[Archived] Poll - Falling Attendances.

[Ozz]

I have just worked it out!

Falling attendences is due to ###### football matches!

I beleive!!!!!

[waggy]

it's about time rovers appointed 5 commited fans to visit the schools in the area.there must be 5 unemployed die-hards who can visit the schools,and give the youngsters the rovers dream.

every primary school child in the blackburn area,should be given a young rovers membership card,every school should be given free tickets for 3 games a season.1 game ain't enough it could have been yesterday.we are stuck with 16k diehards and the only way to improve the crowds is to get the children intrested.

the die-hards could be armed with videos showing our triumphs,regalia for prizes,a free rovers pencil/pen/ruler .JOHN WILLIAMS YOU MUST ACT NOW,EARN YOUR WAGES MY CLUB IS DIEING ON ITS FEET,THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT,GET OFF YOUR SMUG ARSE AND DO SOMETHING

[RoyRover]

Yesterday was a prime example of why the attendances have been falling. The first half was a miserable affair, with no quality from the home team at all, partly because the manager played a defensive formation against a crap team. The second half brightened up, but Rovers inability to score is another reason why people have stopped coming. IMO these are the two reasons why people have stopped coming, because it is boring to watch due to the lack of investment in quality, so why waste your money? This in turn has lead to Rovers not being able to open teams up and score consistently and win, so why would you want to go and see a losing team? We the fans know what the problem is, while the club either don't have a clue or don't believe it and are looking in the wrong place, if they are looking at all.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

every primary school child in the blackburn area,should be given a young rovers membership card,every school should be given free tickets for 3 games a season.1 game ain't enough it could have been yesterday.we are stuck with 16k diehards and the only way to improve the crowds is to get the children intrested.

       

347891[/snapback]

Totally agree Waggy but why just 3 games,why not most home games? would any season ticket holder begrudge a kiddy the chance to support their home town team on a regular basis.If not free tickets how about kids for £2!!...we have a whole upper tier of the Darwen end completely empty for 80% of games......what an absolute waste of space.

[waggy]

Totally agree Waggy but why just 3 games,why not most home games? would any season ticket holder begrudge a kiddy the chance to support their home town team on a regular basis.If not free tickets how about kids for £2!!...we have a whole upper tier of the Darwen end completely empty for 80% of games......what an absolute waste of space.

347915[/snapback]

i meant each school gets 3 games a season,but there is about 200 kids in each school,and there must be at least 100 schools in this area 100 * 200 is 20k saw they will have to take it in turns

[Neil Weaver]

Waggy, the idea sounds great, IN THEORY. Unfortunately, I'm willing to bet it would be a nightmare PRACTICALLY. Hope not, we need to fill some seats at whatever cost, but there are people better qualified on this sort of thing (Hannah?) who could comment better....... how many adults would be needed for a group of (say) 50 schoolkids, would they happily give up their time on a (say) Sat aft, do you bus the kids to Ewood and if so where do they park (if it's on the official car parks, it'll be at the expense of whoever usually uses those spaces)..........

I hope it could be done but it won't happen for months if at all.

[waggy]

we used to do this regular,but the kids were from lancaster/skipton/morcambe/bpool not this area,we must tap into this area for our support,the coaches can park next to the away fans,on bolton roda etc.i think the ratio is one adult per 5 children,i'm sure this can be achieved

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Are the right people listening though Waggy..send an e-mail to the club.

I shudder to think what the attendances will be for West Brom,Pompey,Charlton etc!!

[G Somerset Rover]

Didn't know where else to post it, but Michael Owen has noticed the changes in the premiership. He said that it's so much harder to score nowadays due to the defensive attitude of many prem managers. Therefore, fitting in with the theory of naff footie matches creating naff attendances.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Well you can add a few more to the declining numbers going off what people where saying coming off yesterday 'they'll not be seeing me back down ere for a while - £30 quid to watch that plie of @#/?'- and that was before the end - and there where quite alot.

Well done Rovers - fancy words about realising the problems at home but not backing it up with anything

[den]

Well done Rovers - fancy words about realising the problems at home but not backing it up with anything

347946[/snapback]

That's a bit over the top Cap'n.

Bellamy, Kuqi, Bentley and that foreign guy at the back, have all been brought in. There is some quality there, quite a lot in the case of Bellamy - so to say rovers have done nothing to try to improve things is a little dramatic. Much like a lot of the reactions on here.

[OscarRaven]

One word on the new formation of choice:

Catanachio {feel free to correct spelling}

It is the reason Italian football died on its feet when world class players went to the premier leaugue and La Liga.

