[Archived] 'taking Back' The Darwen End

[stuwilky]

I hadn't thought about this problem until I came across it on Saturday. Unreserved seating sounds great, but when you have a five year old girl with you you need two seats together, and I would guess if you have more kids with you getting seats all in a row as it were may be even harder. I got two seats on row one, and of course the rain came down in biblical proportions at around 3.15pm on Saturday so we spent the rest of the first half under the stands!

there was plenty of room in the wings - well at least on the Riverside side (if that makes any sense), as there was in the previous match.

[Hughesy]

Darwen end lower towards JW stand was more or less empty until 5 mins before kick off too.

You just have to get their earlier to get the best seats. Nothing the club can do about that either.

[Ewood Spark]

If West Brom beat Liverpool next weekend .... unlikely I know but nevertheless possible .... the touts are going to have a field-day at Ewood the following week.

[incy wincy little spider]

They ran out of food in Darwen end. Not sure if thats because of fans getting there early and spending more or just under-ordering. Unreserved seating is a great idea because fans arrive early and eat all the pies!

[Hughesy]

Thats the key - unreserved seating means people arrive earlier to get the best seats, but that then gives them more time to spend cash and therefore boost our profits further.

[Ricky]

How about just keeping this one on topic.

[Hughesy]

Good work Ricky.

[Hughesy]

Keep it on topic eh, or we will have another thread closed!

Does anyone know if Rovers are doing any sort of 'initiative' for the West Brom game?

Surely West Brom will want a large ticket allocation if they still stand a chance of staying up that day?

[philipl]

Keep it on topic eh, or we will have another thread closed!

Does anyone know if Rovers are doing any sort of 'initiative' for the West Brom game?

Surely West Brom will want a large ticket allocation if they still stand a chance of staying up that day?

Doesn't the current initiative cover the West Brom game as well? - three games for £20 was my recollection.

Last I heard was the Baggies were expecting 1,800 at Ewood; Darwen End upper holds 3,000 doesn't it?

[Hughesy]

Yeah I mean on top of that initiative - thats already sold out.

Im hoping we can get a more or less full house for the final game - especially if the baggies can avoid the drop on the final day. It should be good fun, especially with Tugay saying farewell too.

[mellison24]

In terms of ticket prices, other than a season ticket, i wud suggest a 'ticket package' of all category B games for 150quid (for my price range - student) in the lower tier of the darwen end. I believe full season ticket prices are to be frozen again this year? (so thats 199quid for me).

Age range/Season Ticket/Cat B game package

Adult/250-300quid/200

Student or over65's/200-250/150

Juniors/125/100

(plus all 'adult ticket 10quid plus kids ticket for an extra pound' offers at cup games etc etc)

And in the case of the big 4, still only give them the upper tier of the darwen end. Allow seperate offer of 70quid package for ManUre, Liverpool, ARSEnal and Chelski games?

(hope i sound reasonable AND affordable to both the club and fans here.....)

[Bob the Builder]

I did a bit of messing about with Excel last night I reckon restricting the away fans to a 3k allocation would cost nearly £900k.

So the questions should be

1. Is moving the away fans further from the pitch worth a couple of places in the league?

2. How many of the people attracted down by this offer would want to come again (maybe the club could hand out a survey out at the last game in the Darwen end with a prize incentive to complete, a ds lite or similar). Also would they really come down in winter?

3, How could we manage the pricing so that we can have cheep tickets/offers in home areas but have away fans paying full price? could we move the family stand into half of the riverside and have upper tier tickets charged at a higher rate?

4, What has made this offer more attractive to the wavering support than previous attempts? give away prices? grouping of games? relegation battle?

5, How would we cope segregation wise for the games against Man U and Liverpool and god forbid the Dingles? We still had 4,500 empty seats in home areas against Portsmouth.

John Williams has some thinking to do over the next weeks

[BrianPotter]

Pretty sure that normal Category B prices apply for this game. So no offer over and above the 3 for £20 which is sold out.

Shame really, I think if they'd have offered some reduced prices in other areas of the ground we could have a got a pretty big gate for this one.

I suppose we cant expect it really considering what the club has done already but you would think the fact that the offer is sold out would have made them think about reducing prices in other areas for this one.

[philipl]

There is a very strong probability that all of Boro, Newcastle and Hull will still be on 34 points or less come this time next week in which case the Baggies will theoretically be playing for Premiership survival- that would completely change the profile of the match and the demand for tickets. Difficult for the club to pre-guess what the situation would be when the tickets were placed on sale (Rovers could have been in need of the 3 points for survival even).

