[Archived] Boycott

[JHRover]

As you say the list is endless. Once upon a time a foreign takeover of a Championship club would have been unbelievable. In the last 12 months alone Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves and Villa have all been taken over by wealthy foreigners, prior to that Leicester, QPR, Cardiff, Forest, Watford, Charlton and Southampton were all taken over by foreigners. The majority of those stories have been a success.

Infact only really ourselves and Portsmouth have suffered horrifically at the hands of foreign owners. Leeds, Cardiff and Charlton have had their fair share of problems, but all are more or less in the same place as they were pre-takeover. We're admittedly a million miles from where we were, and yet are still in the Championship, for now.

The new Sky deal means that people wanting a slice of the action will have to look to the Championship to get into the Premier League. Almost all the Premier League clubs are either too expensive to buy or aren't for sale, and that's why the last 2-3 years have seen a massive increase in foreign ownership in the Championship.

I think we're doing ourselves a disservice by believing that nobody would be interested in Rovers. The club is set up for the Premier League. Its got the stadium, its got the academy, training ground and the profile. Anyone with some sense and a decent wedge of money to invest could very quickly come in and radically improve this club, and in the process achieve legendary status with supporters. We've had 14,000 gates for the last 4 years and with improved PR and a decent product on the pitch that could grow.

As I say, 1 good season and its Premier League time. If a club comes available and the price is right people would want a go at getting back to the Premier League and everything that comes with it.

[K-Hod]

Too many people are getting down on the club and its potential. We would definitely be a decent proposition for a foreign investor who does their homework.

[AllRoverAsia]

Too many people are getting down on the club and its potential. We would definitely be a decent proposition for a foreign investor who does their homework.

Totally agree and we are still an attractive proposition to the Chinese who respect tradition, culture and achievement.........something that is missing with the Indian Chicken Farmers after a fast buck and/or tax dodge

[tomphil]

No stadium to build no academy to build no training ground to build. Limited crowd potential but we've managed with that before as have others. With minimal or no debt everything would be in place.

[Gav]

Now this is how to Boycott...

https://twitter.com/KnightTangerine/status/763096949604114437

Blackpool has always been a club with fans from working class routes, and those routes haven't been eroded away by success like they seem to have been at Ewood.

Nothing but respect for the Blackpool fans, they deserve better

[JHRover]

In terms of the limited crowd potential what does it actually amount to though?

Last season our average gates were around the 14,000 mark, the same as the 3 years before. Wolves' gates were around the 20,000 mark last season. For arguments sake lets say they can get 10,000 more than us if we're at the same level. An average of £300 per person over a season and that's an additional £3 million in season ticket revenue per year.

Yes, in the Championship that's a decent amount of money, certainly if FFP is enforced, but its not a game changing amount of money. It would probably pay for an extra couple of quality players. When Wolves are talking about spending £20 million on a Portuguese lad the number of fans they get compared to others doesn't matter.

The last time we were in the Premier League we were getting about 25,000 a week turning up, admittedly on bottom end prices, Wolves could probably get 30,000 turning up on more expensive prices. But Sky money makes that difference meaningless in the Premier League.

Its something of a double edged sword. I really do question what we need to suffer to get Venkys to leave. Relegation might encourage them to do it, but we thought that the last time and it made no difference to them other than made sure they wasted £100 million in some futile and clueless attempt to go back up. Now we're suffering because of that overspend.

If relegation is what is needed for them to look to sell then that's one thing, but the trouble is relegation would wipe out a large number of possible investors. A Championship Blackburn Rovers is a lot more attractive than a League One Blackburn Rovers.

[alexanders]

I think a couple of the posters should go on a sales tour

[BlooBoy]

Too many people are getting down on the club and its potential. We would definitely be a decent proposition for a foreign investor who does their homework.

I dont think its too many people getting down on the club just realisation that there are now umpteen clubs stealing a march and making roads to get out of this division whereas possibly five years ago we were one of a few who could .

Even with a takeover the chances are getting slim to get promoted simply because instead of five or six clubs vying to get promoted we now have lots of clubs with money to burn with foreign investors.Factor in the relegated clubs from the Premier League with obscene money from the new Sky deal coming down and suddenly the Premier League looks a long way off even with an investor.

Lots of clubs having money chucked at them now ..we d only be one of many , potentially putting off investors who d be after a more even chance of getting to the Premier League.

Many clubs have stepped up a gear, we re in reverse.

Basically we ve missed the boat ....

[1arC]

As you say the list is endless. Once upon a time a foreign takeover of a Championship club would have been unbelievable. In the last 12 months alone Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves and Villa have all been taken over by wealthy foreigners, prior to that Leicester, QPR, Cardiff, Forest, Watford, Charlton and Southampton were all taken over by foreigners. The majority of those stories have been a success.

Infact only really ourselves and Portsmouth have suffered horrifically at the hands of foreign owners. Leeds, Cardiff and Charlton have had their fair share of problems, but all are more or less in the same place as they were pre-takeover. We're admittedly a million miles from where we were, and yet are still in the Championship, for now.

