Attendances

[blueboy3333]

6 hours ago, 47er said:

You can't keep bringing up the Oxford game, it was a special occasion----a one-off. Unfortunately that applies to the ticket prices as well.

Lesson is, if you want bigger crowds, lower the prices. It worked before.

 

You've just contradicted yourself. I mention the Oxford game because they did lower prices. If those tickets had been priced at normal levels of £25 there wouldn't have been 27k anywhere near Ewood.  Price is everything. You obviously didn't read my post above that was all about prices.

The other reason for mentioning Oxford is that it is the reference point used by Mowbray to question attendances. Which takes us back to the lower prices...Keep up!

Edited September 29, 2018 by blueboy3333

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

The easy answer is to lower prices. But we are a business and have had low prices for many years. I’m not justifying the increase from last year but I can understand both sides to an extent. I’d like to think that if we can sustain this good start then fans will slowly come back, particularly for big end of season games. Oxford showed everyone that the fans are out there which is a start.

Cant understate how significant having every midweek game available on Sky is turning out to be as well. 

A £10 ticket initiative for a non televised game would be my suggestion. Get people back into the habit.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

11 hours ago, tomphil said:

Try and fill it not close it.

 

And there you have it Mr Waggot in one clear sentence.

A seat filled for £10 is better than an empty seat.

[Neal]

10 hours ago, 47er said:

You can't keep bringing up the Oxford game, it was a special occasion----a one-off. Unfortunately that applies to the ticket prices as well.

Lesson is, if you want bigger crowds, lower the prices. It worked before.

 

But it shows what is possible though. Fair enough, the stadium might not be full every week but I'm pretty sure out of that extra 17 or so thousand we could win a few back with good football, a new radical pricing structure along with some advertising.

 

Would like to see more offers, try something like all tickets 5 quid, buy 4 get your 5th free. Surely the role of certain people at the club should be thinking of ways to get that stadium as full as possible for every single game... Not just setting prices for season tickets and washing your hands of it.

[gumboots]

The problem is, I'd understand the annoyance of some season ticket holders if match day tickets were cut that much. However, making smaller offers like the attend 4 matches and get your 5th discounted or even free might tempt some. As would making match day tickets surcharge free and available on the day, as they always used to be.  Perhaps reevaluating the cost of match day tickets generally so that they cost more than buying a season ticket and attending every game, but making them all the same cost, not category ABC. Yes you might lose a bit on clubs bringing a big away following but you'd make it up in home fans probably. I don't know because economics isn't my field at all but thinking imaginatively is surely needed to get people back onside. I even thought of going myself today and changed my mind because I hadn't got myself organised early enough to get a ticket. One of these days ........

[47er]

5 hours ago, blueboy3333 said:

You've just contradicted yourself. I mention the Oxford game because they did lower prices. If those tickets had been priced at normal levels of £25 there wouldn't have been 27k anywhere near Ewood.  Price is everything. You obviously didn't read my post above that was all about prices.

The other reason for mentioning Oxford is that it is the reference point used by Mowbray to question attendances. Which takes us back to the lower prices...Keep up!

Quite why you always have to be the smart-arse, provocative keyboard warrior I'm  not sure.

I'm in favour of lowering prices to increase attendances but Oxford is not an indication of our potential fan-base. There were more there supporting Rovers than when we were in the Premiership. Even when we were winning it, in fact! It was a one-off celebration of promotion at a price which attracted people who came along for a guaranteed knees-up. It was a one-off.

Edited September 29, 2018 by 47er

[Mattyblue]

Of course it was, but it was still a captive audience, so to not have season tickets on sale, nay not even any promotion of them was an enormous own goal. 

There were around 18,000 Rovers fans in the ground who weren’t season ticket holders, so just to entice back a small percentage of them would have been a positive.

I personally think there are a few red herrings in this discussion. Rovers fans do not turn up on a regular basis in big numbers to buy walk on tickets, they never have. So, making regular match by match promotions won’t work, or it will in the short term and it will taper off. But of course, nearly £30 today (even more with the surcharge) in the Jack Walker is absolutely ridiculous.

Season tickets have always made up the bulk of our crowd, so for me we must look at how we flog more of them. 17% increases to dilute a feel good factor ain’t it.

[HowieFive0]

23 minutes ago, 47er said:

Quite why you always have to be the smart-arse, provocative keyboard warrior I'm  not sure.

I'm in favour of lowering prices to increase attendances but Oxford is not an indication of our potential fan-base. There were more there supporting Rovers than when we were in the Premiership. Even when we were winning it, in fact! It was a one-off celebration of promotion at a price which attracted people who came along for a guaranteed knees-up. It was a one-off.

