[Archived] Poll - Falling Attendances.

[John]

The paper has a few more quotes from him.

Would not buy it though, I am sure his comments will appear on the web over the next few days.

[Simon Says]

Good article by William Johnson in this mornings Telegraph. Rovers feature quite heavily in it comlete with a picture of swathes of empty seats from Sundays game.

All the usual reasons are put forward for the decline in attendances and it seems that JW has called for a summit meeting of all Premiership chairman to address the situation.

Sorry not time to find a link but the aticle is entitled "Premiership hits the buffers."

[stuwilky]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtm...20/sfntix20.xml

[Alan75]

Looks like the telegrapgh have been reading our site poll.

High ticket prices, irregular kick-off times and negative team tactics were all cited in a survey of Blackburn fans who this year have chosen not to renew their season tickets.

[waggy]

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

347998[/snapback]

the discussion about schools has come up again,and yes rovers are trying to address it,but i am afriad the only way to get kids intrested is school visits,maybe a player could go along and tickets must be FREE.I remenber when i was at school any visit be it from the police/fireman/road safety was really looked forward

[cloggyjimmybrfc]

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.

347957[/snapback]

if we had a good asian player in the side(very few around i know)ewood would be 75% full every home game,thats the only time youll get the asians in Edited September 20, 2005 by cloggyjimmybrfc

[Neil Weaver]

the discussion about schools has come up again,and yes rovers are trying to address it,but i am afriad the only way to get kids intrested is school visits,maybe a player could go along and tickets must be FREE.I remenber when i was at school any visit be it from the police/fireman/road safety was really looked forward

348129[/snapback]

Waggy, I understand what you're saying but five quid for a kid, then Rovers refund £2 of that to the school! How much do you pay in travel to take your lad to his junior games? What about his match fees? How much do parents spend on non-essentials for the kids - if it's less than a fiver a week (on average) I'd be amazed. Maybe you'd like Rovers to pay kids for attending? I don't think Rovers are a registered charity yet but it seems like some people reckon the Club should be.

You're right that maybe the club could be a bit more 'proactive' (I hate that word) in promoting these sort of things though. There's only so many player visits possible and maybe other club staff could be encouraged to show their faces around some schools though.

[waggy]

rovers may not be a registered charity,but we paid kidd/hodgson/blake/ward/dailly £millions,i am in the fortunate position to not bother about xxx£ but many others are not.these school trips must be free,how many teachers in our area are rovers fans,10% i bet so hardly any will visit rovers web site

[stuwilky]

Waggy is right on this one, either free or a token charge to cover administration and tickets and the like, say £1 per person or even, say £10 per order with no limit on the number of tickets.

[Neil Weaver]

rovers may not be a registered charity,but we paid kidd/hodgson/blake/ward/dailly £millions,i am in the fortunate position to not bother about xxx£ but many others are not.these school trips must be free,how many teachers in our area are rovers fans,10% i bet so hardly any will visit rovers web site

348149[/snapback]

How much we paid Kidd etc - bit different argument to attendances I feel. If Mum and Dad won't pay a fiver - two of which goes towards the school little Johnny is at - for half a day out for the nipper, maybe they need to re-assess where they spend their family budget. Another issue - it's pretty well known in marketing/advertising circles that people appreciate something more if they pay for it rather than it being free. I know it's not free, but Stella has been 'reassuringly expensive' for quite a while.

Just seen your post stu, I'd doubt the club is making much if anything on the (net) £3 they charge.

[stuwilky]

Just seen your post stu, I'd doubt the club is making much if anything on the (net) £3 they charge.

348153[/snapback]

So what are they spending it on (extra, that they wouldnt spend anyway?)

[cletus]

German giants Bayern Munich are even cheaper with prices ranging from £8 for standing to £33.

Punters can pay as little as £8 and no more than £30 to see Dutch club Ajax.

The main reason the Newcastle match had only 20725 on, was that it was 'live' on telly. To be honest, Newcastle`s fans were fantastic, even if they only brought 3-4000 with them (something Rovers wish they could muster). If the game wasn`t on telly, i bet they would have sold all 8000 on offer.

Lots of Rovers fans i`ve spoken to said they were going to watch it on telly instead of going down Ewood. My best mate 'jibbed out' & left me to brave it alone, cos "the game was an excuse for all his family to go to his parents, have Sunday lunch & watch the footy (about 6 regular Roverites who stayed away there!)"...can`t say i blame them either! They had a better day than i did aswell!

Rovers have simply got to slash the prices, soon...& BIG time!!

[Dan Furness]

Not just prices but also actually give us something to want to turn up for.

I haven't gone as regularly since beginning of last season, before that I went every game. Difference being we played good football back then by good footballers, now we have average footballers who are more limited. My love for BRFC will never ever die but justifying paying £30 a ticket makes me stay away.

[Sparky Marky]

The reasons for people not wanting to spend hard earned money are:

Stephen Reid - Never seen a more one dimensional footballer...This guy has no technique at all. He's not quick, skillful, never scores goals and his 1st touch is shocking.

Savage - See above

Emerton - Ok he's pretty quick. But see above

Mokoena - See above

Flitcroft - See above

Kuqi - See above + 100%

Gallagher - See above

Boothroyd - The worst I've seen at rovers for a while..

Bland Bland Bland.....Its just not good enough!!!!!! We've had to put up with this kind of thing for the last 18 months......

These types of players need to be got rid of.......Or people won't come anymore.

