[Archived] The Championship 2015-2016

[tomphil]

Whilst we talk about salary caps and FFP and all that it's about time some focus went onto the TV companies. By that I mean a bit more parity were clubs are shown live to make it fairer in the distribution of money outside of the Prem.

There should be a guarantee to show clubs a minimum amount of times. Yes there has to be some flexibility as the season pans out because the main focus becomes on promotion and relegation but if they show the likes of Leeds 5 times in the first few months then they become embroiled in a promotion chase they could end up being on 15 times. Just not fair really in financial terms.

[Stuart]

Whilst we talk about salary caps and FFP and all that it's about time some focus went onto the TV companies. By that I mean a bit more parity were clubs are shown live to make it fairer in the distribution of money outside of the Prem.

There should be a guarantee to show clubs a minimum amount of times. Yes there has to be some flexibility as the season pans out because the main focus becomes on promotion and relegation but if they show the likes of Leeds 5 times in the first few months then they become embroiled in a promotion chase they could end up being on 15 times. Just not fair really in financial terms.

The more even you try to make it though the more the clubs with greater marketability (wider fan bases) will push the separate deals argument.

But again, this is self-fulfilling. Aside from family ties the overseas fan will ally themselves to the team that are most successful and on TV the most.

[Athlete]

his last promotion was with QPR in 2011.

since then he didn't achieved promotion with Leeds.

was sacked as Palace manager after a short spell there and was in the bottom 3 when he left there.

had a short spell at Qpr but wasn't appoint as full time manager there. JFH got the job instead

How did your former idol GB not get the Rotherham gig then?

[chaddyrovers]

How did your former idol GB not get the Rotherham gig then?

surely that's a question for the Rotherham owner/chairman

I suggestion to a mate on twitter about maybe giving a manager from lower leagues like John Coleman or Chris Wilder or Gareth Ainsworth a chance

[VinjayV4]

I don't there is anything sinister about Leeds being shown so much, I saw an article that showed Leeds games attracted higher ratings than anyone else in the league.

They get poor gates at Elland Road, but they do have a very big fanbase throughout all parts of Yorkshire.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6158381.ROVERS__Plan_to_seat_40_000_at_Ewood/

In this article from 1998 Williams talks about how we "must look at our town as being Lancashire" and think like a big club. Williams did maintain his viewpoint of Rovers "being a big club in a small town" (big town in my opinion) but the club never really did anywhere near enough to market across Lancashire. Certainly I made that viewpoint clear on here in the past to a somewhat overbearing extent.

There are certainly comparisons to Leeds in that regard. Obviously its more difficult now but Rovers were the only club in modern day Lancashire to have held Premier league status for years. Also the one with the most marketable name as "North End" is regional and Burnley perhaps only rivals Barnsley for being the most unmarketable name in the football league. I think the difference with Leeds is they treated the other Yorkshire towns/cities as simply a catchment area rather than rivals for support. Leeds act like they are by far the biggest club in Yorkshire and Rovers unfortunately never did that despite having an equal claim.

[perthblue02]

Leeds statement on earlier press report, making a valid point I think.

The club has, however, made it clear to both Sky and the League that it opposes the degree of control exercised by Sky over the league fixture list, and seeks transparency as to how these rights have been sold. -

http://www.leedsunited.com/news/article/h8e8yena8wx81r28eydrmdcil

[tomphil]

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6158381.ROVERS__Plan_to_seat_40_000_at_Ewood/

In this article from 1998 Williams talks about how we "must look at our town as being Lancashire" and think like a big club. Williams did maintain his viewpoint of Rovers "being a big club in a small town" (big town in my opinion) but the club never really did anywhere near enough to market across Lancashire. Certainly I made that viewpoint clear on here in the past to a somewhat overbearing extent.

There are certainly comparisons to Leeds in that regard. Obviously its more difficult now but Rovers were the only club in modern day Lancashire to have held Premier league status for years. Also the one with the most marketable name as "North End" is regional and Burnley perhaps only rivals Barnsley for being the most unmarketable name in the football league. I think the difference with Leeds is they treated the other Yorkshire towns/cities as simply a catchment area rather than rivals for support. Leeds act like they are by far the biggest club in Yorkshire and Rovers unfortunately never did that despite having an equal claim.