The new Sky deal means that people wanting a slice of the action will have to look to the Championship to get into the Premier League. Almost all the Premier League clubs are either too expensive to buy or aren't for sale, and that's why the last 2-3 years have seen a massive increase in foreign ownership in the Championship.

I think we're doing ourselves a disservice by believing that nobody would be interested in Rovers. The club is set up for the Premier League. Its got the stadium, its got the academy, training ground and the profile. Anyone with some sense and a decent wedge of money to invest could very quickly come in and radically improve this club, and in the process achieve legendary status with supporters. We've had 14,000 gates for the last 4 years and with improved PR and a decent product on the pitch that could grow.

As I say, 1 good season and its Premier League time. If a club comes available and the price is right people would want a go at getting back to the Premier League and everything that comes with it.

Get the prospectus out there, as that is about right.

[chor808]

Get the prospectus out there, as that is about right.

Too right do we not have some marketing folks or an estate agent. Let's start touting us around for sale. Get a prospectus typed up, picture of the ground, the training ground, the manager..nah forget the manger, the trophys all lined up, get her sold!

[AllRoverAsia]

The Vs will eventually sell us to where the money is - check your exchange rates and Country Debt - good days to come.................... as long as Sky keep going .................. but it will as that is simple maths.

[Iceman]

anybody actually thought of sneakily putting the club up for sale? ie send out a message the club is for sale, and see what happens lol

[Neal]

Could we not pool our money together and put a cheeky ad in an investment newspaper in China? Carefully worded of course.

"Former Premier League Champions Seek New Ownership"

[Iceman]

Could we not pool our money together and put a cheeky ad in an investment newspaper in China? Carefully worded of course.

"Former Premier League Champions Seek New Ownership"

Hahaha yeh. Ive been wondering about this hence my post above. Im surprised we havent put the club up for sale ourselves. Advertise we are for sale all over the world, and get venkys contact details as well as the clubs. Who knows, we might get lucky.

[chor808]

Hahaha yeh. Ive been wondering about this hence my post above. Im surprised we havent put the club up for sale ourselves. Advertise we are for sale all over the world, and get venkys contact details as well as the clubs. Who knows, we might get lucky.

It's a great idea, also another selling point is any new owner would be an instant hero overnight just for ridding us of the venkys. Running the club normally would be about all the have to do.

[Iceman]

It's a great idea, also another selling point is any new owner would be an instant hero overnight just for ridding us of the venkys. Running the club normally would be about all the have to do.

thing is, even if we get a guy that buys the club and takes on the debt then all good if it gets rid of Venkys. I dont even care if the new owner has no money left from buying the club, as long as he or they put in a proper board structure, has a clear plan, and has people who can come in and find alternative ways to generate funds or new revenue streams. I wouldnt care if we were in the championship for the next 5 years, if it means the club is operating normally again, and Venkys are no longer at the helm.

[mhead]

FORMER PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS SEEK NEW OWNERS

What a great idea!

-publicity

-shames the Raos

-encourages the Supporters and 'lost' fans

-has a chance of someone talking to....who?

How many ads in which newspapers?

How do we use Social media? (We are good at Twitter)

How much money do we need?

How do we organise? (why BRAG not do this cos its sexy!)

Please someone volunteer to set up a PayPal Account for this....I will give 100 pounds immediately.

[Blueandwhitemike]

Totally agree and we are still an attractive proposition to the Chinese who respect tradition, culture and achievement.........something that is missing with the Indian Chicken Farmers after a fast buck and/or tax dodge

Sorry to disagree with you ARA but you make China too good... I don't wanna write an essay (though I may later) but this is no more true of China than it is of India... The UK is full of dodgy people too... I love China, I live there, and have done for quite a while but I have also seen businesses run almost exactly like the Venkys there, and if you don't think there's not lots of nouveau riche that act like Balaji or far worse then you're wrong.

Of course it is possible that we get bought buy a nice Chinese bloke like the WBA guy (or at least how he is coming across so far) and if that happens I want a job but I'd also be wary... Xi Jin Ping is encouraging this rise of China in football so there may be quite a few more investors out there and a few more clubs taken over across Europe but there's every chance one of them will be almost as bad as Venkys...

I think one thing Rovers have got over other clubs in the Champs is recent history and success... Any big fan of football over 40 will know that we won the league and will know of and probably remember Alan Shearer and maybe Jack Walker, most can't say that about Wolves' history for example...

[tomphil]

Agree with the above anyone who deals with and buys from or is currently friends with Barry will be a right clueless nutter and probably extremely dodgy.

[chor808]

Here you go took me all of 5 mins. I think we would need a professional!!

[tomphil]

Whack it on ebay now !!!

[Neal]

Here you go took me all of 5 mins. I think we would need a professional!!

Thats class! Get it on ebay!!!

[Stuart]

Quite like how even spellchecker doesn't like Venkys!

[MCMC1875]

Here you go took me all of 5 mins. I think we would need a professional!!

Post it on Ebay!!!

[chor808]

We can also try the sympathy route, I was once suckered into taking a dog home from the rescue home with a picture like the one below. We need a desperate face in a tatty rovers shirt with a sign round their neck, maybe 'New owner needed'.

Maybe some sort of campaign with a bit of humor may get attention?