[Archived] Season tickets again!

[gumboots]

Why? You may want to and you have every right to. This is not about being fickle. This is about people who have had tickets for 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years saying they can't stand it any longer. Hardly being fickle. This is about the deliberate and wilful destruction of a football club. The st money is irrelevant. Even if we sold all we had at the top asking price, it would be irrelevant. It's not enough. Voting with their feet, saying I'm not watching this miserable, hopeless dross any more is all some people can do to register their displeasure. That won't change things either, but to each his own.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Why? You may want to and you have every right to. This is not about being fickle. This is about people who have had tickets for 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years saying they can't stand it any longer. Hardly being fickle. This is about the deliberate and wilful destruction of a football club. The st money is irrelevant. Even if we sold all we had at the top asking price, it would be irrelevant. It's not enough. Voting with their feet, saying I'm not watching this miserable, hopeless dross any more is all some people can do to register their displeasure. That won't change things either, but to each his own.

How do you know it is deliberate ? I can't imagine that Venky's suddenly thought - lets buy a football club, run it into the ground and lose £10's of million in the process. When I started watching Rovers we didn't have two pennies to rub together and a ground that was falling apart. At times the football was dire - managers came and went - but Rovers remained.

I tried the "don't buy a season ticket" route to try to get rid of Kean - still ended up paying to go to virtually every match.

Unfortunately it is all the sign of a changing world - where peoples allegiance can be bought and sold depending how things are going. Believe me - if we are challenging for the title next year (unlikely I know) - a lot of fans would return irrespective of the owners, manager or how boring the football is.

BTW - I don't claim to be some form of super fan - I only bought a season ticket when prices reduced to something I could justify in the family budget. Just get frustrated that some supporters seem to want to come up with excuses as to why they aren't going - blaming everything under the sun - and then moaning when the club doesn't spend money or show ambition

[arbitro]

How do you know it is deliberate ? I can't imagine that Venky's suddenly thought - lets buy a football club, run it into the ground and lose £10's of million in the process. When I started watching Rovers we didn't have two pennies to rub together and a ground that was falling apart. At times the football was dire - managers came and went - but Rovers remained.

I tried the "don't buy a season ticket" route to try to get rid of Kean - still ended up paying to go to virtually every match.

Unfortunately it is all the sign of a changing world - where peoples allegiance can be bought and sold depending how things are going. Believe me - if we are challenging for the title next year (unlikely I know) - a lot of fans would return irrespective of the owners, manager or how boring the football is.

BTW - I don't claim to be some form of super fan - I only bought a season ticket when prices reduced to something I could justify in the family budget. Just get frustrated that some supporters seem to want to come up with excuses as to why they aren't going - blaming everything under the sun - and then moaning when the club doesn't spend money or show ambition

I really don't care if it has been delberate or not. Mistake after mistake have put us where we are and I would not criticise anybody who did not buy a season ticket and fell out of love with what our club has become. The real villans in this saga are several thousand miles away and seemingly don't give a flying one. Our collective revulsion should be aimed at them.

[Stuart]

And that would just show how fickle Rovers fans are.

People say about ambition from the owners - where is the ambition from the supporters - they should put their money where their mouth is and buy a season ticket.

Is that a joke? If not, it's about as ignorant a comment I've ever read on this board.

As things stand there are few reasons to buy a season ticket this season and ambition is certainly not one of them. The only reasons I can see are out of duty/loyalty, social/habitual, or maybe out of morbid curiosity. There is nothing to be excited or even proud about, let alone ambitious.

The only club in football that has a problem with FFP and we have one of the richest owners outside the PL. We are being made mugs of. Again.

[gumboots]

I didn't say venkys did it deliberately but someone sure did. And even now there are measures the raos could take to give the club a better chance of pulling out of the mess they're in, but they stubbornly stick with the same crew, so what's not wilful about that. Why is every reason given for not buying a season ticket an excuse? It's not about trying to force change now as it was with Kean. It's gone beyond that. People know it will make no difference if they refuse to buy a season ticket, but they no longer know what to do that might make a difference and so they think. Why put myself through that again. I've stood on grotty terraces watching poor players lose matches too but we'd sing that we were the greatest team etc because we felt part of everything. We felt like we mattered. When fans are an irrelevant irritant nuisance and are treated as such then who can blame them from feeling the games not worth the candle?

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Is that a joke? If not, it's about as ignorant a comment I've ever read on this board.

As things stand there are few reasons to buy a season ticket this season and ambition is certainly not one of them. The only reasons I can see are out of duty/loyalty, social/habitual, or maybe out of morbid curiosity. There is nothing to be excited or even proud about, let alone ambitious.