There was a few ticket initiatives back then and some of them didn't go down right well with locals. Our alleged catchment area is just saturated with clubs and over shadowed by the red toads etc. Winning the league we started drawing a few more from Chorley/Preston areas but that was about it. Those areas have always had a hardcore support for Rovers anyway so we were just expanding on that, didn't really last though.

I remember them doing £5 tickets at schools across Lancashire that just got abused. There were 3 or 4 guys from our local getting their hands on them via the local school and going to games. Not one a Rovers fan infact quite the opposite and they went to have a booze up and take the @#/?.

Another pal of mine was based in Lancaster and we used to go up on Friday nights sometimes. They did a deal at the Uni for students of £10 for match ticket & coach there and back, often in local pubs and clubs DJ's were handing them out free. All this whilst the likes of me were paying for an ST which wasn't that cheap at the time. It's fair to say I wasn't a fan of Williams in his early years.

The club did try across the region though but it would only ever have really caught on properly had we sustained success. Sorry but we are Blackburn Rovers not Lancashire Rovers.

[VinjayV4]

There was a few ticket initiatives back then and some of them didn't go down right well with locals. Our alleged catchment area is just saturated with clubs and over shadowed by the red toads etc. Winning the league we started drawing a few more from Chorley/Preston areas but that was about it. Those areas have always had a hardcore support for Rovers anyway so we were just expanding on that, didn't really last though.

I remember them doing £5 tickets at schools across Lancashire that just got abused. There were 3 or 4 guys from our local getting their hands on them via the local school and going to games. Not one a Rovers fan infact quite the opposite and they went to have a booze up and take the @#/?.

Another pal of mine was based in Lancaster and we used to go up on Friday nights sometimes. They did a deal at the Uni for students of £10 for match ticket & coach there and back, often in local pubs and clubs DJ's were handing them out free. All this whilst the likes of me were paying for an ST which wasn't that cheap at the time. It's fair to say I wasn't a fan of Williams in his early years.

The club did try across the region though but it would only ever have really caught on properly had we sustained success. Sorry but we are Blackburn Rovers not Lancashire Rovers.

Yeah ironically while searching the archive I saw a letter from a fan complaining about stuff like that. Even said he was going to boycott a game because of it. http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6137470.Loyal_fans__kick_in_teeth/

The first game I attended was with my school a few months before this particular interview. It does seem like Rovers stopped trying after promotion though which is no coincidence.

Williams probably had a difficult time from 98-2000 compared to the Saint John stuff of later years. When you see things like starting with 5 million plus offers for Dailly (when his club would have accepted far less) perhaps Williams was naive early on. Assuming he started the negotiations that is. Prior to that Coar always took a lot of criticism when people conveniently avoided using Jack's name. Over matters like Shearer, Eriksson, etc.

I always thought Rovers could have been the equivalent of Thenodrog's Lancashire United. Clearly Williams thought that was possible back then unless he was simply carrying out Jack's marketing directions.

[tomphil]

The time to really push it would have been when we started spending big and powering up the league eventually culminating in winning the Prem. Sadly we just didn't have the stadium then and after winning the league I suppose they didn't quite know if crowds would continue to grow or not.

The big push across the region only started when Williams arrived but sadly the club was already going backwards. Shame as maybe we could have grown but the chance went.

[VinjayV4]

The time to really push it would have been when we started spending big and powering up the league eventually culminating in winning the Prem. Sadly we just didn't have the stadium then and after winning the league I suppose they didn't quite know if crowds would continue to grow or not.

The big push across the region only started when Williams arrived but sadly the club was already going backwards. Shame as maybe we could have grown but the chance went.

If it had continued after Jack died and promotion perhaps the chance would have been taken. We already know who was responsible for preventing the rebuilding of the Riverside don't we? So we don't need many guesses to who may have cut the marketing budget or forced Williams to change his "county wide" outlook. Instead all we heard was "small town club" and "punching above weight" despite being the only EPL club in Lancashire.

[tomphil]

Well we did have talking bus shelters and taxis and buses driving around Preston advertising Rovers tickets after promotion

That was about it though so yes another chance maybe missed.

[Stuart]

If it had continued after Jack died and promotion perhaps the chance would have been taken. We already know who was responsible for preventing the rebuilding of the Riverside don't we? So we don't need many guesses to who may have cut the marketing budget or forced Williams to change his "county wide" outlook. Instead all we heard was "small town club" and "punching above weight" despite being the only EPL club in Lancashire.

Who was that?

