticket for Citeh - ludicrous). Plus I'm still not over the free pies scandal.