Championship 2018-19

[Cherry Blue]

Good to be back. Looking at the list about half are within a couple of hours driving distance for me.

Championship 2018-19

• Aston Villa 
• Birmingham City
• Blackburn Rovers 
• Bolton Wanderers 
• Brentford 
• Bristol City 
• Derby County 
• Hull City 
• Ipswich Town 
• Leeds United 
• Middlesbrough
• Millwall 
• Norwich City 
• Nottingham Forest 
• Preston North End 
• Queens Park Rangers
• Reading
• Rotherham United 
• Sheffield United 
• Sheffield Wednesday 
• Stoke City
• Swansea City 
• West Bromwich Albion
• Wigan Athletic 

Fixtures out 9am Thursday 21st June. 

[speeeeeeedie]

Lots of decent away days to be had next season.

3 Local games. 5 against Yorkshire teams, plus Boro. 5 easy drives to the midlands or thereabouts. A couple of London trips. Bristol, Swansea, and East Anglia seem to be the hardest to get to. I've never been to Ipswich's ground but I've read on here it's a good place to go to.

Is Millwall a pain to get to? 

 

[Mattyblue]

Easy enough by train. The ground is near South Bermondsey overground station which is only a few minutes from London Bridge.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I'll wait and see who comes in and who goes out before I make predictions.

[Mattyblue]

Lampard to Derby?

Certainly a departure from the usual managerial merry-go-round...

[Stuart]

7 minutes ago, OnePhilT said:

Derby fans seem to be welcoming him with open arms, while giving Rowett a kick on his way out. I don't really understand why, as it seems a huge risk to take a soft-touch pundit as a manager! The expectations at Derby aren't exactly trivial.

If we replaced Mowbray with Lampard, I'd feel like our chances of survival next season were just halved.

Ex players top have a history of doing well at Rovers. I think they capture the imagination.

Not sure Lampard has the acumen though. Managers don’t seem to need to prove themselves any more.

[Stuart]

That’s a pretty useful squad right there.

[Exiled in Toronto]

8 hours ago, Cherry Blue said:

Good to be back. Looking at the list about half are within a couple of hours driving distance for me.

Championship 2018-19

• Aston Villa 
• Birmingham City
• Blackburn Rovers 
• Bolton Wanderers 
• Brentford 
• Bristol City 
• Derby County 
• Hull City 
• Ipswich Town 
• Leeds United 
• Middlesbrough
• Millwall 
• Norwich City 
• Nottingham Forest 
• Preston North End 
• Queens Park Rangers
• Reading
• Rotherham United 
• Sheffield United 
• Sheffield Wednesday 
• Stoke City
• Swansea City 
• West Bromwich Albion
• Wigan Athletic 

Fixtures out 9am Thursday 21st June. 

That’s only about half a dozen clubs shy of a decent looking old First Division

[Stuart]

Just now, Exiled in Toronto said:

That’s only about half a dozen clubs shy of a decent looking old First Division

The current PL top 6 and any 14 others from 7 to 44 is the PL in any given season.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Just now, Stuart said:

The current PL top 6 and any 14 others from 7 to 44 is the PL in any given season.

A lot of the current 14 were nowhere near the 1st Div back in the day. I suppose one could say that tv money, while creating a permanent top 6, has democratized 7-20. I wonder how many Subbuteo team sets Brighton, Watford and Bournemouth would’ve sold back in the day.

[perthblue02]

9 hours ago, Cherry Blue said:

Good to be back. Looking at the list about half are within a couple of hours driving distance for me.

Championship 2018-19

• Aston Villa 
• Birmingham City
• Blackburn Rovers 
• Bolton Wanderers 
• Brentford 
• Bristol City 
• Derby County 
• Hull City 
• Ipswich Town 
• Leeds United 
• Middlesbrough
• Millwall 
• Norwich City 
• Nottingham Forest 
• Preston North End 
• Queens Park Rangers
• Reading
• Rotherham United 
• Sheffield United 
• Sheffield Wednesday 
• Stoke City
• Swansea City 
• West Bromwich Albion
• Wigan Athletic 

Fixtures out 9am Thursday 21st June. 

Think out of that list only Rotherham have never played in the First Division , and only Rotherham , Brentford, Bristol C, Millwall, and Preston have never played in the Premier League

If PL2 rears it's head again, would be a landslide vote in favour from Championship clubs imo that is if the PL bubble does not burst before

Edited May 28, 2018 by perthblue02

[Mattyblue]

Last time we were promoted out of this league it contained the likes of -

Grimsby, Gillingham, Tranmere, Walsall, Port Vale, Wimbledon, Stockport, Crewe.

It’s a tough old division these days.

[Oldgregg86]

Can you find three we are definitely stronger than ?

[Husky]

The only thing I'll predict at this stage is that we'll definitely finish above NotLob.

[47er]

1 hour ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

A lot of the current 14 were nowhere near the 1st Div back in the day. I suppose one could say that tv money, while creating a permanent top 6, has democratized 7-20. I wonder how many Subbuteo team sets Brighton, Watford and Bournemouth would’ve sold back in the day.

