[Archived] Increase Our Young Fan Base

[damo100]

I feel now is as good a time as any to get young supporters back to Ewood.

The family stand is littered with empty seats (like other stands i know).

The club should offer a wider age group say under 10's free admitance when attending with a paying adult.

The current % of these young fans is shocking something like 2% of season ticket holders, and this surely has to be addressed now!!

These young fans are the future of our club and we need them.

Any other ideas to improve this please state them.

[JHRover]

MK Dons offer free coach travel to some away games for under 18s. They did it recently at Brighton and that seems a good way to get more youngsters into the habit of following Rovers on the road.

[yoda]

More sex is the answer

[gumboots]

Did my bit. Produced 4 myself and took kids from school on cheap tickets. Had a Rovers wall in my classroom with pics fixture lists etc.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

Rovers (and almost every other club in England) are massively up against it with this. Televised football and the rise of the gloryhunter may well destroy football for good. Whenever i play up at the Soccerdome and see a kids game going on, usually none of them are wearing a Rovers shirt. It's all Manure, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or City.

And as I said in another thread, the relentless negativity and profanity spouted by many fans at football now is not something that I'd imagine appeals to kids. Unlike some of the petulant morons in their teens/early 20s that grumpily support/insult us, kids get the football bug by experiencing positive, upbeat atmospheres.

[Baz]

Put a winning team on display.

Allow the same concessions on season tickets for all areas of the ground, not just the family stand.

I don't know what facilities are in the family stand, but maybe make an area where before the game the kids can have a kick-about.

Reach out to the community and ask the kids directly what they would like to see at Ewood.

[rigger]

Rovers (and almost every other club in England) are massively up against it with this. Televised football and the rise of the gloryhunter may well destroy football for good. Whenever i play up at the Soccerdome and see a kids game going on, usually none of them are wearing a Rovers shirt. It's all Manure, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or City.

And as I said in another thread, the relentless negativity and profanity spouted by many fans at football now is not something that I'd imagine appeals to kids. Unlike some of the petulant morons in their teens/early 20s that grumpily support/insult us, kids get the football bug by experiencing positive, upbeat atmospheres.

And the kids have all bought these shirts out of there own pocketmoney have they?

[Paul]

I feel now is as good a time as any to get young supporters back to Ewood.

The family stand is littered with empty seats (like other stands i know).

The club should offer a wider age group say under 10's free admitance when attending with a paying adult.

The current % of these young fans is shocking something like 2% of season ticket holders, and this surely has to be addressed now!!

These young fans are the future of our club and we need them.

Any other ideas to improve this please state them.

Out of interest where does the 2% figure come from?

I have to say your post suggests you are unaware of how active Rovers have been and I believe still are.

To my knowledge over more than the past 25 years, when my kids showed an interest, Rovers have put a massive amount of time, money and initiative in to attracting young fans and in my experience it works. There is though a big BUT and this is our changing society. I have talked about this many times over the years. It's quite simple you can make a kid a Rover but you can't make the kid stay in Blackburn. Simple as that.

I've raised four to be Rovers, three of mine and one neghbour, but only one still goes. The others simply live too far away and sadly Rovers will never overcome that issue.

JW had some great initiatives and his pricing policy helped a great deal. Sadly today we need a decent team and great ideas, the former is going to take some time.

[tomphil]

With changing demographic of the town maybe the majority of people under a certain age come from a different section of the community and just don't get into from a young age. Also the blanket coverage of the big teams is worse than ever and as kids these days grow up with the main interest being at their fingertips on a screen it can't help.

[only2garners]

Paul - the number of under 8 ST holders is 2.14%, as reported at the last Fans Forum. We discussed a number of ways we might get more young fans in. Both allowing free under 8s in other stands and increasing the age for free tickets were talked about and Alan Myers has gone away to think about these.

I made the point that it isn't until about 6 that kids really have the patience to watch the game and get involved. There is a family behind me this season who all came to the first game, including 3 under 8s - only the elder one has been seen since. Hence our suggestion to raise the age.

[T J Hooker]

I feel now is as good a time as any to get young supporters back to Ewood.

The family stand is littered with empty seats (like other stands i know).

The club should offer a wider age group say under 10's free admitance when attending with a paying adult.

The current % of these young fans is shocking something like 2% of season ticket holders, and this surely has to be addressed now!!

These young fans are the future of our club and we need them.

Any other ideas to improve this please state them.

Now that all the stadium is 'no smoking' do they actually need a specific family stand/section, if i was a kid i wouldn't be that impressed if I had to watch all the games from that area, I personally hate sitting in end stands(especially the top sections of them which is even duller) and they should lower the tkt price of the jw stand so they're only a couple of quid more than other areas.

