[Archived] Attendances Once We Get The Club In Better Hands?

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

I don't accept that Blackburn as a town or Blackburn Rovers suffers from some sort of unique set of 21st century problems that prevent our fanbase growing again in future or means we are destined for falling gates and terminal decline. Of course Blackburn is from a relatively poor area and incomes are lower in this part of the Country than many others, and that should be reflected in the ticket prices and cost of following the team. Entering into kit deals with Umbro to charge £100 for a duffel coat an example that is absolutely ridiculous behaviour.

The town has a lot of immigrants. The job therefore is to get those people interested in supporting Rovers. It might not be quick, it might not be easy, but shrugging shoulders and saying there's nothing we can do is simply not an option.

When these people finally leave and hopefully they are replaced by someone fit and proper who wants the club to improve and grow then efforts must be concentrated on re-engaging the town, surrounding areas and lost supporters. This might mean several years of offering knock down ticket prices, heavily incentivised to lure people back, pioneering initiatives to make the whole experience of going to Ewood Park on a Saturday an experience that people enjoy and want to be part of.

If MK Dons can build up an 8,000+ fanbase out of nothing, in a manufactured town in a manufactured stadium only offering League One football despite being hated by most of the country and if Brighton can go from gates of 8,000 on an athletics ground to 25,000 at the Amex virtually overnight offering Championship football then Rovers can entice people to come and watch the club. It might take time, it might take a hit financially, but I'm absolutely sure there is a way to do it. That's why other clubs employ specialists in these areas to improve the matchday experience and build up their fanbases. The people are there, as evidenced by 14,000 gates for the last 3 years despite being treated like dirt and 20,000+ gates in the Premier League. The job, and its a tough job but not impossible, is to tap into as many of those and other people in the town, to follow the club.

Our decline isn't natural, it isn't inevitable and it isn't irreversible. The people running the club no doubt want us to believe it is to justify the decline they are delivering and avoid the need to do anything to sort it out. As soon as these crooks are gone, whenever that might be, then the new owner needs to make serious and sustained efforts to bring through a new generation of Rovers fans as we're already 6 years behind rivals.

Having a high Asian demographic isn't unique to Blackburn (and certainly won't be a few decades from now), but it is a fact that, along with Bradford, Blackburn has the highest ethnic minority percentage of any town/city outside of London. In 2011 it was 31% in Blackburn with Darwen, remove Darwen and its likely Blackburn was about 50/50. That's 5 years ago and demographic change is happening pretty rapidly. I expect the town of Blackburn is now about 40% white.

Not saying this to start some heated political debate or anything, I just think people need to accept what's happening and what will happen in terms of how it will affect the club. In a generation a large majority of Blackburn will be Asian. If they can't be persuaded to go to games, the club will continue to shrink. They aren't a factor, they're the factor. I know some do go but the proportion needs to change from about 0.5% to about 20%.

I just don't know how it can be done personally. We had a Turkish Muslim playing for us as a club hero, some Galatasaray fans travelled over 2,000 miles to see him, Asians who lived in Blackburn didn't travel 2 miles. We have Indian owners who, despite everything, have probably generated 5-10,000 Rovers fans in India. There's probably 50-100 Rovers fans of Indian heritage living in Blackburn. Asians in this country don't support England at cricket or football, I don't see them in any great numbers at Bradford City games, Luton Town games, Leicester etc. Man U and Arsenal there's a decent number but we will never ever get to that level so how can enough be attracted to sustain a competitive fanbase?

I agree with you though it has to be done or else you'll see Rovers as a club shrink significantly in the next 50 years. Thankfully the undercurrent of traditional racism from existing fans (e.g. the Owen Coyle song) seems to have faded out now so I suppose you never know if Venkys go and some feel-good factor comes back.

[tomphil]

The Venky mob are that stupid though that maybe some of that comes into their thinking. Break the club down then try and get a few Asian players on the pitch to capture the imagination of the locals then try and build it back up as an almost soley Asian English club.

Follows the changing demographic of the town and has great marketing appeal across the world. They did keep saying it was a long term project so in 20 years things could look alarmingly different !

All that is hopefully pie in the sky but you never know because they are that stupid to believe it could work if some motorgob has sold the idea to them.