I hope the Board has recognised the possibility of 24,000 being once again the Rovers' base home crowd. I would hope the Darwen End initiative of £20 for three less attractive games could be repeated next season as well- I guess it will come down to the balance between ST and walk-on prices to avoid under-cutting the ST offer.

As has been pointed out, reducing the availability of away seats for Man U etc games comes at a big cost to the club. The demand for away seats for those games of course is such that it is always much more difficult for casual Rovers supporters to get in because of the infiltration fear- that would be much greater if only 3,000 rather than the usual 7,500+ tickets are available.

[Hughesy]

Can anyone give me this info, I need to know the number of away fans at each home game for the following:

Hull

Arsenal

Fulham

Middlesbrough

Chelsea

Sunderland

Man City

Newcastle

Bolton

Villa

Everton

West Ham - 4k?

[Jordan]

There is a very strong probability that all of Boro, Newcastle and Hull will still be on 34 points or less come this time next week in which case the Baggies will theoretically be playing for Premiership survival- that would completely change the profile of the match and the demand for tickets. Difficult for the club to pre-guess what the situation would be when the tickets were placed on sale (Rovers could have been in need of the 3 points for survival even).

I hope the Board has recognised the possibility of 24,000 being once again the Rovers' base home crowd. I would hope the Darwen End initiative of £20 for three less attractive games could be repeated next season as well- I guess it will come down to the balance between ST and walk-on prices to avoid under-cutting the ST offer.

As has been pointed out, reducing the availability of away seats for Man U etc games comes at a big cost to the club. The demand for away seats for those games of course is such that it is always much more difficult for casual Rovers supporters to get in because of the infiltration fear- that would be much greater if only 3,000 rather than the usual 7,500+ tickets are available.

They will know how many tickets have been sold for the 3 games for £20 offer. I would imagine they would use the unsold tickets to go to West Brom fans and segregate this bit off in the Darwen lower. I would imagine it would be say 1/4 or 1/3 of the stand.

[gumboots]

They will know how many tickets have been sold for the 3 games for £20 offer. I would imagine they would use the unsold tickets to go to West Brom fans and segregate this bit off in the Darwen lower. I would imagine it would be say 1/4 or 1/3 of the stand.

Very much doubt they'll do that as the whole idea has been to surround the pitch with Rovers fans. It's safer anyway to keep them in the upper tier, thus preventing them from a potential pitch invasion and trouble for our club if they were to manage to stay up.

[Derby Blue]

They will know how many tickets have been sold for the 3 games for £20 offer. I would imagine they would use the unsold tickets to go to West Brom fans and segregate this bit off in the Darwen lower. I would imagine it would be say 1/4 or 1/3 of the stand.

I thought the 3 for £20 tickets had sold out? Won't it be a bit difficult to segregate a 1/4 of the lower tier as the concourse is one area with a barrier in the middle - for normal segratation.

[Jordan]

I thought the 3 for £20 tickets had sold out? Won't it be a bit difficult to segregate a 1/4 of the lower tier as the concourse is one area with a barrier in the middle - for normal segratation.

Didnt think it was sold out but good point regarding the concourse. Looks like they will have a max 3000 tickets then.

[b12_simon]

Didnt think it was sold out but good point regarding the concourse. Looks like they will have a max 3000 tickets then.

I think all (or most) of the Darwen End lower has been sold but maybe people have bought 3 tickets but only intended to go to 2 games. The Darwen End certainly felt full on Saturday, despite a few gaps at the corners.

[MarkBRFC]

I think all (or most) of the Darwen End lower has been sold but maybe people have bought 3 tickets but only intended to go to 2 games. The Darwen End certainly felt full on Saturday, despite a few gaps at the corners.

Plus the club were not allowed to sell every seat in the darwen end due to it being unreserved seating, they have to leave a certain amount (10%?) unsold.

[AggyBlue]

I think all (or most) of the Darwen End lower has been sold but maybe people have bought 3 tickets but only intended to go to 2 games. The Darwen End certainly felt full on Saturday, despite a few gaps at the corners.

I thought it had been said that with unreserved seating not all tickets can be sold.

Therefore there has to be some empty seats.

[Hughesy]

ALL SOLD OUT.

We had to leave 10% unsold by law.

There will be no West Brom fans in there.

[BlueWhiteDynamite]

unless them clever WBA fans purchased their tickets through the 3 for £20 !!

[waggy]

rovers could easily give wba,the lower tier and let 3k rovers fans in the upper tier,when full it could let the others in the riverside,all the club has to do,is leave a sticker on a available seat