Pitch Inspection

[Mike Graham]

at least Notlob wre honest enough to tell the BBC that their undersoil heating failed.

Rovers undersoil heating obviously did not work properly; but the weather is to blame!!! Well stone me.

[den]

  preston blue said:

at least Notlob wre honest enough to tell the BBC that their undersoil heating failed.

Rovers undersoil heating obviously did not work properly; but the weather is to blame!!! Well stone me.

369539[/snapback]

Mike, they have said the undersoil heating didn't work efficiently enough. Look at my link above.

[Exiled_Rover]

  philipl said:

For what?

Visiting clubs don't get any income from the home club any longer.

369530[/snapback]

Because they and their fans have made the long journey from Sunderland only to be told the game isn't on two hours before kickoff. The incompetence alone is a good enough reason to give them the points.

[AggyBlue]

This cold spell has been forecast all week, why wasn't the undersoil heating checked earlier to ensure it was working?

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Wonder how much revenue the club will lose through this,catering etc.

No doubt the attendance will be 18,000 now PB when the game goes ahead !!

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[colin]

Oh, give up you moaners, it happens. I did about 10 miles before I found out and turned round, so that's 20 miles worth of petrol lost. No big deal for me. I bet lots of others have been far more inconvenienced.

Charlton fans travelling to Newcastle, Torquay fans travelling to Stockport & Sunderland fans will have a lot more to gripe about.

Does the sun shine on the pitch on 28th December? I would have thought that a combination of Darren Moor, The Darwen End & The Jack Walker Stand would have pretty much stopped this happening.

As for testing the efficiency of the undersoil heating system when the temperature drops to -2c. It can only be done when the temperature drops.

Just as a footnote: Radio 5 received a call from "Jan" based in London. Driven up from London, had arranged corporate hopspitality. If it's you Jan, then my heart-felt commiseration go to you, must be a real pain in the proverbial.

[Exiled_Rover]

  colin said:

Just as a footnote: Radio 5 received a call from "Jan" based in London.  Driven up from London, had arranged corporate hopspitality. If it's you Jan, then my heart-felt commiseration go to you, must be a real pain in the proverbial.

369546[/snapback]

Did she sound hot

[only2garners]

  preston blue said:

sorry Paul, I rarely disagree with you but it has been at least -1c all day in Hoghton. The Club must have expected that it would get colder when the sun dropped; it usually does!

I was at the ticket office at 3.00 (buying extra tickets for tonight!) and it was +3c on my car gauge and has been above freezing wherever I've been from mid-morning.

[evukovic]

Hmm all this talk about sub-freezing temperatures is quite welcoming in a some sad, weird way. We're expecting a lovely 36 degrees today, the same tomorrow, and a similar temperature on New Years Eve. True, it's good beer drinking weather, but bugger me if the odd helping of artic frost wasn't welcome. Oh and I was up at a little place called Mildura in North West Victoria over Christmas (where I grew up incidently) and it was 44 degrees and at midnight it dropped to a reasonable 39.

Makes you wonder eh...

[Modi]

  colin said:

Oh, give up you moaners, it happens. I did about 10 miles before I found out and turned round, so that's 20 miles worth of petrol lost. No big deal for me. I bet lots of others have been far more inconvenienced.

369546[/snapback]

Yep, there is always a risk that the undersoil heating packs in. (Didn't we have the opposite problem a couple of years ago when they couldn't switch it off and the Darwen end goal mouth was parched in middle of winter?)

However, you can't legislate for the club being so daft as to give assurances there wasn't a problem.

Martin - as I've already mentioned - had just arrived at Ewood from Scunthorpe after being told there wasn't a problem. A real good 200 mile round trip for him. I'd only done 20 miles or so before finding out that it had called off, but it was again a 40 mile round trip that needn't have been made if they hadn't stated everything was fine.

[stuwilky]

  preston blue said:

The word at the ground is that rovers f***ed up and this will cost tens of thousands of £'s.

The ref was not called in until late and is blaming the Club for not contacting him earlier when he was available. To make it worse  radio 5 say he didn't even wear studs when inspecting the pitch!!!

lots of young kids around the ground are very fed up with their Xmas treat of a game being screwed up...never mind the 1000's of Sunderland fans.

we need answers to what has happened and why the heavy investment in undersoil heating did not work...this is nothing short of a joke and a mega PR balls up, what a way to attract the floating fan at a time when we are assured a bigger gate.    

369509[/snapback]

For the record I was watching the pitch inspection from the 500 club lounge and if Mr Dowd wasnt wearing studs he was managing to stay on his feet rather well.

WE arrived at 515pm and watched Brad scating around in the centre circle wearing his boots, there was no way that match was on.

[Exiled in Toronto]

The biggest cost will be the cynicism of the floating support who had gone to the trouble of buying a ticket for tonight. They won't be sympathetic to the reasons/excuses trotted out. Today's consumer doesn't accept excuses. If you drive all the way to Tesco's because they have been advertising turkeys, get there and find all the turkeys are off because the fridge failed , you won't feel much like come back.

If Rovers were serious about attracting back missing fans, they would accept responsibility for tonight, even if it wasn't avoidable, and make it worthwhile for everyone who bought a ticket to still turn up for the rearranged game. I would imagine that a rearranged midweek game in feb would attract at least 4,000 less than were going to turn up tonight, so that'll be 80-100,000 quid down the drain if they do nothing. Now there is an opportunity to reinvest some of that money and turn disappointed customers into delighted customers who might return more often as a result.

