[Archived] Supporting Half A Club

[Mattyblue]

10 minutes ago, Stuart said:

But that doesn't really address the atmosphere... does it?

Unless those who pick and chose their games, e.g. Rochdale (away), Burnley (home) are the ones who generate all the noise and passion?

If they do then how on earth can the most passionate fans be the most casual? Why bother bouncing around singing "Rovers til I die" or about inventing songs players if they really only mean "Rovers as long as it's a good day out"?

Does having a @#/?*d up sing song = passion?

The ground is so empty not because there's 1500 or so that would rather have an away day out (many of those always have) but because 10,000 folk have stopped going entirely.

[Stuart]

Just now, MarkBRFC said:

Stuart, is there any jealousy on your part that all these fans are having a great time supporting Rovers away when by your own admission you find it hard to get to away games? Genuine question,  no offence intended at all its just that's how it seems to come accross?

Interesting one. I don't think it's jealousy, no.

It's more about the effect that the support has on the players. Results and performances seem to bear this out but Mowbray also made a big point about it last week.

If our players need that endorsement - without maybe earning it - then we need to generate that away-style support at Ewood. Right now there is no prospect of that.

There is clearly something missing. Some say this is down to Venkys, others say it's not about any protest and it's just fickle football fans (clearly we have a lot of them and they are very noisy), others say it's the same people home and away but just where/how they are sat.

Whatever it is, it needs to change. What is quite worrying is that if Matty is correct then Venkys leaving is going to have no impact on home support. If that's the case then these fickle fans are not going to have a team to support watch as part of a jolly good p1ss up.

[Stuart]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

Does having a @#/? up sing song = passion?

The ground is so empty not because there's a 1500 or so that would rather have an away day out (many of those always have) but because 10,000 folk have stopped going entirely.

I'm talking about atmosphere/noise, not numbers, Matty.

3,000 fans take the roof off at Rochdale. 10,000 can barely generate enough noise to mask the players shouting instructions to each other.

[Mattyblue]

I'd say at least half of that Rochdale following go to Ewood anyway, out of the remaining, many of those never were regulars, so there is no vast swathe of singers to come and save the day.

Im not sure what the issue is really, I go to plenty of away grounds, the atmosphere is largely non existent at all of them. Our issue is it is magnified by the sheer size of Ewood and the fact we are scattered across it

[Stuart]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

I'd say at least half of that Rochdale following go to Ewood anyway, out of the remaining, many of those never were regulars, so there is no vast swathe of singers to come and save the day.

Im not sure what the issue is really, I go to plenty of away grounds, the atmosphere is largely non existent at all of them. Our issue is it is magnified by the sheer size of Ewood and the fact we are scattered across it

I'm going to assume that isn't "why do I have an issue"...

So to improve the atmosphere we need to make it less scattered. Which means taking the unpopular step of closing the DE to home fans and putting flags over swathes of corner seats in the Riverside. We should really have done that this season.

The trouble is that the backlash would have likely seen another 100 or so staunch DEers walk away rather than simple move to the BBE. Blackburners really are the archetypal nose-cutter-face-spiters.

[Mattyblue]

Never Stuart!

Indeed, as we saw with the closure of the BEnd Upper. 

The numbers have dwindled to such an extent on the DE, there is no chance of an atmosphere being created. Block NO5 of the BBEnd (Riverside side) has plenty of room, why not make it unreserved seating for the DEnders?

 

[tomphil]

57 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Never Stuart!

Indeed, as we saw with the closure of the BEnd Upper. 

The numbers have dwindled to such an extent on the DE, there is no chance of an atmosphere being created. Block NO5 of the BBEnd (Riverside side) has plenty of room, why not make it unreserved seating for the DEnders?

 

That would cause issues with a lot who've sat there years even though there aren't many left. Used to have ST there 2nd row from back and there were plenty vocal chaps scattered about across the back there but a lot of couples and family groups further down. Whenever DEnders came across for the Leeds game etc it just didn't gel at all to the point there was often nearly punch-ups with our own, nowt new I know but it made for an even worse atmosphere.

N01 would be the place for that imo.

[rigger]

I see we have sold out our allocation for Shrewsbury. I am looking forward to a good day out.

[Hasta]

Also Stuart, what if some people can't spend every Saturday going to football.

I know I've got enough on that I couldn't dedicate an afternoon every weekend to watch Rovers. I choose to go Ewood and rarely go away games. I guess some people may enjoy the away experience more and choose that instead.

 

[Stuart]

Just now, Hasta said:

Also Stuart, what if some people can't spend every Saturday going to football.

I know I've got enough on that I couldn't dedicate an afternoon every weekend to watch Rovers. I choose to go Ewood and rarely go away games. I guess some people may enjoy the away experience more and choose that instead.

That's as maybe but doesn't help the home atmosphere.

I'm not saying I have the answers by the way but I do think it needs addressing.

[darrenrover]

For me, the simple fact is it's an entertainment business, it's about fun. 

Away games generally oblige for a host of reasons. Home games are mundane by comparison.

I think you're looking too deeply into it Stuart, to think there's a host of principled NAPMers going away but not at home would be a complete fallacy in my view. 