The only club in football that has a problem with FFP and we have one of the richest owners outside the PL. We are being made mugs of. Again.

You think so - you only need to look back pre-Venky's. Fans moaning the club wasn't spending, moaning about the quality of football under Allardyce etc. etc.

No idea how old you are Stuart - but there was a day when Rovers only ambition was to stay afloat - but loyal fans still came through the gate. Looks like we may be heading back towards that - especially if the Rao's decide they have had enough - do you think all those fans that were there in the Premiership days would suddenly return because they had their club back ?

I totally accept people have a choice whether to buy tickets etc - but don't then come on here moaning about other peoples lack of ambition. TBH - it was too much misplaced ambition that got us in the financial mess we are now - handing out big contracts to over the hill players - in a vain attempt to get us promoted.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

I didn't say venkys did it deliberately but someone sure did. And even now there are measures the raos could take to give the club a better chance of pulling out of the mess they're in, but they stubbornly stick with the same crew, so what's not wilful about that. Why is every reason given for not buying a season ticket an excuse? It's not about trying to force change now as it was with Kean. It's gone beyond that. People know it will make no difference if they refuse to buy a season ticket, but they no longer know what to do that might make a difference and so they think. Why put myself through that again. I've stood on grotty terraces watching poor players lose matches too but we'd sing that we were the greatest team etc because we felt part of everything. We felt like we mattered. When fans are an irrelevant irritant nuisance and are treated as such then who can blame them from feeling the games not worth the candle?

What real influence have fans ever had - beyond supporting on the terraces ? People look back on a day when Garner used to drink in the local pub with the fans - those days are long gone and nothing to do with the owners.

[JBiz]

Just read this on twitter and it cracked me up;

"I'm rovers till we sell someone, I'm rovers till we sell someone, I know I am, I'm sure I am, I'm rovers till we sell someone"

I'm not taking the Mick out of you GB I just thought this was an apt quote for those saying 2000 fans will not renew because if cairney going.

[den]

What real influence have fans ever had - beyond supporting on the terraces ? People look back on a day when Garner used to drink in the local pub with the fans - those days are long gone and nothing to do with the owners.

Many an underperforming manager has lost his job on the back of fan unrest.

Bottom line is some folk are prepared to use their voice when they feel change is needed. I get the impression you're in the "blindly supporting anything that happens" group of super fans?

[gumboots]

Cairney alone is irrelevant. I don't think 2000 people won't renew because of that. It's another symptom of the sickness that has inveded our club. What those like dmtp seem to be missing is that although fans have never had that much power, they've always FELT relevant, even if much of what they had was an illusion. It's the KNOWLEDGE that you are irrelevant and the FEELING that the owners and those in charge don't even want to pay lip service to pleasing you combined that are leading to fans not renewing. Fans have to feel appreciated otherwise the relationship with the club can be broken. When John Williams had the we are the 12th man posters and bumper stickers around, we weren't actually doing anything that made our players better. We weren't actually preventing goals going in or converting chances, but we felt more important and valued because, even though we knew players would come and go, we knew that the club was well run and we felt a valued part of what was going on. Now we don't. It's heading into divorce territory for many. Some haven't reached that. Some, like me, are desperately hoping that reconciliation is still possible, others have already entered proceedings or completed them. It's hard. We all want to support, to continue to be there for our team, but for some it's just not happening.

[blueboy3333]

Why? You may want to and you have every right to. This is not about being fickle. This is about people who have had tickets for 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years saying they can't stand it any longer. Hardly being fickle. This is about the deliberate and wilful destruction of a football club. The st money is irrelevant. Even if we sold all we had at the top asking price, it would be irrelevant. It's not enough. Voting with their feet, saying I'm not watching this miserable, hopeless dross any more is all some people can do to register their displeasure. That won't change things either, but to each his own.

was it you who said you thought the same about Allardyce's football but you carried on watching it because it was 'winning' football?

Many an underperforming manager has lost his job on the back of fan unrest.

Bottom line is some folk are prepared to use their voice when they feel change is needed. I get the impression you're in the "blindly supporting anything that happens" group of super fans?

or just a fan who supports his club...and then looks on in amazement when 28K turn up for a cup match against a 'big team'

[JBiz]

...But comparing your club to a partner you choose is completely different. I was always gonna be a rover and I always will. Circumstance will dictate my season ticket, but whilst I'm living near and can afford- I'm gonna be there.

That's before even factoring in anything else, like ownership or style or manager or level.