Now if only they'd bugger off and leave Rovers alone and start a new club in town called Blackburn Reds Utd they'd already get thousands of local young Asian lads turning up if they played in a version of a Man Yoo kit !!!!!

[JBiz]

Only place that I could find related to one of the issues I'm thinking of -

What happens after Venkys?

There are a lack of suggestions about direction, ownership, funding and trajectory. It's hard to ignore the current of opinion towards the owners leaving but it seems almost impossible to find discussion on what is next.

If we put all the costs together, including academy etc - does the turnover cover that? If not, who pays it?

If Venkys out means all of that to go... Is it really the BEST option? I'm struggling to get behind it personally because taking a step back for a fortnight hasn't helped me find the correct or useful suggestions for next phase.

[tomphil]

Some clubs do survive without academies and some view them as an expensive luxury that is ok to carry whilst your in the Prem and can afford them without too much bother. Also i suppose it may be possible to get an outside sponsor for something like that to fund it as a separate entity.

It all defends on how the exited if they did but without a proper takeover some big quick cuts would have to be made. If they didn't sell anyone else and bailed before a transfer window (extremely unlikely) then a few sales might keep the club operating as it is for a few more months.

I just can't see them cutting and running though, it'll be a downscale to bleed what's left then just virtually give it away with a huge lump of debt attached or they'll continue the present path and eventually we'll run into admin.

[JHRover]

Only place that I could find related to one of the issues I'm thinking of -

What happens after Venkys?

There are a lack of suggestions about direction, ownership, funding and trajectory. It's hard to ignore the current of opinion towards the owners leaving but it seems almost impossible to find discussion on what is next.

If we put all the costs together, including academy etc - does the turnover cover that? If not, who pays it?

If Venkys out means all of that to go... Is it really the BEST option? I'm struggling to get behind it personally because taking a step back for a fortnight hasn't helped me find the correct or useful suggestions for next phase.

The Seneca group came up with a proposal that involved them being solely responsible for all running costs going forward. To do this they expected 51% of shares to be handed over for free, but their side of the bargain was that they would cover all future running costs, wages, infrastructure etc.

So its clear that there are people out there with the means to pay the bills, but to do it they would expect a give and take situation with Venkys. Nobody is going to pay their debt off and nobody will pay them £20 million+ for a loss making club saddled with debt. Venkys have to realise, as I expect they probably do by now, that the only chance they have of getting out of this is to write off a lot of money and then sell the club once the debt has gone or is

In terms of the running costs every club has expensive costs to maintain. It doesn't stop takeovers occurring all over the place. The only difference with us is that we have a Category A academy with those additional costs. It depends on whether it is considered worthwhile to help develop players but if not a multi-million pound saving is to be made there.

[tomphil]

Academies are catch 22 really, the lower down the football scale you slide the more important it is to create your own players and they don't have to be that good to slot into lower league 1 or 2 sides. However the more difficult it is to finance the running of these things on less and less income unless you can continually turn out players for 100k to 1 million several times a season that teams around or in the league above you will buy.

Nice for the agents though eh

[JBiz]

The Seneca group came up with a proposal that involved them being solely responsible for all running costs going forward. To do this they expected 51% of shares to be handed over for free, but their side of the bargain was that they would cover all future running costs, wages, infrastructure etc.

So its clear that there are people out there with the means to pay the bills, but to do it they would expect a give and take situation with Venkys. Nobody is going to pay their debt off and nobody will pay them £20 million+ for a loss making club saddled with debt. Venkys have to realise, as I expect they probably do by now, that the only chance they have of getting out of this is to write off a lot of money and then sell the club once the debt has gone or is

In terms of the running costs every club has expensive costs to maintain. It doesn't stop takeovers occurring all over the place. The only difference with us is that we have a Category A academy with those additional costs. It depends on whether it is considered worthwhile to help develop players but if not a multi-million pound saving is to be made there.

Cutting the academy is essentially burning the rest of Jacks Legacy IMO.

I agree with much of what you are saying JH it's just the primary disposition of "Venkys out" without thought to what might come after..

If shelving the academy is an acceptable "cut" to pay for a fan run club, how long would it be till selling Ewood is deemed an equal necessity?

Bills need paying, I don't think we can ever get the whole fan base into a Venkys out movement until someone could give guarantees that those bills will be met. Seneca are a good example but has anyone tried to get them involved in protests or an agreement to move forward?