[American]

John Nicholson's Take

[G Somerset Rover]

Anybody been watching sky sports news? Their main headline is "Hughes and Pearce defend boring football" basically the pair of them saying that they go out EVERY game to win and Pearce stated that Citeh must win all their home games. Hughes also said somethign along the lines of "I don't think its down to what formation you play, more the players you have and whether they know whats expected of them". You couldn't get two more contrasting managers at present really could you! Citeh have played free flowing football and scored goals where as we couldnt hit a barn door and have played average at best.

[John]

On Hughes, I feel that on Sunday he did not think the players carried out his instructions correctly.

[G Somerset Rover]

On Hughes, I feel that on Sunday he did not think the players carried out his instructions correctly.

348188[/snapback]

Probably true John mate, but surely he could've got instructions onto the pitch? If he wanted Bentley to have goit nearer to Bellers for example then he could have.

[John]

I am just taking this from his post match interview and quotes. It was all over the pitch.

He said our passing was not quick enough and too many players had off days. So he obviously does not think the formation is an issue.

He stayed in the dressing room for a while after the match which suggests he had a go at the players.

As I posted in the Mark Hughes thread, he does not take kindly to criticism Hughes..... it was the players fault not his....

Edited September 20, 2005 by John

[G Somerset Rover]

Okay fair point buddy. He did seem pretty annoyed on sky news!

[Shaddy]

Right! I pretty much agree with theno. I kind of see it in reverse though.

The merger club would play in the football league, and the identity of the merging clubs, Rovers and Burnley and/or Preston, would be maintained through reserve and junior football. All this would need the sanction of the FA of course.

The new club would alternate their playing venue, and either play with a strip that, within reason, incorporated enough of the color schemes of the merged club, or alternate strips as required.

This is not something new... it will be obvious that I am adopting the same model that is being used in Rugby League in Australia. I know it is not totally the same, but I can tell you that a lot of Balmain Tigers and Western Suburbs Magpies fans were dead against the West Tigers merger that happened about half a decade ago, citing the tradition of the clubs (the Tigers were a league founder club I think).

It's taken sometime for them to achieve success, but this season, they are on the cusp of making the Grand Final, which is of course the ultimate prize in Australia Rugby League if it is won. They are being universally lauded now, and a lot of fans have returned. It was the same for other merged clubs. They all still retain their individual identities in the reserve and youth leagues.

I will be called naive, but I see few reasons (there are some granted) why this wouldn't work in English football, especially for a relatively depressed areas such as parts of Lancashire.

Even if the existing supporters give up on the merger club, eventually, they will be replaced by younger, likely more affluent supporters. Also eventually, the merger club will have it's share of success. A new generation of kids will have a local team, one that mum and dad can reasonably take them to home games, that is successful. And that local team will be the local team for a large swath of Lancashire.

And what it's going to take to be the dominant partner of such an merger. Trading off some temporary success for long-term gain. It's the hardest thing to do any facet of life. I am not saying that it must happen. But I am saying that perhaps one of the best things that could happen right now is for business people, who by the nature of their game are the ultimate pragmatists, to identify a similarly workable scenario and take it out of the supporters hands.

After all, how many Manchester United fans expected their club would be owned by an American, and in millions of pounds of debt?

[sausagemandog]

Yesterday evening i asked the question:

How many season ticket holders do we have ?

Nobody has mentioned it so i ask again. Surely somebody knows.

Thanks

[Alex Rover]

Interesting <click> Nothing we don't know already but at least it's something.

[Shaddy]

Also...

What if I said that all those that claim they will never support a merger club are being disingenuous? What if I said that human nature works quite contrary to such a claim.

There would nothing to be ashamed of for a Lancastrian from Blackburn supporting a club that played some of its' footy in Blackburn, and claimed to be the most representive football club for Lancashire.

It only will take a few of the supposed stay aways to figure that out. If any form of success is achieved, their Rovers supporting mates are hardly going to be able to maintain their protest against basking in the glory. They'll likely be mocked.

Similarily, there is an element of competition to it all too. Say the Preston fans are seen as "get behinding" LU more than Rovers fans. Well, when LU play at Ewood, there will be quite a few more fans determined to prove that Preston fans don't monpolise the support of the club.

It's all about what the fans really want. And that is success. In the long run, it is more likely to be achieved with a evolved club, in my opinion.

I'd be interested to hear peoples thoughts on this. How about you theno, is this your line of thinking too?

[Neil Weaver]

So what are they spending it on (extra, that they wouldnt spend anyway?)

348154[/snapback]

Stu, I understand what you're getting at, but I would be pretty sure there is a fixed amount built into the price of admission that goes to cover the price of 'issuing a ticket' (cost of ticket office wages, phones etc etc). I would say there are 2 ways how the club could charge for that - either (say) £2 per ticket or (say) £40k per game. If you've got a variable like attendance then the 'uplift' would vary game-by-game per ticket, so that's why I'd reckon the club would go for the fixed-charge-per-ticket option. Hence a charge of a few quid per ticket for the schools scheme. I'm sure there are other little extra costs that have to be covered - perhaps the parking for a minibus.

Anyway, is anyone really arguing that a charge of £0 or £3 will be the critical deciding factor in whether a schoolkid attends or not?

Marky, have you been paying attention this season? One player on your list is now at Charlton, one's out on loan till at least Jan, one has only played a couple of games as sub, and you seriously reckon Emerton's quick? And I seem to remember Reid scored one or two late last season and in pre-season.

Edited September 20, 2005 by Neil Weaver