It's a bit like family- you can't choose it, it has ups and downs, sad and happy, constantly changing and unique to you like other families are.

I get what you're saying but for me it's just part of my life they can't take off me. They'd have to shut the place down. That doesn't make me a superfan or whatever people think, it's just part of my life that I want to keep.

I really do understand but I've never seen it as "form of entertainment" or felt as if the club owed me anything. The memories I have from that place will stay with me forever- from the post champions party to Yakubu being booed for scoring a goal and hugging a bald man.

[Stuart]

You think so - you only need to look back pre-Venky's. Fans moaning the club wasn't spending, moaning about the quality of football under Allardyce etc. etc.

No idea how old you are Stuart - but there was a day when Rovers only ambition was to stay afloat - but loyal fans still came through the gate. Looks like we may be heading back towards that - especially if the Rao's decide they have had enough - do you think all those fans that were there in the Premiership days would suddenly return because they had their club back ?

I totally accept people have a choice whether to buy tickets etc - but don't then come on here moaning about other peoples lack of ambition. TBH - it was too much misplaced ambition that got us in the financial mess we are now - handing out big contracts to over the hill players - in a vain attempt to get us promoted.

When Venkys leave I will accept your point. Until they do then they are either part of the solution or part of the problem. In my view it is the latter, based on what they have done (not done) rather than what they have said.

I'm old enough to remember what it was like before the PL and we are heading back there. Scores of kids who should now be Rovers fans are not. We are back to that. Except without the hope of a Jack Walker to put money in. We are back to where we were except without hope of change. That's without Venkys - with them there is/was a chance but they are showing us nothing but contempt.

The fans have no power at all to change anything. Once of a day "Bowyer Out", "Kean Out" or "Sack The Board" would have had repercussions at the club. Nowadays they'd just turn up the P.A. system to drown it out. People have lost faith in the club but also in each other.

I keep hearing and reading posts about how the fans are too fickle and fair weather. This is true for many of those who abandoned us after falling out of the PL but not all - and we will never know how many went because of VenKean and how many were simply plastic. But the point is that many of those who have stayed and swallowed the BS are just as bad. "We are where we are" is a "convenient" (if I may use the word in the same way tat Gordon used it to describe Venkys) excuse for accepting every backward step - whilst we are still falling. We should have united against what was happening at the club but those closest to the club (let's call them superfans) made it their mission to shout down the dissenters and say they weren't real fans. Now they say "we are were we are" - maybe to mask their guilt, who knows.

Then we have the unintentionally ironic: "I'm Rovers til we sell someone". Brilliant. Have these people just woken up from comas or are they obtuse to the point of stupidity? This is not about the loss of one player. It's about the loss of yet another player - on top of everything else going on. A relatively decent player - a long way short of the quality of only three seasons ago, and yet still one of the best of a bad bunch.

People say we need to sell to get out of the embargo as though it's some kind of goal or opportunity. But this embargo which will only serve to make us a League One club more quickly. The only way this ends (relatively) well is if FFP rids us of Venkys and leaves us still having a Football League club to support.

This next season will be very very tough on those fans brave enough to watch the car crash. Well not so much the crash as the clearing up of the wreckage. Superfans of course but the plastics have been replaced with rubber neckers!

[gumboots]

was it you who said you thought the same about Allardyce's football but you carried on watching it because it was 'winning' football?

'

The only thing that made much of the football under Allardyce palatable was that we generally won the home games we expected to win. Other than that I wasn't happy with him. But that's the point. We could watch it because, dull and boring as it often was, a win felt like a win. It was not a hopeless situation. I look at us now and find it hard to work out where the points will come from next season, and that's before we sell our striker(s). One will go certainly. It could easily be 2.

[JBiz]

The only thing that made much of the football under Allardyce palatable was that we generally won the home games we expected to win. Other than that I wasn't happy with him. But that's the point. We could watch it because, dull and boring as it often was, a win felt like a win. It was not a hopeless situation. I look at us now and find it hard to work out where the points will come from next season, and that's before we sell our striker(s). One will go certainly. It could easily be 2.

Maybe we should start a kick starter to pay BlueBruce to find the statistics to finally debunk the myth that Big Sam serves up anti football compared to the rest of his compatriots!

If anything was to blame for the overall product (not just at Ewood) becoming less exciting- it's the financial pyramid in English football. When relegation results in what we've seen first hand- it's little wonder that teams who have less resources need points (substance) over performances (style).

I think BlueBruce would find that at least half the managers in top division would employ more defensive tactics when necessary, save certain players for certain games, maximise opportunities at set pieces and use pro zone statistics to find weaknesses in opposition be it via the long diagonal or flooding the midfield.