If your team is not full of world class players dont even try it. It could get very embarrassing..... like yesterday.

[bob fleming]

4-5-1. Unentertaining but I could put up with it last season if it kept us up, which it did. Great news. Fair play Hughes hasn't got much to choose from up front. We sign Bellamy and Kuqi - big guy / small guy thing I reckon, flick on's etc etc you get the picture. Matt Jansen, we'll keep him and we've also got Paul Dickov. More than enough strikers, so much so that we can afford to let two go out on loan.

As others have mentioned, a promise by the Chairman and the Manager in the summer to play more attractive football at home. Great.

Bellamy plays the first game of the season away at West Ham, is then injured. Returns against a Newcastle team that many thought would lose their manager had they lost yesterday. A defence (well, an £8m defender at any rate - anyone see Boumsongs defending against ManU? ) low on confidence and clearly slightly clueless.

Right, this is it then, 4-4-2. Up and at them. Er, no. Wrong.

If not yesterday, when? Is this it then? Is this as good as it gets now? Do we have any other ideas? Or is it 4-5-1, 4-1-4-1 - call it what you bloody like - all the way from here on in. Sorry, but that was @#/? and, I hope I'm wrong, but the penny dropped yesterday. Playing the lone striker is actually the formation they want Rovers to play.

Does anyone on here actually think that playing Bellamy up front on his own is a good idea?

Got my ticket for Wednesday today, the lads I know aren't going, Mrs F probably won't bother. Why am I going? Oh yes, I remember, there's a slight chance, a very slim chance, that I might enjoy it and be entertained.

[Hughesy]

I think rovers should look at a number of ways to improve attendances:

1 – Cup games (Like Huddersfield on Wednesday) – Allow all season ticket holders the choice of 1 free ticket per season ticket holder. They can either take this for the 2nd round or the 3rd round. – In these games all other tickets should be a special price of say £5 each.

2 – A 2nd Ticket office & club shop should be based in the town centre

3 – Schools – Market the club & Offer schools free tickets for all lower class games i.e west brom, West Ham, Sunderland, Charlton etc.

4 – Offer poorer communities’ free tickets for the same games as above.

5 – Said it before and il say it again – we need to try and get at the Asian members of the town. Afterall they do make up around 50% of all people in Blackburn & Darwen

6 – Put on subsidised transport for people who want to come, but cannot afford to get there on their own. We have several supporters clubs in the country so why not offer subsidised coaches from all these areas.

7 – Offer groups of lads/ girls an option to buy say 6 tickets and receive 1 free.

[mjs]

Why am I going? Oh yes, I remember, there's a slight chance, a very slim chance, that I might enjoy it and be entertained.

347956[/snapback]

Same here.

And the slim chance of actually seeing one of our strikers score.

If we play 4-5-1 on Wednesday I might be home by half time.

[BRFC4EVA]

Im going cos i havent seen a bloody goal yet this season!

I missed the first 2 games cos i was in Eygpt on holiday and have so far been to spurs and n'castle at Ewood and also travelled to Villa but havent seen us score! A couple of gaols would make wed night to worth it

[bubblerrovers]

It's great that we finally realise something has to be done but it's abit late. Most of the glory hunters and are now die hard chelsea fans who wouldn't go to ewood if tickets were free. The only way to get people to come back is to win more often than not and play good football which we clearly don't.

[andy82]

Phillip-

The FC Bayern price doesnt make a lot of difference - tickets for Allianz Arena are booked up for the season.

at Kaiserslautern the price would be around £7.50 btw - for top flight football for an adult and child.

[CAPT KAYOS]

That's a bit over the top Cap'n.

Bellamy, Kuqi, Bentley and that foreign guy at the back, have all been brought in. There is some quality there, quite a lot in the case of Bellamy - so to say rovers have done nothing to try to improve things is a little dramatic. Much like a lot of the reactions on here.

347951[/snapback]

I don't think it is Den

My love of football is dieing - however my love for Rovers isn't, however it is flat at the moment and is filled with anger and disappointment - not so because of the players (except one who is useless) but what is so basically obvious and frustrating and is a general mentality througout football, managers in particular and its just driving me up the wall and its doing my head in.

Football is a simple game - why complicate it and burden it

Its also become very boring and not enjoyable.

I thought I would never say this- but I am not bothered if we win or lose on Wednesday.

[den]

I can understand the frustration, for the third season now. I don't think anyone was more disappointed than me.

What does bug me though are the folk on here giving it the " I aint going again to watch that rubbish" bit.