[Stuart]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

Never Stuart!

Indeed, as we saw with the closure of the BEnd Upper. 

The numbers have dwindled to such an extent on the DE, there is no chance of an atmosphere being created. Block NO5 of the BBEnd (Riverside side) has plenty of room, why not make it unreserved seating for the DEnders?

 

I think the number of stands open needs to reflect the home support numbers. Granted, it's Venkys fault but there is no point in the ground being sprinkled with fans - aside from the argument that the monetary saving is not worth alienating a handful of die hard fans.

But human beings are creatures of habit and routine and would acclimatise quite quickly to their new surroundings.

[Boaty]

Make the riverside safe standing and .maximum tenner a ticket. That will create atmosphere straight away.

[matt83]

I think all clubs have a more vocal away following than they do at home so nothing unique here. Some of the noisiest away followings at ewood over the years such as the mancs, scousers, geordies are all @#/? poor at home with a lot more numbers. Perhaps the difference with us is more extreme home to away.

Personally I go to away games and not home games but I'm not sure how many other away fans are actually deliberately boycotting home games. I would suspect not a significant percentage. Even in my home attending days it was chalk and cheese-away days are about meeting up with my mates on the ale, chant before during and after the game whereas at home it was sat in the jw with my dad/uncle/grandad when he was alive not chanting as such just watching. A totally different experience.

The only way to improve home atmos would be to introduce standing areas but while the Venkys are here they couldn't pay me to go inside. 

[47er]

6 hours ago, Stuart said:

Again, again, this is self-fulfilling.

Why don't fans want to drive the team forward at home as much as they do away? They do but they don't want to give their money to Venkys just makes the whole following Rovers at all pretty pointless.

We either want Rovers to succeed or we don't. There is no sense in only wanting the team to succeed away.

You're still focussed on Blackburn Rovers as a football club. That ceased to be its primary function as soon as Venkys took over, with plans already in place to sack Sam and replace him with Kean. We are now primarily a tax lurk or a money laundering firm or something else we don't know about.

If we were a football club then the executive who headed the interview panel could have gone on his hols safe in the knowledge that Colin was our next manager. Instead he came back to find Coyle had been appointed over his head and we know what followed. and what followed was exactly what we all predicted.

This alone should convince every fan what a cesspit of a club we have become.This sort of thing will happen every time Balaji feels like it for reasons that have nothing to do with football.

No wonder many fans say Not A Penny More.

Eventually we will disappear unless a new club is formed.

[gumboots]

19 hours ago, Hasta said:

Also Stuart, what if some people can't spend every Saturday going to football.

I know I've got enough on that I couldn't dedicate an afternoon every weekend to watch Rovers. I choose to go Ewood and rarely go away games. I guess some people may enjoy the away experience more and choose that instead.

 

Thing is, I used to organise my life when I was working around rovers games because I generally knew that I'd be at home for most of the season. Nowadays , being retired, I find there are many fixtures I miss because I'm not around. As someone pointed out the rovers demographic is aging and this absence is presumably widespread among those of my age group who fancy a midweek trip to somewhere that's on a good groupon offer or whatever. Many of us are no longer a captive audience. We don't spend all but 6 weeks or so, of our lives in and around Blackburn, so of course we don't go to home games in the numbers we used to even if we're not boycotting as such. 

[mhead]

Why has this thread turned in on itself?

The Home fixtures look crap....the away fixtures are relatively close and different.

We have been fed such scraps over the last 7 years, that going Away is interesting THIS Season.

Next season if still in this Division then we will really be at 'deaths door'....home or away.

Look back in the thread for the comment about the Warnock/Coyle weekend....we should not be in this effin Division!

[Claytons Left Boot]

Away days were always 'fun,' but home games were also pretty good as well. 

Let's go back in time to 1974 when I was 16 years old. I had been following the Rovers home and away for around eight years. By 1974 we had built up a bit of momentum following our relegation to the third division a few seasons before. Away games were special for several reasons. I was at that age when going to an away game was a bit like a package, rather than just the game. You gathered at Ewood waiting for the coaches or the railway station if you were on the train. Often it was either the League Liner or, more often, the Ewood Express. Both held around six hundred. Our away support increased as our league position got better over the preceding couple of seasons. We were a big fish in a small pool, you paid at the turnstiles rather than having the hassle of buying tickets in advance (unheard of then anyway) so we swamped a lot of grounds. Not condoning this next bit (it's just the way it was) but quite often you had a go at taking the end of the home team. Rovers frequently had an end and a side, rather than just an end and, if you experienced Turf Moor, Boxing Day 1977, Rovers fans were in every part of the ground. They were great times for young Rovers fans. It was an exciting day out and it's still the same today, hence our selling out of most of our away games so far.

However, back in the 70s and 80s (pre Jack Walker and the Premier League) home games were eagerly anticipated as well. A few pints before the game, gathering on the Darwen End/Blackburn End/Riverside, meeting mates and having a good old sing song and enjoying (not always) the game. The atmosphere was better then, even though attendances were usually anything from 8k and 15k, dependent upon who we were playing and how well we were doing. 

