[Archived] FF Thread

[Rover_Shaun]

Is it true you have to roll your right trouser leg up to the knee and expose your left nipple when greeting another FF member?

Only when boarding a plane to Pune

[thenodrog]

That was the old greeting I believe VF...... it was amended a couple of years ago to include 'whilst biting a chicken's head off'.

[AndyC]

please keep the negativity off this thread- its so dull.

fernherst is trying to be open here - lets treat him with respect before this turns into another thread bashing a particular group like all the rest have gone recently!

[Rover_Shaun]

Humour bypass alert

[AndyNeil]

That was the old greeting I believe VF...... it was amended a couple of years ago to include 'whilst biting a chicken's head off'.

I suppose that rules out the vegetarian supporters then - damn, I knew there was a base we didn't have covered!

[Rover_Shaun]

What kind of things do the FF talk about?

Do the club have a commitment to implement any recommendations?

Has the FF relationship with the club changed since the take over?

[AndyNeil]

What kind of things do the FF talk about?

Do the club have a commitment to implement any recommendations?

Has the FF relationship with the club changed since the take over?

What kind of things do the FF talk about? - do you mean during the meetings or before/after the meeting when minutes aren't being taken?

Do the club have a commitment to implement any recommendations? - none whatsoever, as well as raising issues the club will also, from time to time, use the forum as a soundboard for any potential ideas, schemes, initiatives they are thinking about running.

Has the FF relationship with the club changed since the take over? - it depends what you call 'the club'. In general I wouldn't say it has changed with the people from the club who were here pre-Venkys who attend the meetings, although we did go through a period were it was obvious that people from the club either wouldn't or couldn't provide answers to various questions put to them. As for people who attend the meetings and are here post-Venkys, that is impossible to answer.

[Rover_Shaun]

On my last point it was more a case of does the club have the same enthusiasm for acting on FF recommendations as they were under the previous 'competent' administration team (John Williams era)

[AndyNeil]

IMO they do, yes - however it is worth bearing in mind that the club will be working with much reduced budgets (I'd imagine) since our self-imposed relegation so the scope for spending money on non-'football' activities will probably be greatly reduced.

[AndyC]

Humour bypass alert

i wasnt talking about anyone who had posted yet! just bored of people ruining threads at the moment with infighting about who's group is better. it was more of a plea to not let this thread go the same way

p.s. its the left trouser not the right ;-)

[Rover_Shaun]

My apologies Andy

[the original david brent]

Fernhurst,

is one of the purposes of this thread to enable us to aire concerns about matters, and then perhaps you can relay those on to the club?

Or is that not the purpose of this thread, and it's merely for you to explain the role of FF etc.?

In brief I have real concerns that the club are not doing enough to attract junior support from the local area, and therefore not doing enough to safeguard support for the future.

If it is the purpose then i will do a more detailed post outlining my concerns. If it isn't then i wont waste anymore time!

[Rover_Shaun]

IMO they do, yes - however it is worth bearing in mind that the club will be working with much reduced budgets (I'd imagine) since our self-imposed relegation so the scope for spending money on non-'football' activities will probably be greatly reduced.

I know club/fan relations are at a low ebb, and whilst prices are already low, have the club any interest in running a ticket offer like they have in the past.

Say, for example, after Easter we have a chance of making the playoffs, or cementing a place in the playoff,s would the club look at a 3 game offer (Derby, Huddersfield, Palace) to get bums on seats. Say 3 games for the price of two (the Palace B grade game being free)

[AndyNeil]

Feel free to write away David, I look forward to reading a more detailed point...

[AndyNeil]

I know club/fan relations are at a low ebb, and whilst prices are already low, have the club any interest in running a ticket offer like they have in the past.

Say, for example, after Easter we have a chance of making the playoffs, or cementing a place in the playoff,s would the club look at a 3 game offer (Derby, Huddersfield, Palace) to get bums on seats. Say 3 games for the price of two (the Palace B grade game being free)

The club have far better qualified marketing people than me and am sure are always looking for an opportunity to put extra bums on seats - which in turn leads to increased sales of pints, pies, programme, snacks, etc...

[Rover_Shaun]

The club have far better qualified marketing people than me

Are you sure? 50% less fans, scant sponsorship, no shirt sponsor etc etc

[the original david brent]

Cheers Fernhurst.

