[Archived] Attendances On The Up

[only2garners]

From what I have read, Rovers have very deliberately marketed Rovers' low prices to the fans of opponents by getting free notices printed in the home programmes of visting sides' games preceeding the Ewood game.

That's right. Rovers have a deliberate strategy to target the media in away team's areas before matches. Not by advertising as that would cost but by such things as free ticket competitions with local papers. They have also been doing this in the LEP in Preston for most home games.

[only2garners]

The poll on the season ticket topic suggests attendances will drop by around 5 %. Is that accurate, we'll have to wait and see.

The poll actually suggests a 9% drop (11 of 118 current ST holders not renewing). But the club reckons they lose about 10% every year anyway for all sorts of reasons - moving away, going to university, work commitments, ill health as well as cost.

[Tris]

From the LET this morning -

John Williams on the early bird scheme admits demand has far exceeded expectations.

He added "There has been a terrific take-up on the Early Bird promotion, bigger than we thought and bigger than we had budgeted for"

"Within that we have also had a healthy number of new season ticket holders"

It also says adult prices have gone up 10% since the end of the Early Bird scheme, but childrens ST prices stay frozen.

[den]

The poll actually suggests a 9% drop (11 of 118 current ST holders not renewing). But the club reckons they lose about 10% every year anyway for all sorts of reasons - moving away, going to university, work commitments, ill health as well as cost.

8% wont be renewing, but three percent new ST holders, is where I get a 5% drop from.

JW's comments suggest those figures will be wrong anyway.

[joey_big_nose]

8% wont be renewing, but three percent new ST holders, is where I get a 5% drop from.

JW's comments suggest those figures will be wrong anyway.

I think a message board by its very nature is going to attract more people who are brassed off than those who are content, and those who are likely to stop taking their season ticket in protest/lack of affordability are more likely to make that known through the vote than those who are renewing.

Part of the way the world turns. THose who are peed off dominate the discourse.

Congratualtions to Rovers for increasing the gate by 12%!

[den]

I think a message board by its very nature is going to attract more people who are brassed off than those who are content, and those who are likely to stop taking their season ticket in protest/lack of affordability are more likely to make that known through the vote than those who are renewing.

Part of the way the world turns. THose who are peed off dominate the discourse.

Congratualtions to Rovers for increasing the gate by 12%!

Yes, but last season our poll predicted the rise in ST sales. [i think].

[JAL]

Well done to Rovers, from a local point if view if they can maintain the startegy of playing consistantly good football in the premier league with the possibility of playing more European football with the prices they are charging, Rovers for me are bound to impact more and more on the wider local catchment area, i have no doubt about that, but the big question is sustainability.

I never thought that Rovers had a good startegy until recently but i think its the duty of all of us local lads to recapture Blackburn, because for me it seems to have been wandering wavering on its alligence to its football club.

[philipl]

socngill on the official chat board put this up which makes interesting reading:

Average attendance based on urban area populations (divided by the number of clubs for large areas such as London, Birmingham, Tyneside):

1 - Wigan Athletic 23.5%

2 - Blackburn 22%

3 - Newcastle 17.5%

4 - Reading 16.4%

5 - Bolton 15%

6 - Sunderland 14.8%

7 - Derby 13.9%

8 - Portsmouth 10.1%

9 - Middlesborough 9.1%

10 - Aston Villa 8%

11 - Man Utd 6.8%

12 - Liverpool 6.4%

13 - Birmingham 5.2%

14 - Everton 5.1%

15 - Arsenal 4%

16 - Manchester City 3.8%

17 - Chelsea 2.8%

18 - Tottenham 2.4%

19 - West Ham 2.3%

20 - Fulham 1.6%

Slightly unfair on Fulham as they are assumed to have the same fan-base as Arsenal but obviously a much smaller ground! Of course clubs like Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal sell out every week so you would assume a bigger ground would mean higher gates - but it's never going to be perfect!!

It is also worth pointing out that the Metropolitan District of Wigan has wierdly small boundaries and a sub-100,000 population with places which naturally look to Wigan as the nearest big town chopped off. Similarly with Reading where many places which seem to be part of the Reading overspill actually within neighbouring districts. Bolton on the other hand covers 280,000 people by swallowing up a lot of neighbouring places.

[FourLaneBlue]

Traditionally Middlesbrough comes on top of these type of lists. Not sure how he worked out the urban population for them. Boro has less than 150,000.

[philipl]

It is done by local government unit.

So Teesside has a population of 365,000.

Newcastle does well because the city of Newcastle within Tyne and Wear is under 500,000 yet the reality is Tyneside and Northumberland total to 1.5 million roughly.

[FourLaneBlue]

It is done by local government unit.

So Teesside has a population of 365,000.

A local government unit is a bit of an arbitrary way to judge though. How many people are there in the similar size area around Blackburn compared to the 365,000 in Teeside? Besides our local government unit has only been going for a bit over 30 years. Does that mean before then we were not as well supported because we were part of Lancashire? Not that it is a bad list...in fact it is as good as any other reason to divide it...just that statistics alone do not tell all the stories. The size of the towns or cities when taking into account surrounding areas and the location of nearby teams are the big factors. How big is that slice of land that a team can carve out and call their heartland and how densely populated is it?

Mind you...Rovers do superbly well in this regard whatever criteria is used. Something those who say Blackburn doesn't deserve a Premiership club should take into account. The town (and surrounding areas) does back the club well despite all its problems and lack of wealth.

I really do think that when population is taken into account as well all the nearby teams on our doorstep (including the two finalists in the Champions League in the past two seasons) that Rovers are pound for pound one of the best supported clubs you will find. Even in the heyday of attendances after the war we never got more than an average of 30,000...yet this season we got almost 24,000. Not a bad drop at all when all the other modern distractions and forms of entertainment are taken into account.