[Mattyblue]

Another pal of mine was based in Lancaster and we used to go up on Friday nights sometimes. They did a deal at the Uni for students of £10 for match ticket & coach there and back, often in local pubs and clubs DJ's were handing them out free. All this whilst the likes of me were paying for an ST which wasn't that cheap at the time. It's fair to say I wasn't a fan of Williams in his early years.

But even in the late 90s there were plenty of empty seats every week, so why would you not be a fans of JW trying to fill those seats? Be they a tenner or whatever.

I can still remember the outrage at the 'Top Tenner' campaign in 98/99, irony being, most of those doing the moaning will have long stopped going.

I've been a ST holder throughout the all seater Ewood Park era and no ticket initiative has ever bothered me, even if a few hundred of the thousands given cheap/free tickets ended up as regulars then it was worth it.

[VinjayV4]

Leeds statement on earlier press report, making a valid point I think.

The club has, however, made it clear to both Sky and the League that it opposes the degree of control exercised by Sky over the league fixture list, and seeks transparency as to how these rights have been sold. -

http://www.leedsunited.com/news/article/h8e8yena8wx81r28eydrmdcil

Not sure what Leeds fans expected from Cellino it couldn't have been any more clear he's a nutcase.

Here's a story on Cellino taking legal action after fans paid for an advert outside Elland Road calling for him to go.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leeds-supporters-launch-cellino-out-7354143

Those same fans might also pay for a plane to be flown over Elland Road with the same protest message. How original.

Who was that?

Who do you think?

[tomphil]

But even in the late 90s there were plenty of empty seats every week, so why would you not be a fans of JW trying to fill those seats? Be they a tenner or whatever.

I can still remember the outrage at the 'Top Tenner' campaign in 98/99, irony being, most of those doing the moaning will have long stopped going.

I've been a ST holder throughout the all seater Ewood Park era and no ticket initiative has ever bothered me, even if a few hundred of the thousands given cheap/free tickets ended up as regulars then it was worth it.

The tenner thing or the student thing didn't really bother me when it's odd games. Groups of blokes going on £5 kids tickets did and I can't see why that wouldn't annoy people. Plus factor in they were trying to 'fill up' the stadium then and money at the club itself wasn't an issue right at that time and crowds were good. The problem was the stadium was too big for the town hence spreading the net. Whereas these days we would be trying to half fill it things are that bad and we are skint, puts a different slant on it.

[yoda]

Not sure what Leeds fans expected from Cellino it couldn't have been any more clear he's a nutcase.

Here's a story on Cellino taking legal action after fans paid for an advert outside Elland Road calling for him to go.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leeds-supporters-launch-cellino-out-7354143

Those same fans might also pay for a plane to be flown over Elland Road with the same protest message. How original.

Who do you think?

Why don't you tell us who was responsible for it. I think your answer will be incorrect

[Blue blood]

Oh I don't disagree, for the size of the city and their catchment area, they get terrible gates- 20 or so thousand for a one team city like Leeds?

However, Sky are looking at their bottom line, and I presume they do feel that they get a 'proper' atmosphere when Leeds are shown- especially if they fill the away end.

You've also got to factor in they've a lot of other towns without a football team of a high standard to draw upon. Granted most of them are rugby places but it's still a catchment area they can exploit - Wakefield, Castleford, Dewsbury, Otley - granted none are metropolises but it's more places they could attract fans from with low competition to do so.

[tomphil]

Harrogate/Wetherby and Ripon all seem to be big Leeds supporting areas as well.

[Mattyblue]

And into east Yorkshire as well, Hull fans have always been riled up with how many Leeds fans are knocking about in their neck of the woods.

[Blue Cabbage]

Rhodes starts for Boro tonight against Dirty Leeds. I'm intrigued to see how he fares in a good side.

[Doug]

Rhodezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Blue Cabbage]

.

[chaddyrovers]

Some Leeds fans have proest their owner and came up with 17 reasons for him to go

[davulsukur]

Rhodes starts for Boro tonight against Dirty Leeds. I'm intrigued to see how he fares in a good side.

If you're watching it,let us know how he gets on. Be interested to see how his overall game is for Boro.

[Blue Cabbage]

If you're watching it,let us know how he gets on. Be interested to see how his overall game is for Boro.

Will do. Only reason I'm watching it. Plus my mates a Leeds fan and hates Rovers (well the fans) love it when they get beat