Spot on. Swap that Oxford game to a cold Saturday in February at £10 a ticket we d be lucky to get 16000..but thats 2000 more than normal ! Lowering ticket prices will increase attendances but nowhere near the 27000 on against Oxford.

And now the games are available on the red button(at least eight plus the games Rovers get allocated as Skys main match ) i cant see a sustained rise in attendances for quite the foreseeable future!

[Paul]

15 hours ago, gumboots said:

The problem is, there is no comparison between us and Forest. Nottingham is a big city and there's a huge student population with 2 universities so there are plenty of potential ticket purchasers. Having said that, I might be free tomorrow and decide I fancy going to Rovers. There's nothing to encourage me to go. If I don't decide and sort a ticket early in the day then I pay extra. I have to find somewhere to park when I get there. Compare that to last week when we decided to go to the AJ Bell to watch the Sharks. Park free at the Trafford Centre, free shuttle bus to and from the ground with priority given to getting the buses away post match, and tickets on sale up to kick off at the same price as if bought weeks in advance. I'm not suggesting Rovers could or should do all of that but the same price tickets would be a good start 

I understand what you say and your posts about being away, retirement etc. but you always seem to have a reason not to go. With the exception of ticket prices all you describe above for the Sharks is logistically impossible to achieve at Ewood.

I'm not being personal but it seems to me there are a large group of fans for whom no incentive works. To my mind this is primarily because they've moved on and aren't really interested any longer. That's OK but the club shouldn't be blamed for this.

As for no incentive? It's a perfect day for football. We are level with Forest, could go top six and that's not enough incentive? Frankly I don't get it.

 

Edited September 29, 2018 by Paul

[gumboots]

I wasn't sure I was going to be free today until yesterday. I'm not asking for cheap tickets for myself  I can afford the ticket price although I do object to being asked to pay more for making a late decision to attend. I don't want to attend on my own so need to persuade my husband or someone else to attend with me and that is difficult.  As I said, I'm not suggesting Rovers can or should do what Sharks do, but merely that they should look at the problem and try to encourage people to attend rather than make it difficult or inconvenient if you don't have a season ticket. There have been plenty of ideas from others on here on how to encourage people back, not people like me, who will attend if circumstances, organisation skills, and a fellow match goer all appear at the right time, but those for whom it is currently really difficult to attend. 

You're right in a way. I do make excuses because I've got out of the habit. I haven't lost interest but freed from the tyranny of a season ticket ie once you have one you have to go or you start to lose cash I find it hard to get up and go. Although to be fair this is probably the first Saturday since I came back from holiday that I've been free to go if I'd chosen to. If the club did something to encourage those who like me have simply lost the routine of Saturday including attending  a Rovers match, perhaps more people would catch the bug again. I don't know, but surely they need to try. 

Edited September 29, 2018 by gumboots

[gumboots]

I think what I wanted to say was, at Sale they've listened to fans. Travelling to matches was a nightmare. So they tried to address that issue. Rovers don't seem, and I accept this may not be correct, to actually take on what fans say and try to act on it. 

[philipl]

I have seen this pattern before at Rovers. It takes until February/March for the penny to drop with the stayaways then attendances surge when we are having a good season.

Make no mistake, one point away from the play-offs after the first ten with only one defeat- this is a good season.

[blueboy3333]

So many straw men on here I feel I'm at a Wurzel Gummidge convention.

No-one thinks we'll get 27k or even close but with the right price structure we could add quite a few to the attendances. 

[West Yorks Rover]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

So many straw men on here I feel I'm at a Wurzel Gummidge convention.

No-one thinks we'll get 27k or even close but with the right price structure we could add quite a few to the attendances. 

Totally agree, a bit like Forest have done this season, I did wonder why their gates had increased substantially.

[Stuart]

21 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Of course it was, but it was still a captive audience, so to not have season tickets on sale, nay not even any promotion of them was an enormous own goal. 

There were around 18,000 Rovers fans in the ground who weren’t season ticket holders, so just to entice back a small percentage of them would have been a positive.

I personally think there are a few red herrings in this discussion. Rovers fans do not turn up on a regular basis in big numbers to buy walk on tickets, they never have. So, making regular match by match promotions won’t work, or it will in the short term and it will taper off. But of course, nearly £30 today (even more with the surcharge) in the Jack Walker is absolutely ridiculous.

Season tickets have always made up the bulk of our crowd, so for me we must look at how we flog more of them. 17% increases to dilute a feel good factor ain’t it.

I agree. A great ST promotion on the back of promotion - with them on sale by the last game of the season - was the opportunity to get the footfall back.

Waggott seems to be of a mind to make as much money as possible out of every fan transaction and focus on advertising. On the face of it he’s trying to increase the value of a season ticket by making matches only accessible to locals who by one. Will this pay off? Not sure. Blackburners don’t like to feel coerced into anything. I guess it depends on the football. Turning home draws into wins might help if that’s Waggott plan.

