[Archived] Poll - Falling Attendances.

[adopted scouser]

No I was just sat right in front of it....

I think in a spontanious action such as celebrating a great goal any words coming from his mouth would be in his native Turkish, but obvious you feel differently, and have used you lip reading prestige to notice something I haven't.

Well done.

340639[/snapback]

Peculiar, smug replies from someone with such poor grammar and bad spelling.

Over inflated and leaking hot air... or is that a sh1t lilo ?

[Exiled in Toronto]

saying that I think the club needs to do some market research to find out way people are staying away, and what (if any) the club can do to ensure they return

340643[/snapback]

Should have been done when the signs were there ages ago, but don't hold your breath. Expect a quote in Pravda soon along the lines of "We don't understand it. We've been investing in the playing side and we need to people of Blackburn to come and match that support." i.e. the usual @#/?.

In my opinion, this "investing in the playing side" is a complete red herring. Paying ridiculous wages to a bloated squad, several of whom are on contracts so long and so generous that we can't get a single other club to take them off our hands, is a reason for people to stay away, not to turn up like oafs and keep funding it.

[greggyk]

When you only win 10 home league games in 2 YEARS!!

I think most clubs would lose 6,500 fans!

[sumps]

No I was just sat right in front of it....

I think in a spontanious action such as celebrating a great goal any words coming from his mouth would be in his native Turkish, but obvious you feel differently, and have used you lip reading prestige to notice something I haven't.

Well done.

340639[/snapback]

To be fair it did look like he was saying **** off on the replay shown at the game. I don't think they showed it on MotD.

[Shaddy]

To be fair it did look like he was saying **** off on the replay shown at the game. I don't think they showed it on MotD.

340659[/snapback]

Same here... but I wouldn't read too much into it, even if it was directed against our supporters.

[SAS]

it did look like he said that, but i`m sure it was the moment and it was in celebration

Edited August 21, 2005 by slater_scott

[bob fleming]

So it's Tugays fault the dates are down then is it? There was me blaming Saunders an all.

He definitely said those two famous words when he scored though. For all we know he might have been directing them at the press box. Mind you I can't think for a minute why he'd want to say that to those people.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Has nobody considered the relative attractiveness of our two opening fixtures - only a matter of days apart.

For those that can't afford over £50 a week for two matches - the Tottenham one has to be the most attractive.

Combine this with our new star striker being injured - two years of home defeats - and a poor opening day result (and performance). I think it is self explanatory why the gate was so low.

[MCMC1875]

They can and will carry on but are quite clearly losing money. The problem shows/will show itself in the transfer market. We are in a vicious circle of fans staying away because they see no significant changes in the squad and, one presumes, the board being reluctant or unable to spend to strengthen the side. Without pre-judging next summer at least 2 from these 4(next season's ages), Dickov (33), Tugay (36), Flitcroft (33), Amoruso (35), will be at the end of their PL careers.

Losing support at any time is a problem, we desperatley need a good season to persuade the stay-aways to return. I'm not sure it will happen even then.

There were new faces around us in the FS yesterday, but I'm not sure what that tells us.

340584[/snapback]

Can't agree with this.

It's a bit naive to assume that gate money is directly related to transfer kitty, in fact since TV brass came in (before Sky) attendance has meant less and media exposure has been more important financially.

[OscarRaven]

I would question the management at the club, the premier league is one of the greatest and easist products in the world to sell. Bolton (attendance) can do it, Charlton can do it (profit). How can they balls it up year after year?

Yes Williams is a very nice guy and I'm sure he will be even nicer now that he has his increased pay.... but is it not time to get the proffessionals in?

Mark Hughes. Excellant manager. Good job we have a proffesional looking after the playing side of things. It seem appointing managers is the only thing they can do right.

There are enough people with enough cash within 50 miles of the club who if targetted correctly would fill Ewood Park 10x over. The current board are out of ideas - the openly admit it - in any other bussiness the share/stake holders would have got rid of them a long time ago.

That said Rovers supporters are a realistic bunch, two seasons of misery is not good enough and fans voted with thier feet. Rightly so I think. I agree give the people what they want i.e Blackburn wins and the attendance will stabilise at 18-20K.

[MCMC1875]

Good post.

Would like to see Commercial Ken's appraisal.

[Manchester Blue]

I would question the management at the club, the premier league is one of the greatest and easist products in the world to sell. Bolton (attendance) can do it, Charlton can do it (profit). How can they balls it up year after year?

Charlton were 3,000 down on last season average gate yesterday. Bolton were slightly down on their average today in a game they would hope to sell out. It was on telly admittedly. It is not only us having problems but we have fewer fans to replace the ones that are choosing to stay away.

[92er]

Same here... but I wouldn't read too much into it, even if it was directed against our supporters.

340660[/snapback]

I don't know if Tugay did say anything, but what no-one seems to have mentioned is that at the end he and MGP went up to the Blackburn end and were celebrating the goals and the success.