As stated I have concerns that the club are not doing enough to attract junior support. Now, more than ever, the Club should be trying to get to youngsters when they are young enough, or else we are in real danger of losing a generation of supporters as happened in the 70s and 80s. Our support levels recovered from that lost generation. I fear if the club do not pull their finger out now in trying to attract the younger generation to Rovers, our support base will never recover.

Our support has taken a real hit in the last 2-3 years. Where is our future support going to come from? Being out of the top division and continued (mis) ownership by Venkys will not help. But there are other concerns regarding our support base. Changing demographics in Blackburn, whilst something of a taboo discussion, is an obvious factor which may affect Rovers support in the future. Emergence of other local teams is affecting / will affect our support base in places like Rishton, Great Harwood, Accrington, Bamber Bridge etc.

For all of these reasons, the club has got to do more to attract youngsters, and get them supporting their local team before they are lost to Man Utd etc.

When I grew up in Darwen, most children wore Rovers shirts. I barely see kids wearing Rovers shirts these days in Blackburn, Darwen and other local towns. They mainly wear Utd, City, Chelsea, Liverpool shirts. I appreciate that Rovers were an established Premier League Side when I grew up, winning the Premier League, and that obviously helped.

However, when I was a primary school child in the mid 90s, Rovers coaches came into every primary school in Darwen and did football coaching. Everybody loved it. The 'Rovers' name was exposed to kids. Coupled with that, at least twice a season, Rovers organised bus trips and free tickets for each primary school to go to games, and a free or discounted ticket for the parent. Many kids supported rovers on the back of incentives like this, and continued to support Rovers thereafter.

I do not see anything like this anymore. Do Rovers still coach in schools? Are trips still organised for school children and parents?

I know there was a kids for a quid v Birmingham City, but with the caveat that the kid must sign up to the Junior Rovers or else that cannot go. Young Jimmy is not interested in completing paperwork; he wants to buy his pound ticket on the day.

Rovers should be going into every school within a 10 mile radius, do coaching, make the kids aware of the history of the club, organise school trips to Ewood, organise parent / kid free tickets to matchdays, do more quid for kid schemes etc.

Surely the cost of this will be recouped with revenue on match days and these kids / parents returning in the future and hopefully supporting Rovers for good.

Just my thoughts; I hope my concerns are raised and addressed.

Thanks

[cn174]

I do not see anything like this anymore. Do Rovers still coach in schools? Are trips still organised for school children and parents?

I know there was a kids for a quid v Birmingham City, but with the caveat that the kid must sign up to the Junior Rovers or else that cannot go. Young Jimmy is not interested in completing paperwork; he wants to buy his pound ticket on the day.

Rovers do do coaching in schools and pre-match coaching at the BRIC before games. http://www.brfctrust.co.uk I don't think it is on the same scale as it used to be (I remember going to Witton Park then going to Rovers)

However I think with the coaching in schools the problem is money. Schools have to pay Rovers to go in and coach kids, it's not free, and of course neither they nor the Community Trust have much spare money. The BRFC Trust is funded from external sources which have taken a big hit now we're not in the Premierleague. A lot of the funding too is directly linked to a specific project ie Kickz

[only2garners]

Aggy Blue made a statement on the Action Group thread that he knows people that have tried to get on the Fans Forum and have been turned down. I thought it was more appropriate to answer it here.

I have been secretary of the Forum for 6 years now (I joined at the same time as Fernhurst Rover out of the ashes of BRISA). In that time I am only aware of one person whose application has been turned down and that was because they were employed by the club at the time. I'm getting forgetful in my dotage but I can't remember anyone else. What happened before 2007 I don't know.

[only2garners]

Fernhurst, I've known people that have tried to get on the FF and been knocked back.

Aggy - I've replied to this in the FF thread that Fernhurst Rover has set up, to save this thread drifting off topic.

[Glenn]

I've been on even longer than you John (and when I applied I didn't know any existing members and did it by writing to the FF c/o the club as it said in the programme) and I don't recall anyone ever being turned down either. If they were I don't recall it being discussed. I remember on a couple of occasions (one just after the Pune trip and one a few years before) we did have the rare situation of having more people interested than places, so we had a waiting list and as people dropped off, previous applicants were invited on, but never somebody flatly denied.