Really though our stadium is just way bigger than it needs to be, a max capacity of around to 26k would have been more realistic, that way it wouldn't be empty looking most weeks and when there are BIG games there would be a healthy demand for tkts(some people would miss out but that's healthy for business)

[JHRover]

Our stadium is too big for the Championship, but it was built for the top end of the Premier League. If Rovers were still top 10 Premier League it wouldn't be too big.

On the same basis Elland Road is simply too big for Leeds, as they have 15,000 empty seats every week, and Sheffield Wednesday, who have 17,000 empty seats most weeks.

On the same basis Old Trafford is at present the right size for Man Utd, but if they ended up in the Championship it would be far too big for them, because there is no way they would get 75,000 a week in the Championship.

Its all relative. Our ground was built with a view to us being one of the top teams in the land. At present it is too big, if we get back to where we were then it isn't.

[old darwen blue]

THINK BIG

Now who said that?

[K-Hod]

On kids wearing different shirts at the soccer dome- I play there every Friday after work before a load of kids do, and there are shirts of all teams, but I do see a lot of Rovers as well. It's got to be remembered that some of those kids are really young and will change their mind. They won't have been to watch United or City live, that's when you get the bug. I fell in love after my first live game, you can't beat it.

You'll always get the odd glory hunting goons, but more of the initiatives like kids for a quid, and most importantly now the club has a semblance of a plan, is winning football. That's how you reel them in.

[arbitro]

Over the years players used to go into schools talking to kids and perhaps taking some form of coaching session. I did hear at one time that the PFA were keen to have a clause in players contracts for them to spend time out in the community. Also we used to have groups of kids from various schools at Ewood for some games. Initiatives like this would surely help to switch kids on and try to retain some of them and perhaps their parents too. Given that we have up to 15,000 empty seats at most games this shouldn't be a problem.

[T J Hooker]

I think they should do something innovative and drastic, like tear down the riverside stand and turn the area into an open market or a level standing area or something, it wouldn't technically be terraces so surely that would be legal.

[sambo]

Back on the 'empty seats' debate, I really think we should consider closing the upper tier of the BBE. However, I acknowledge that that may mean kids are more exposed to swearing etc. Could we find a new area for them? Also, from my experience as a kid in the upper tier of the BBE years ago you certainly heard everything from the lower tier anyway....

There's also the Darwen End element of the empty seats debate. I sit there when I make it to Ewood as I enjoy the atmosphere with everyone stood up etc. Playing devil's advocate a bit - does this work with attendances how they are? I genuinely don't know - the Darwen End seems to have got quieter numbers wise, but like I said my trips to Ewood are sadly infrequent and my ST usually goes to a family member.

Back on the original issue, Rovers do seem to do a lot. I do agree with the issue of people leaving Blackburn. Seen it described as a 'brain drain' before, but really I just think it's kids going to university and wanting to live in a city with more opportunities and things to do. I love Blackburn but for many it lacks the appeal of cities such as Manchester, London and Leeds.

The Man United (and others) tops in Blackburn always rile me, but it's hard to appeal to those sort of people. More than likely, they haven't had a devoted family member to catch the bug off, and are typical of the new Sky Sports era of football fans.

Let's hope that Lambert manages to improve things on the pitch, as that can only help.

[Paul]

sambo is right about the swearing drifting up from the BBE lower. I never found it a problem and when the kids did ask it was a good opportunity to discuss the whole question of appropriate language.

If people want no swearing I suggest the JWL, there's very little anything near us!

The JWL could be a good area for children, the view is very good, close to the pitch so there is a really good view of the players. I always feel a match is better viewed from the side and this might help kids get a better understanding of the game.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

On kids wearing different shirts at the soccer dome- I play there every Friday after work before a load of kids do, and there are shirts of all teams, but I do see a lot of Rovers as well. It's got to be remembered that some of those kids are really young and will change their mind. They won't have been to watch United or City live, that's when you get the bug. I fell in love after my first live game, you can't beat it.

You'll always get the odd glory hunting goons, but more of the initiatives like kids for a quid, and most importantly now the club has a semblance of a plan, is winning football. That's how you reel them in.

How many do you think will change their mind though? I doubt its many, if I had to guess I'd say 20% at most. Gloryhunters tend to be almost as loyal as any other fan once they've picked their team. When I was growing up it was almost all Rovers and a scattering of Burnley amongst kids who played on my local field. Was the same at my secondary school, I honestly can't recall a single gloryhunter in my year. Things are very different now and I fear a sharp drop in crowds is just around the corner for clubs like Rovers.

Yeah if we get back to winning ways it'll help but long-term Rovers being a PL club is a phenomenally big ask for any manager. And now we've got the same problem a lot of smaller clubs have where if our manager is brilliant enough to get us in the PL, chances are he'll get poached before he can establish us there. And there's also the fact that even PL Rovers barely make it onto Sky still. If Man U start to recapture their former success, Blackburn and the surrounding area will be swarming with their fans again.

