[Archived] Poll - Falling Attendances.

[MCMC1875]

Talking to 'local' fans last season who I have met over the last 25 years, the two recurring gripes are season ticket cost and Sky TV. Many Ewood/Darwen pubs now show up to 8 Prem games each weekend inc a choice of two at 3pm on Sat. £28 goes a long way behind the bar.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Blackburn is a small, backwater ex mill town and apart from the Rover's it has very little else to shout about to be honest.

For 129 year's it has been the club that has put the town's name on the national and sometimes international stage...no other town in the UK has had a more successful football club than our's.

Please dont treat the club with contempt.

Hopefully the stay away 'fans' will begin to open their eye's(and wallets) to the good that Mark Hughes will bring to Ewood and come back into the fold,but dont hold your breath as our lot are historically a damned hard bunch to please for some unknown reason...almost arrogant in their apathy at times.

That matter aside though,If you look at the fact's and figure's our support has maybe not grown as forecast but HAS,without doubt,stayed loyal in the main over the last 12 year's or so and as Gav suggested, our 'hardcore' support has doubled if not trebled over that period.

P.S. In the 96/97 Premiership season we played Sheff Wendy at Ewood infront of a crowd of little over 19,000...are we making too much of what was bound to be a low attendance against Pompey?

Edited September 21, 2004 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[1864roverite]

mcm1875

I am Rover through and through all 35yrs and more, 3rd division, relegation,play off heartbreak on several occasions,a heartwrenching day at Bristol Rovers,promotion,relegation etc etc etc etc

Please dont advise me to go to the turd, Read the topic and I simply gave my view .

If you dont like it tough, but remember pal its about opinions

[jim mk2]

More random thoughts.

We are not the only mid-sized club with this problem. Fulham, with whom we were promoted three seasons ago, have seen their crowds start to dwindle as the excitement of reaching the Premiership gradually wears off. They took only 500 fans to West Brom last weekend - did anyone notice the ranks of empty seats behind the goal when Andrew Cole scored?

Television saturation: there is so much wall-to-wall footy on TV now that, quite frankly, it is becoming a turn-off. People are bored. ManU v Liverpool, traditionally one of the biggest fixtures of the season, was on TV last night and I couldn't be bothered to watch it. Television will eventually kill football in my opinion.

[MCMC1875]

Agreed.

But there are many positives - for instance not many fans ever will have experienced a rise in stature of their club like we did from, say, 1980.

[super_neill]

attitude of adolfesque stewards is a huge problem.

Agree!! every match they tell me to sit down and that is even if we have just scored and chanting! i hate them!

[Paul]

Television will eventually kill football in my opinion.

Correct. We have probably recahed saturation now. I only bother to watch if it's Rovers.

[MCMC1875]

Television will eventually kill football in my opinion.

Correct. We have probably recahed saturation now. I only bother to watch if it's Rovers.

True - see my message on number of Prem games being shown in local pubs!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Burnley and Preston have also seen attendances fall in the last couple of seasons .....any 'regional' coincidence here?

[MCMC1875]

Burnley and Preston have also seen attendances fall in the last couple of seasons .....any 'regional' coincidence here?

And even Stanley!

[American]

Stanley fans don't want to be associated with Nike.

[Scotty]

Burnley and Preston have also seen attendances fall in the last couple of seasons .....any 'regional' coincidence here?

Both clubs have been going through a bit of a slump after previous good times (Preston, under Moyes, in the play-off final - Burnley just missing out on the play-offs).

[Alan75]

Burnley ............. have also seen attendances fall in the last couple of seasons .....any 'regional' coincidence here?

Have you got a link.

Untill you can prove that the best supported team has declining attendances I will not believe it.

Even then I would suggest that it's propaganda being spread by other jealous north west clubs

[Neil Weaver]

I fear you are letting your hatred of Souness cloud your outlook Jan (again)

Cloud? Cloud?????? Flopsy, you're a master of understatement. Hurricane Ivan more like. Meanwhile, back at the thread...........

[adam]

I imagine the gate on Wed will be small. Season ticket holders should be attracted/rewarded and not offered £2 off.

[cletus]

I heard a rumour that even the mighty Man 5hitty are finding it hard to fill their ground. Liverpool had just over 30k against Monaco.

Football tickets are the most expensive they`ve ever been.

People are wising up to clubs using loyalty as a means to milk a bit more money out of them.

If the quality & value is not there, then people will go elsewhere.

[Eddie]

No matter what the club does, games like the one on wednesday will always be watched by a small crowd. It's all about getting the Premiership gates up, even if we were Manchester United, the difference between the number of their supporters who would go to a game against a Premiership side versus a cup game against a 2nd or 3rd division side in the early stages of the tournament would be massive. There will never be the interest there.

[jim mk2]

German football faced the problem of declining attendances a few years ago but is now booming with record crowds at many grounds.

The reason? Ticket prices were slashed, sometimes by as much as 50 per cent, and lo and behold, the fans came flocking back in. Pretty simple really.

[Eddie]

Well the club has tried lowering the price quite often. What was the response like? It may be worth trying, but would have to be done carefully, because unless the fall in price caused a large rise in attendance, we could see a massive fall in revenue. The key really, as was touched on earlier, is finding out who the supporters are who have left, who the supporters are in the region who are possible targets, and why these two groups aren't coming.

[Dan Furness]

if we actually had a decent business development person, they would probably look up the saying 'economies of scale' and see where we are going wrong.

[Dan Furness]

Well the club has tried lowering the price quite often. What was the response like? It may be worth trying, but would have to be done carefully, because unless the fall in price caused a large rise in attendance, we could see a massive fall in revenue. The key really, as was touched on earlier, is finding out who the supporters are who have left, who the supporters are in the region who are possible targets, and why these two groups aren't coming.

Portsmouth game we came up - 28.000 home fans

Fulham game when we finished 10th - 29,000 home fans

[kingalan]

German football faced the problem of declining attendances a few years ago but is now booming with record crowds at many grounds.

The reason? Ticket prices were slashed, sometimes by as much as 50 per cent, and lo and behold, the fans came flocking back in. Pretty simple really.

The reason ticket prices were slashed was a result of protests by fans across the country forcing the German authorities to lower the prices across the board.

Until there's protests of a similar kind from fans in this country ticket prices are just going to rise and rise...

[blue phil]

German football faced the problem of declining attendances a few years ago but is now booming with record crowds at many grounds.

The reason? Ticket prices were slashed, sometimes by as much as 50 per cent, and lo and behold, the fans came flocking back in. Pretty simple really.

Exactly ! I always make a point of asking ex-regulars why they don't go any more - 9 times out of 10 the answer is the price of the ticket . Link the cost with the effort put in by many players and the result is that the average working bloke will stop going. Lower the price and people will be more willing to watch the overpaid prancers. When people get fed up of watching games in half empty stadiums maybe market forces will work in our favour again.

[Paul]

if we actually had a decent business development person, they would probably look up the saying 'economies of scale' and see where we are going wrong.

We do have a decent Business Development Officer and both he and JW are putting a great deal of effort into marketing the club. They are very frustrated by the lack of response.

[roversmum]

Met an old guy, former season ticket holder, in the supermarket today. Asked why he didn't renew his ticket, two reasons:

1. Souness

2. Lives in Chorley and finds it difficult to get to evening matches (not able to drive).

Although Souness is gone, No. 2 still applies, and he isn't likely to renew. Sadly our car is already full with a waiting list!