Sorry, I merged the FF stuff from the AG thread into this one, which may make it a little disjointed.

[AndyC]

Cheers Fernhurst.

As stated I have concerns that the club are not doing enough to attract junior support. Now, more than ever, the Club should be trying to get to youngsters when they are young enough, or else we are in real danger of losing a generation of supporters as happened in the 70s and 80s. Our support levels recovered from that lost generation. I fear if the club do not pull their finger out now in trying to attract the younger generation to Rovers, our support base will never recover.

Our support has taken a real hit in the last 2-3 years. Where is our future support going to come from? Being out of the top division and continued (mis) ownership by Venkys will not help. But there are other concerns regarding our support base. Changing demographics in Blackburn, whilst something of a taboo discussion, is an obvious factor which may affect Rovers support in the future. Emergence of other local teams is affecting / will affect our support base in places like Rishton, Great Harwood, Accrington, Bamber Bridge etc.

For all of these reasons, the club has got to do more to attract youngsters, and get them supporting their local team before they are lost to Man Utd etc.

When I grew up in Darwen, most children wore Rovers shirts. I barely see kids wearing Rovers shirts these days in Blackburn, Darwen and other local towns. They mainly wear Utd, City, Chelsea, Liverpool shirts. I appreciate that Rovers were an established Premier League Side when I grew up, winning the Premier League, and that obviously helped.

However, when I was a primary school child in the mid 90s, Rovers coaches came into every primary school in Darwen and did football coaching. Everybody loved it. The 'Rovers' name was exposed to kids. Coupled with that, at least twice a season, Rovers organised bus trips and free tickets for each primary school to go to games, and a free or discounted ticket for the parent. Many kids supported rovers on the back of incentives like this, and continued to support Rovers thereafter.

I do not see anything like this anymore. Do Rovers still coach in schools? Are trips still organised for school children and parents?

I know there was a kids for a quid v Birmingham City, but with the caveat that the kid must sign up to the Junior Rovers or else that cannot go. Young Jimmy is not interested in completing paperwork; he wants to buy his pound ticket on the day.

Rovers should be going into every school within a 10 mile radius, do coaching, make the kids aware of the history of the club, organise school trips to Ewood, organise parent / kid free tickets to matchdays, do more quid for kid schemes etc.

Surely the cost of this will be recouped with revenue on match days and these kids / parents returning in the future and hopefully supporting Rovers for good.

Just my thoughts; I hope my concerns are raised and addressed.

Thanks

I'm afraid were now bottom of the league in marketing and sales.

In the late 90's, and early 2000's one of the reasons why the football in the community scheme was so widespread was due to massive commercial sponsorship by McDonsld's who helped to not only fund a lot of activity, but also communicated throughout all the stores in Blackburn etc.

Sadly, we've done such a @#/? poor job at both attracting and then keeping sponsors , that it makes schemes like the ' fitc' start to wither and die !

[Ewood Spark]

Aggy Blue made a statement on the Action Group thread that he knows people that have tried to get on the Fans Forum and have been turned down. I thought it was more appropriate to answer it here.

I have been secretary of the Forum for 6 years now (I joined at the same time as Fernhurst Rover out of the ashes of BRISA). In that time I am only aware of one person whose application has been turned down and that was because they were employed by the club at the time. I'm getting forgetful in my dotage but I can't remember anyone else. What happened before 2007 I don't know.

Well I have been a member since January 2000, and in all that time it is more likely that a fan would be 'press ganged' to join the forum than refused membership! Until the Forum's invite to Pune in 2011, despite efforts to publicise the forum through various messageboards and features in the match program, very few people seemed interested in interacting with this well established conduit of fan/club communication.

[AndyNeil]

Its looks as though the Fans Forum meeting on Monday could be an interesting affair, with the first item on the agenda the managerial appointment process!

For a full run down of the agenda, click the link for the Fans Forum facebook page below...

[AggyBlue]

Its looks as though the Fans Forum meeting on Monday could be an interesting affair, with the first item on the agenda the managerial appointment process!

For a full run down of the agenda, click the link for the Fans Forum facebook page below...

I thought those types of issues were out of the FF remit