I am intruiged to see what, if anything, the club will do.

[stuwilky]

  Exiled in Toronto said:

I am intruiged to see what, if anything, the club will do.

369559[/snapback]

What would you like them to do? Purely out of interest?

[sausagemandog]

I was in Blues Bar when Sky announced it was off. I went straight outside and told people buying tickets at the ticket office. Ticket Office staff said no its def on and carried on selling tickets. No official announcement over the tannoy that the game was off. I have been to Blackburn when it has been colder and match played. I really think we should get our act together better and call the ref in earlier, saves wasted time for everyone.

[Exiled in Toronto]

  stuwilky said:

What would you like them to do?  Purely out of interest?

369560[/snapback]

Free pies, Free transport to an away game, free extra ticket to bring a friend for a future game. I'm sure they could think of something

Anything really to show that they CARE that 20,000+ people suffered a major upset tonight, a significant number of whom won't be there for the rematch if they sit on their hands and bleat on about a cold snap. But then that would involve the club seeing fans as customers who have many other choices rather than sheep who will come back anyway.

Air Canada gave me 20,000 airmiles because my plane was delayed for 3 hours due to a snowstorm and 2 de-icings. They didn't have to, it wasn't their fault, but they showed they knew that I had suffered inconvenience while buying their product.

BRFC can't change the fact that the game was called off late, but they can turn a problem into an opportunity.

[stuwilky]

I quite agree with the last statement, and as one of a handful of people who had arrived at the ground (there were more Sunderland fans than Rovers....) can sympathise with people who arrived. And perhaps there is an opportunity at the rearranged match for some promotion. Although free away travel and free match tickets are very expensive!!! But possibly a discount on next ticket purchase? a tenner off another home game?

[SAS]

found out just before i was about to set off

the only way i was inconvenienced was the fact i had just put gel on the second before it was announced.

[The Dart]

  slater_scott said:

the only way i was inconvenienced was the fact i had just put gel on the second before it was announced.

369569[/snapback]

Nooooooooo!!!!!

[Blackpool_Rover]

ah well, feel sorry for the sunderland fans, i just drove into blackburn, policewoman told me and i did a u turn back down the m65...Bloody ell, thats the first and last time i have a cd on in the car instead of radio lancs.

[S15]

These things happen, and if this means we get 3 points at Wigan then I for one will be delighted.

I sympathise for those who have been seriously inconveined, but I really don't think the club can be blamed. I honestly think that there is too much on the line for them not to let everybody know everything as they do.

Its annoying, but please can we stop with all the unfounded crap such as ''word at the ground is.....''

If at the end of this week this is the worst thing that has happened to you, then you have done alright....

[Martin]

Absolutely gutted. A 200 mile round trip for nothing!

With the weather over here in Scunthorpe pretty bad to start with I decided to set off a little earlier. I rang the club at 4:30 and was assured the game would definitely be on. I even asked specifically if there was any planned pitch inspections, they told me there was no problems at all. Although at that time I'm not sure what the situation was.

I only found out it was postponed when Modi rang me as I was passing the Jack Walker Stand at around 6:15.

I am gutted, absolutely gutted. 206 Miles and 4 hours on the road for nothing - they wouldn't even let me in the club shop!

I spoke to one one the ground staff outside the Jack Walker Stand he said that at 5:30 he had forked the pitch and there was no problem it was perfectly playable and catering had been given the go-ahead to start preparing the food were his words. He also said Lucas Neill and Craig Bellamy were going mental at the referee for calling it off in the tunnel area.

Time to go to bed and forget all about it!!

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Communication seems to be something of a problem for Rovers.

Putting to one side for a moment the issue of why the undersoil heating failed; the club received a phone call just an hour before the game was actually called off, and they informed Modi's friend: "It will definitely be on."

As Modi says:

  Modi said:

So why the chuff did they tell someone at 1705 who had said they were travelling from Halifax that the game was definitely on?  No mention of  a possible postponement, let alone an imminent pitch inspection.  If there was an element of doubt they should have said so.

At 6pm, Gerald Jackson was unaware there was even to be a pitch inspection. This to me indicates a lack of professionalism in terms of how the club communicates.

We've seen it before last season with the shenanigans over Tony Parkes's departure. The club apparently decided to sack him on the Tuesday, but nobody from within the club saw fit to inform Tony before the Friday, by which time it was on the radio and splashed across the back pages of The Sun.

I trust that the findings of the investigation into today's postponement that Tom Finn has announced, will be swiftly made public as soon as the information becomes available.

It would also be nice to hear from our esteemed chairman Mr Williams - to be reassured that the cock-up was a one-off and that improvements will be made to the way in which the club communicates information to it's supporters.

[mjs]

Oh FFS stop moaning.

Sometimes get called off in winter because of bad weather - get over it.

[Blackpool_Rover]

  mjs said:

Oh FFS stop moaning.

Sometimes get called off in winter because of bad weather - get over it.

369584[/snapback]

you obviously didnt meake a 200 mile trip like some people

[yawnsie]

  accyrover said:

I really feel for the poor Sunderland fans who made the trip.

369492[/snapback]

Look at it this way... it's the first time in a long while since they travelled home from an away game without being beaten.