Football has followed the money. The southeast is the most prosperous area these days and these former little clubs with virtually no history have taken the place of formerly great clubs. Today's reality.

Read the other day that the average net household income in Blackburn is just over 12000 quid! Average for the country as a whole is over 19000!.

Puts the price of a season ticket into perspective doesn't it?

[Exiled in Toronto]

1 hour ago, 47er said:

Football has followed the money. The southeast is the most prosperous area these days and these former little clubs with virtually no history have taken the place of formerly great clubs. Today's reality.

Read the other day that the average net household income in Blackburn is just over 12000 quid! Average for the country as a whole is over 19000!.

Puts the price of a season ticket into perspective doesn't it?

I haven’t been back in a while but I assume new cars and petrol sell for 35% less than elsewhere in Blackburn

[AllRoverAsia]

10 minutes ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

I haven’t been back in a while but I assume new cars and petrol sell for 35% less than elsewhere in Blackburn

What a grossly ignorant and arrogant statement to make.

You know full well the valid point the poster was making.

Shame on you.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Just now, AllRoverAsia said:

What a grossly ignorant and arrogant statement to make.

You know full well the valid point the poster was making.

Shame on you.

I did grow up in Blackburn and my parents still live there.

I don’t get why people expect Rovers to offer much lower prices than the norm when it’s not normal in any other business, their costs aren’t any lower, and history has shown that demand is relatively price inelastic. It’s a business not a charity.

[Atko's Engine]

11 hours ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

A lot of the current 14 were nowhere near the 1st Div back in the day. I suppose one could say that tv money, while creating a permanent top 6, has democratized 7-20. I wonder how many Subbuteo team sets Brighton, Watford and Bournemouth would’ve sold back in the day.

I remember getting the board game Wembley as a child; I was overjoyed until I realised Rovers weren't a feature in it and I had to use a spare name slip to write our name on. Shameful, considering we'd won the darn thing 6 times! 

[47er]

8 hours ago, Exiled in Toronto said:

I haven’t been back in a while but I assume new cars and petrol sell for 35% less than elsewhere in Blackburn

You should hold your hand up there and accept that you have made a wholly inappropriate response. to a real issue. Could you live on such a paltry amount and then buy a season ticket?

I've quoted factual information to show that Blackburn is one of the very poorest communities in Britain. New cars and season tickets come under the heading of discretionary expenditure---many don't have any.

Rovers are free to charge any amount they like but equally will have to take into consideration that a larger proportion of our potential fan base than almost all of our rivals simply CANNOT pay.

Cheaper football brings bigger crowds-----we know that because we have proved it in the past. 

[Mattyblue]

If we make a decision to charge less than the competition due to the economic situation of the town of Blackburn, then can we expect to compete with the many city clubs that now make up the second tier?

 

As an aside, I can imagine the percentage of our season ticket holders that reside in BB1 and BB2 have decreased somewhat this past decade or so, as demographic change has seen many fans move further afield, so we aren’t wholly reliant on the prosperity of the town (nor should we be if we want to be successful in the future).

[EgyptianPete]

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

If we make a decision to charge less than the competition due to the economic situation of the town of Blackburn, then can we expect to compete with the many city clubs that now make up the second tier?

 

As an aside, I can imagine the percentage of our season ticket holders that reside in BB1 and BB2 have decreased somewhat this past decade or so, as demographic change has seen many fans move further afield, so we aren’t wholly reliant on the prosperity of the town (nor should we be if we want to be successful in the future).

Maybe but football is different, if we are doing well the crowds will come back if only slowly, look at the liverpool fans last week forking out more than our season ticket price to get to Kiev for one game,  i dont think the majority of liverpool people are on 50% more wages than the people of Blackburn.

[Mattyblue]

Liverpool have millions of fans in this country alone (yet never seem to get the glory hunter tag United fans get), not really a like for like comparison.

[JHRover]

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16254413.A__huge_challenge__awaits_Rovers_in_the_Championship__says_Mowbray/#comments-anchor

A bit too much bigging up other clubs here for my liking.

I accept it is a formidable looking league for all concerned given the amount of 'big names' in there and a lack of 'small clubs'.

I'm not really comfortable with Mowbray referring to the likes of Middlesbrough as a huge club or Sheffield United with huge expectations. Neither of those are huge clubs compared to Rovers, in any measure. Middlesbrough have been throwing the cash around and that's about it.

[JacknOry]

Just now, JHRover said:

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/16254413.A__huge_challenge__awaits_Rovers_in_the_Championship__says_Mowbray/#comments-anchor

A bit too much bigging up other clubs here for my liking.

I accept it is a formidable looking league for all concerned given the amount of 'big names' in there and a lack of 'small clubs'.

I'm not really comfortable with Mowbray referring to the likes of Middlesbrough as a huge club or Sheffield United with huge expectations. Neither of those are huge clubs compared to Rovers, in any measure. Middlesbrough have been throwing the cash around and that's about it.

Agreed, some would think that we have been in L1 for 10 years and have just made the step up or something. We were ably competing with these clubs and beating alot of them for years before last season.