Despite the current apathy surrounding Venky's and our recent relegation, I think the main trick would be to get the home singers in one section, ideally centrally in the Blackburn End. The best of the ideas put forward so far would be unreserved seating, perhaps two or three full blocks. In fact, I would go further than that and have the whole of the Blackburn End unreserved, sit where you want. It had effectively been like that for the best part of one hundred years, so why not now? You'll get folk saying I've sat on Seat 150, Row P since 1994 and I'm not moving at any price but, so what, move a few rows to the side. In practice, it won't happen but, in reality, it should.

Anyway, see you at Shrewsbury and no, I won't be trying to take their end. Too many seats in the way for that...

                                                                                                        

[HowieFive0]

Its  a tribal thing.You re travelling to a ground and you are the enemy.Like an invasion. You cheer and sing to make yourself heard above the 'hostile' home fans sat on three sides of the ground hoping your team can nick the points and return home feeling like you ve accomplished something on foreign terrority. And even in defeat theres no better gallows humour.

Its an experience.The fans go and make themselves heard.This in itself fires up the Home fans who respond in turn. And vice a versa throughout a game. Maybe thats the problem at Ewood not so much our fans but visiting fans. Small numbers ,hardly stoking the flames banter/song wise to antagonise our own fans to respond?

[RevidgeBlue]

17 hours ago, 47er said:

You're still focussed on Blackburn Rovers as a football club. That ceased to be its primary function as soon as Venkys took over, with plans already in place to sack Sam and replace him with Kean. We are now primarily a tax lurk or a money laundering firm or something else we don't know about.

If we were a football club then the executive who headed the interview panel could have gone on his hols safe in the knowledge that Colin was our next manager. Instead he came back to find Coyle had been appointed over his head and we know what followed. and what followed was exactly what we all predicted.

This alone should convince every fan what a cesspit of a club we have become.This sort of thing will happen every time Balaji feels like it for reasons that have nothing to do with football.

No wonder many fans say Not A Penny More.

Eventually we will disappear unless a new club is formed.

We dissappear the second a new Club is formed. I'm not sure what you fail to understand about that.

Everyone's aim should be to see the Venky's out with the Club still in existence imo.

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, HowieFive0 said:

Its  a tribal thing.You re travelling to a ground and you are the enemy.Like an invasion. You cheer and sing to make yourself heard above the 'hostile' home fans sat on three sides of the ground hoping your team can nick the points and return home feeling like you ve accomplished something on foreign terrority. And even in defeat theres no better gallows humour.

Its an experience.The fans go and make themselves heard.This in itself fires up the Home fans who respond in turn. And vice a versa throughout a game. Maybe thats the problem at Ewood not so much our fans but visiting fans. Small numbers ,hardly stoking the flames banter/song wise to antagonise our own fans to respond?

Like I said on the other thread it's hard to generate a bouncing atmosphere for 10 k fans in a 30k stadium. You can't pick and choose your stadium according to which League you're in and I'd much rather have the big stadium.

If there are fans who wont go to home games because the atmosphere is poor then thats a bit of a catch 22 because if more went then the atmosphere would be correspondingly better.

[tomphil]

There was 11.5k home fans on v Doncaster and atmosphere was positive if not exactly bouncing, we have after all been relegated to the third tier and continue to be owned by the very people who've almost ruined the football beyond recognition in less than 7 years. That's always under the surface but i'm pretty sure plenty were positive about Saturday as well but yet again it comes apart on the pitch and has very little to do with the fans off it.

If the players and manager aren't buzzing and really up for it after winning 4 on the trot you seriously have to wonder why, what's being drilled into them ? 

[47er]

5 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

We dissappear the second a new Club is formed. I'm not sure what you fail to understand about that.

 

Like Wimbledon you mean?

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, 47er said:

Like Wimbledon you mean?

Yes. 2 completely different Clubs.

Plus, from the way you are talking it sounds like you'd be in favour of some grass roots operation setting up in opposition to us whilst we're still in existence. I would have a view about any of our supporters who defected to support the new outfit and it wouldnt be complimentary.

[Leonard Venkhater]

On 9/17/2017 at 22:37, 47er said:

You're still focussed on Blackburn Rovers as a football club. That ceased to be its primary function as soon as Venkys took over, with plans already in place to sack Sam and replace him with Kean. We are now primarily a tax lurk or a money laundering firm or something else we don't know about.

If we were a football club then the executive who headed the interview panel could have gone on his hols safe in the knowledge that Colin was our next manager. Instead he came back to find Coyle had been appointed over his head and we know what followed. and what followed was exactly what we all predicted.

This alone should convince every fan what a cesspit of a club we have become.This sort of thing will happen every time Balaji feels like it for reasons that have nothing to do with football.

No wonder many fans say Not A Penny More.

Eventually we will disappear unless a new club is formed.

"This alone". Exactly!!...(and as if there weren't lots of other clues and reminders!)

A 7 year old school boy could have told you we were going down, as soon as they announced Coyle.

Again, what could be more important at any football club than avoiding relegation? But many of us asked the same question in the summer of 2011.

Unforgivable.....yet I still got a high off those away wins...