Yes, the football's been bloody awful TBH. People should put theirselves in JW's position though. He's done everything possible to keep this club afloat in the Prem. So have a lot of other folk. What's the reaction from some of the"so called" fans on here? I'm not going again!

Well as supporters, they're simply making matters a lot worse than what they are now. If they consider themselves true supporters, they're kidding themselves.

That's not a pop at anyone in particular. Just a general observation. No doubt some of them will come round, some might not. To the ones that don't Bye Bye, mind the door --------

[jim mk2]

Falling attendances is a Europe-wide problem (television the cause ?), with the only exception probably being Germany where gates are booming on the back of huge new stadiums being completed ahead of next summer's World Cup finals and drastic reductions in prices.

Only 27,293 fans - of whom 22,838 were season-ticket holders - turned up to watch Juventus beat Lecce 2-0 in Serie A yesterday, leaving 41,748 tickets unsold.

Juventus are so concerned about the drop in support and lack of atmosphere in their ground that they are considering leaving the Stadio del Alpi (built 1990 and disliked because it has a running track) to a much smaller stadium (perhaps they could share Ewood with us).

Bundesliga fans prefer to be there in person rather than watching at home. The new and refurbished stadiums are not only plush, they are also vast, and the clubs are able to offer massive numbers of tickets for both standing and seating at cheap prices.

Germany’s biggest team, Bayern Munich, have moved to a new 66,000-capacity stadium this season which is expected to sell out for every one of their 17 home games. It is little wonder when you consider the prices they are charging to see the likes of Roy Makaay, Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn in action.

Season tickets start from as little as £60 and the club sold all of the 35,000 available. They deliberately left the remaining 30,000 seats to be made available match-by-match in order to allow the 100,000 members of the official supporters club a chance of seeing their team regularly.

A ticket to stand at Bayern’s Allianz Arena costs from as little as £8 while the most expensive seats - excluding executive suites - are sold for £33. Elsewhere, Arminia Bielefeld fans setting off for their derby in Dortmund on Tuesday night will be allowed access to the 83,000-capacity Westfalen Stadium for just £8.

[Scotty]

I can understand the frustration, for the third season now. I don't think anyone was more disappointed than me. 

What does bug me though are the folk on here giving it the " I aint going again to watch that rubbish" bit.

Yes, the football's been bloody awful TBH. People should put theirselves in JW's position though. He's done everything possible to keep this club afloat in the Prem. So have a lot of other folk. What's the reaction from some of the"so called" fans on here? I'm not going again!

Well as supporters, they're simply making matters a lot worse than what they are now. If they consider themselves true supporters, they're kidding themselves.

That's not a pop at anyone in particular. Just a general observation. No doubt some of them will come round, some might not. To the ones that don't Bye Bye, mind the door --------

347989[/snapback]

What really bugs me is when fellow supporters start judging others and suggesting they aren't as big a fan if they don't go to the games. The quicker people get away from this ridiculous idea that supporters should attend Ewood out of some sense of loyalty the better.

Football is an entertainment business and is competing with a lot of other entertainment businesses. At the moment football at Ewood isn't very entertaining. Therefore, anyone has the right to take their hard-earned money elsewhere.

As for John Williams, he's paid an exceptional amount of money to "keep the club afloat". He's doing his job - and it could be argued that he's not doing it that well at the moment.

What we should be doing is thinking of ways that we can attract fans to Ewood, not telling them "bye bye, mind the door____" if they decide not to go to a game.

Edited September 19, 2005 by Scotty

[den]

What really bugs me is when fellow supporters start judging others and suggesting they aren't as big a fan if they don't go to the games. 

347992[/snapback]

A few of my mates don't go anymore, Scotty. I wouldn't call them fans.

I'm not talking about the fan who gives the odd game a miss for whatever reason. I'm talking about the fan who goes and doesn't come back. There's about 6000 of those over the last few seasons.

[andy82]

A ticket to stand at Bayern’s Allianz Arena costs from as little as £8 while the most expensive seats - excluding executive suites - are sold for £33.  Elsewhere, Arminia Bielefeld fans setting off for their derby in Dortmund on Tuesday night will be allowed access to the 83,000-capacity Westfalen Stadium for just £8.

347991[/snapback]

I wouldnt pay 50p to go to the Westfalenstadion

The other thing worth noting is that the 8 quid tickets at Allianz Arena are a class above the cheap seats in the riverside, and the atmosphere is ten times as good.

[Lee]

As the discussion about schools has come up once again, i'll direct people to the following link