[bob fleming]

Well my lad never had a choice. He was always going to be a Rovers fan. His room has been decked out in all manner of Rovers memorabilia since he was a baby. There was a brief fixation with Man City but I soon explained the why’s and wherefore’s and he understood. You can’t underestimate how much they’ll take in at a young age. That and the threat of a sound thrashing. He has Madrid, Barca and Munich shirts – but he’ll grow out of all that. Especially if I keep putting them in the drier for far longer than necessary. My daughter however is a lost cause (although she did go to Preston with me – and she had the option not to go) having first started going during the Kean debacle which was, with hindsight, a bloody stupid idea. She doesn’t like any other teams though so not all bad. I’m sure she’ll come round in time for all the wrong reasons.

As for the swearing. Good as gold. I’ve not heard him swear once yet, however I’m confident that he now knows them all. Most of which have been learnt on the Blackburn End. Now I’m not suggesting that Rovers use this in their promotional material but he’s going to hear them at some stage so he might as well know what they mean and have them explained by a responsible adult, or in my lads case, me.

As for yoda’s suggestion that “more sex is the answer” – good God man! He’s 10!!

[K-Hod]

How many do you think will change their mind though? I doubt its many, if I had to guess I'd say 20% at most. Gloryhunters tend to be almost as loyal as any other fan once they've picked their team. When I was growing up it was almost all Rovers and a scattering of Burnley amongst kids who played on my local field. Was the same at my secondary school, I honestly can't recall a single gloryhunter in my year. Things are very different now and I fear a sharp drop in crowds is just around the corner for clubs like Rovers.

Yeah if we get back to winning ways it'll help but long-term Rovers being a PL club is a phenomenally big ask for any manager. And now we've got the same problem a lot of smaller clubs have where if our manager is brilliant enough to get us in the PL, chances are he'll get poached before he can establish us there. And there's also the fact that even PL Rovers barely make it onto Sky still. If Man U start to recapture their former success, Blackburn and the surrounding area will be swarming with their fans again.

The kids I see at the soccer dome are only really young (5-8), I'd also wager a lot of them aren't from Blackburn itself. Also a lot of the shirts/school uniforms I see are for the older kids are from all over i.e. Bolton/Burnley shirts and uniforms from Accy schools as well. Accy has always been split pretty much down the middle between Rovers and Burnley with plenty of glory hunters sprinkled all over.

I know what you mean, but in Baxenden where I live most of the kids seem to be Rovers and Burnley shirts, with the odd United/Liverpool, exactly the same as when I was growing up. Sadly a few more dingles seem to have moved up to Bash though!

I think there's a good amount of younger people following us, and whilst I too get very annoyed with seeing United and other shirts around town, I think it's the same everywhere tbh. I think it was on the way back from Wolves away when we stayed up after winning 3-2, I saw a guy in Wolverhampton in a United shirt....

[tonyoz]

He has Madrid, Barca and Munich shirts – but he’ll grow out of all that. Especially if I keep putting them in the drier for far longer than necessary.

Brilliant!

[tomphil]

You see United and Liverpool shirts virtually everywhere in the country. Not long ago a sports shop chain did a survey of the best selling shirts in their stores around the country and even in Newcastle ManUtd shirts were the 3rd best seller behind barcodes an Sunderland shirts. It'll never change but you want to make the local club be the first option in choice for them to support.

[gumboots]

Agree with the kids moving away thing. My kids all live elsewhere - Germany, South Korea, Manchester and Newcastle. Makes it hard for the first 2 to get here at all, and work commitments mean the other 2 are rarely here. They come when they can though and are still fans even though they can't always be match day supporters. Future grandchildren are more of a worry for me as one will have a six fingered dad and I'm a bit worried that Burnley are currently doing better than us. Hopefully we can soon get them back in their rightful place and any glory hunting in my grandchild will be wanting to support rovers, not the other lot.

[Paul]

Well my lad never had a choice. He was always going to be a Rovers fan. His room has been decked out in all manner of Rovers memorabilia since he was a baby. There was a brief fixation with Man City but I soon explained the why’s and wherefore’s and he understood. You can’t underestimate how much they’ll take in at a young age. That and the threat of a sound thrashing.

My eldest was in Nuttall Street aged about five with his Thomas the Tank Engine..............................

He once came home from school asking why we can't support Man Utd. We had a discussion about not being able to get tickets, what's it like to support a team you can never watch, only see them on TV etc.,support the local club etc.

When the youngest came home a few years later and asked the same question at the tea table the eldest simply said "If you want to support Man Utd you can't live in this house" - youngest fled up stairs to his room in floods of tears.

I feel I may have done rather too good a job on No.1 son

You get your reward, eldest boy was at Anfield while his mates sat at home