One thing I do know, those stupid vaping ads have made us a laughing stock. But that’s the preference rather than making money out of rakes of empty seats and improving the atmosphere.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Stuart

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

The vaping ads are crap,promoting a harmful pastime for Cash is even worse imo but these are the times we are living in.An advertisement for 'Dildos.com' would probably get the go ahead if the Coin was enough!

We are now on a par in terms of supporter numbers with Bolton and Preston,more than ever we are fighting with them for every floating supporter in the area.

Whoever takes the initiative wins...are you there Mr Waggot?

[Mattyblue]

From the Blackburn End the structure to my right looks like the Totally Wicked Stand.

Best not give them any ideas! 

[Doug]

Obviously success on the pitch is the biggest influence on our attendances, I'm sure our promotion seasons and premiership years would support this.

My hope is that Mowbray can replicate the good feeling, excitement that Don McKay managed to establish during his years at the club.

Those of us old enough to remember the 70's will have memories of pitiful numbers on the ground, poor league positions etc. until the right manager came along.

Would cheaper tickets be the answer - possibly add a couple of thousand, but may result in a smaller revenue overall.

It often appears that there are so many reasons not to attend rather than reasons to attend.

As a season ticket holder, I do not have any issues with the club reducing match day walk on prices to bolster attendances as a good atmosphere is the 12th man.

TM has produced a hard working team that can play some exciting stuff, yes we have a dodgy defence, but, 10 games in, I'm very pleased with the overall start to the season.

[old darwen blue]

48 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

The vaping ads are crap,promoting a harmful pastime for Cash is even worse imo but these are the times we are living in.An advertisement for 'Dildos.com' would probably get the go ahead if the Coin was enough!

We are now on a par in terms of supporter numbers with Bolton and Preston,more than ever we are fighting with them for every floating supporter in the area.

Whoever takes the initiative wins...are you there Mr Waggot?

So vaping is harmful? Please present your evidence as I’m not aware of it otherwise admit you’re talking rubbish. 

[Stuart]

55 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

The vaping ads are crap,promoting a harmful pastime for Cash is even worse imo but these are the times we are living in.An advertisement for 'Dildos.com' would probably get the go ahead if the Coin was enough!

We are now on a par in terms of supporter numbers with Bolton and Preston,more than ever we are fighting with them for every floating supporter in the area.

Whoever takes the initiative wins...are you there Mr Waggot?

Wish we were fighting them for supporters. Looking at prices they all seem to be fighting to keep walk-ons away.

[47er]

18 minutes ago, old darwen blue said:

So vaping is harmful? Please present your evidence as I’m not aware of it otherwise admit you’re talking rubbish. 

Its less harmful than smoking certainly but it is not harmless. Vaping means taking in nicotine which is addictive. It increases the heart rate, in other words it makes the heart work harder, meaning potential heart problems down the track.

As a way of getting off tobacco and not inhaling the likes of furniture polish and tar direct into your lungs, vaping is a better thing to do. However the vaper is still an addict.

The longterm effects of vaping are still unknown for obvious reasons.

 

[Mattyblue]

2 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Wish we were fighting them for supporters. Looking at prices they all seem to be fighting to keep walk-ons away.

Good thing about PNE pricing is it’s simple.

No categories, no surcharges. £24 behind the goal, £27 at the side. 

We just seem to make it overly complicated, very odd state of affairs with so much supply.

[47er]

What was the final season ticket sales figure? Last one I heard was the 9500 quoted on here. If that is so, there were a fair number of walk-ons yesterday.

Attendance was around 14400? Around 2500 Forest fans? 

If season ticket sales remained at around 9500 means well over 2000 walk-ons.

Not gigantic admittedly but not insignificant.That would encourage me to believe we would get more if the price were lower.

 

[Mattyblue]

9,600.

Just over 2,000 Forest yesterday. So not far off 3,000 walk ons which is excellent for us, especially at Cat A.

Such a shame we couldn’t have pushed season ticket sales up to the 11k mark, crowds would be starting to look fairly healthy.

[47er]

4 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

9,600.

Just over 2,000 Forest yesterday. So not far off 3,000 walk ons which is excellent for us, especially at Cat A.

Such a shame we couldn’t have pushed season ticket sales up to the 11k mark, crowds would be starting to look fairly healthy.

So people were saying we hardly get any walk-ons. Clearly that isn't so.

Something for the Club to work with supposing that they have the right mind-set.First encourage more walk-ons by lowering the price, keeping it above season ticket price. Then, hope we can convince walk-ons to see the value and point of a season ticket-----cheaper,own seat guaranteed and exciting games.

3 match tickets are a good way of getting the habit started again imo.