[waggy]

whilst i urge every rover fan to follow my lead by buying a extra junior season ticket,you can virtually finance this by not buying a programme,£3 for a programme is the norm and last year you only paid £1.50 with the voucheres

[MCMC1875]

I couldn't believe the ST holders who were missing yesterday having given up on the Rovers, at least 20 long time blues ST holders have deserted them inthe seats near me in the JW Upper (NO I don't have B O !!); this includes people who have been to a number of away games in recent seasons.

Their ST seats have been replaced by those further back in the JW who have moved down to get a better seat.

The problem is that they find other interests and no longer turn up to the odd match as walk ons.

We really have some desperate issues here with the Rovers support dropping by 2K every season...this threatens our Premiership viability.

340574[/snapback]

PB

Forget the missing ST's in the JW upper, they will always decline/move on/pass away whether the season has been good, bad or indifferent. The club must look to the youngsters.

[MCMC1875]

Why not offer non-database people 'buy one match ticket get another match free'?

Edited August 21, 2005 by MCMC1875

[RevidgeBlue]

There's no point pussyfooting around the issue any longer.

Whilst the sale of star players and poor performances on the pitch have been contributory factors the major problem or issue facing the club over the last few years has been the question of how to get more of the local Asian population down to Ewood. Up to now the question seems to have been periodically raised then swept under the carpet.

Without beating ourselves up about it, as the town rapidly moves towards becoming predominantly Asian it stands to reason that our attendances will decline unless either

a) A far greater proportion of the local Asian population can be persuaded to attend or

b ) We draw in support from further afield.

Far from easy to crack but frankly John Williams is paid more than handsomely enough to come up with some solutions.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Far from easy to crack but frankly John Williams is paid more than handsomely enough to come up with some solutions.

340705[/snapback]

Williams? Accountable? That would be a first. I thought everything was the supporters' or the manager's fault.

[jim mk2]

Williams admitted a few years ago that he had no idea how to reverse the decline in attendances (which sadly seems to be accelerating) so do not expect any initiatives now.

Rather than be castigated, stay-away Rovers supporters should be congratulated for their judgment. The country is sick and tired of an over-hyped, over-exposed sport played by grossly overpaid average players.

[BlueBlood]

I'd just like to say i was f*****g appalled by the non turn up of our so called fans, though thanks to the ones that DID turn up. Obviously you dont change overnight just a couple of years a go we had 30'000+ travel to cardiff to see us win the worthington cup, and the last game of that season we had a full house against non other than FULHAM!! I would now like to conduct an investigation to find out where these so calle rovers fans have GONE!!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Investigate away Mr Blueblood.....like you,most of us havn't got a clue as to their whereabouts although there's not many empty seats at the Breezeblock these days I do notice.....mmmmmmmmm

[Modi]

I'd just like to say i was f*****g appalled by the non turn up of our so called fans, though thanks to the ones that DID turn up. Obviously you dont change overnight just a couple of years a go we had 30'000+ travel to cardiff to see us win the worthington cup, and the last game of that season we had a full house against non other than FULHAM!! I would now like to conduct an investigation to find out where these so calle rovers fans have GONE!!      

340717[/snapback]

I was in Winchester on a long planned and paid for holiday.

Therefore, I guess I am a 'so called' rovers fan.

Should I burn my season ticket?

[Friarsnig]

The country is sick and tired of an over-hyped, over-exposed sport played by grossly overpaid average players.

You've hit the nail right on the head there.

[thenodrog]

That's excellent waggy.

We had a spare yesterday as one of the lads was away for the weekend. I asked my youngest if he wanted to take a friend, only to get the response, "None of my friends support Rovers." Not quite true as two of his friends are Rovers, but he doesn't know anyone else to ask.

340587[/snapback]

I thought taking people who don't support the Rovers was the main objective Paul?

[roverich]

I guess the biggest problem is that with football being so expensive to watch now, it's an awful lot of money for most people in Blackburn (it is afterall a very poor town) and it's just not worth the disappointment and boring displays week after week. It will take a long time to bring back previous crowds but the push must start on the pitch. A successful season is needed - a good cup run and a top half finish should get the town more excited about the beautiful game.

The reason I no longer go however is that I've moved away from the area (all the way down to Southampton infact) for university. I only managed to get North on a limited number of occasions last season but made sure that those weekends coincided with Rovers' home fixtures. I also made sure I was at the Southampton and Portsmouth away games but even those few matches were very hard to do due to tight student finances and I only got value for money once. Devastated that Southampton got relegated though - that was gonna be my highlight of the season.

EDIT: It no longer applies to me as I will probably be unable to make the games but it used to make me sick to the teeth when our average gates were around 21000 and I could get a seat anywhere in the ground and then it was a sellout for the games against Arsenal/Liverpool/Man U/Chelsea and I couldn't get a ticket for love nor money. It's not that those "extra" fans don't attend smaller matches that bothers me, it's that they occasionally stole my seat at the bigger games that I couldn't et a ticket for!

Edited August 21, 2005 by roverich