[JBiz]

. A relatively decent player - a long way short of the quality of only three seasons ago, and yet still one of the best of a bad bunch.

s!

Cairney ?

I think you're mixing up quality with expense.

[Rover_Shaun]

5 years on and it's still the fans fault. They'll be chuckling in Pune as fans rip into fans. Such a shame.

[Stuart]

Cairney ?

I think you're mixing up quality with expense.

Eh?

[JBiz]

Eh?

That's what I thought when I read that part of your post.

[Stuart]

You don't think Cairney was one of our best midfielders?

Remember class is permanent form is temporary.

[roverandout]

I am one of those who couldn't stick venkys lies and obstinance, any normal football club would listen to the fans but these lot look on supporters with contempt, why should I part with my hard earned money when the likes of bowyer and venkys treat supporters like idiots, once venkys et al have left, I will think about going back

[Al]

When Venkys leave I will accept your point. Until they do then they are either part of the solution or part of the problem. In my view it is the latter, based on what they have done (not done) rather than what they have said.

I'm old enough to remember what it was like before the PL and we are heading back there. Scores of kids who should now be Rovers fans are not. We are back to that. Except without the hope of a Jack Walker to put money in. We are back to where we were except without hope of change. That's without Venkys - with them there is/was a chance but they are showing us nothing but contempt.

The fans have no power at all to change anything. Once of a day "Bowyer Out", "Kean Out" or "Sack The Board" would have had repercussions at the club. Nowadays they'd just turn up the P.A. system to drown it out. People have lost faith in the club but also in each other.

I keep hearing and reading posts about how the fans are too fickle and fair weather. This is true for many of those who abandoned us after falling out of the PL but not all - and we will never know how many went because of VenKean and how many were simply plastic. But the point is that many of those who have stayed and swallowed the BS are just as bad. "We are where we are" is a "convenient" (if I may use the word in the same way tat Gordon used it to describe Venkys) excuse for accepting every backward step - whilst we are still falling. We should have united against what was happening at the club but those closest to the club (let's call them superfans) made it their mission to shout down the dissenters and say they weren't real fans. Now they say "we are were we are" - maybe to mask their guilt, who knows.

Then we have the unintentionally ironic: "I'm Rovers til we sell someone". Brilliant. Have these people just woken up from comas or are they obtuse to the point of stupidity? This is not about the loss of one player. It's about the loss of yet another player - on top of everything else going on. A relatively decent player - a long way short of the quality of only three seasons ago, and yet still one of the best of a bad bunch.

People say we need to sell to get out of the embargo as though it's some kind of goal or opportunity. But this embargo which will only serve to make us a League One club more quickly. The only way this ends (relatively) well is if FFP rids us of Venkys and leaves us still having a Football League club to support.

This next season will be very very tough on those fans brave enough to watch the car crash. Well not so much the crash as the clearing up of the wreckage. Superfans of course but the plastics have been replaced with rubber neckers!

The bit in bold is the relevant point.

Cairney ?

I think you're mixing up quality with expense.

And I think you are mixing up footballers with Donkeys

[JBiz]

You don't think Cairney was one of our best midfielders?

Remember class is permanent form is temporary.

I thought you said he was quality but still inferior to what we had three years ago. Still scratching my head really. Compared to who? If I've misread no worries.

[Bucksrover]

I am one of those who couldn't stick venkys lies and obstinance, any normal football club would listen to the fans but these lot look on supporters with contempt, why should I part with my hard earned money when the likes of bowyer and venkys treat supporters like idiots, once venkys et al have left, I will think about going back

Back to where?! - Are you sure there will be an ewood when they leave?!

If fans stay away nobody will want to buy us so venkys will sell off all the assets to re-coup whatever cash they can then close venky's london limited which is rovers.

As I have posted previously, staying away from Ewood hurts Rovers. Venkys will get some cash back either way - either from an offer, or a sell off of assets. I would rather us be a club with good attendances to encourage us to be bought as a going concern.

[Waggy76]

You don't think Cairney was one of our best midfielders?

Remember class is permanent form is temporary.

He was one of our best midfielders but look at the others in midfield !

Twice nowt springs too mind !

The class comment applies to players like Dunn not Cairney !

I am one of those who couldn't stick venkys lies and obstinance, any normal football club would listen to the fans but these lot look on supporters with contempt, why should I part with my hard earned money when the likes of bowyer and venkys treat supporters like idiots, once venkys et al have left, I will think about going back

Excellent post !