Attendances

[Mattyblue]

No surcharge on Saturday as a ‘post Christmas gesture’.

First sign of a climbdown?

[tomphil]

Decent turn out last night after all apart from the barcodes who were amongst the first to sling mud at Rovers fans during the early Venky era - boot on the other foot now eh lads ?

Them brining 2k here at 10 quid a ticket is like us taking 300 to Stoke for that TV dinner time kick off, we got hammered for that yet the press are all over two thousand Geordies still coming to Blackburn despite their differences with Cashley, big club bias in its finest mode again.

It drew out a normal league type turnout from home fans so that's a plus for us if it had been normal league prices there'd have been sub ten thousand on in total so don't tell me for one min discount tickets didn't work.

[JHRover]

Yeah, I still have recollections of those lowly crowds vs West Ham and Stoke not long ago, which were really poor, so to get nearly 13000 home fans on, possibly more than we'd get for a non-televised league game including season ticket holders, I think was a decent effort and suggests the £10 tickets did have a positive impact although perhaps not at the level Waggott was expecting.

Had we got through to play Watford it would have been essential that they repeated those prices otherwise that would have been an awful turnout as Watford don't possess the same level of interest as playing a traditionally 'big' club in Newcastle. Newcastle probably on a par with Everton, Leeds etc. as not one of the top clubs but nonetheless playing them at home might attract a few more than run of the mill sides like Watford or Palace.

[Mattyblue]

Course it worked.

Over 12,000 home fans attending a midweek 3rd round replay in January and it was live on TV.

I’d say there was considerably more Rovers fans actually in the ground than many league matches.

Take out the Liverpool/Man Utd matches, I’d say it was the best attended cup tie we’ve had for donkeys years, possibly since Burnley in 2005. 

More home fans than the Man City weekend tie in 2014, more than the 5th round weekend tie against West Ham in 2016.  More than double the figure for fairly recent weekend ties against Stoke, Swansea etc. Nevermind the quarter final replay against Millwall or league cup semi against Villa.

Lets hope Waggott is comparing like for like when gauging its success.

[only2garners]

59 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

No surcharge on Saturday as a ‘post Christmas gesture’.

First sign of a climbdown?

Whilst a "post Christmas gesture" might be the official line, it's actually a deal on ticket prices we did with Ipswich at the start the season.

[JHRover]

As a season ticket holder for 20 years+ and having bought every away ticket for 9 years I'm looking forward to receiving my 'post Christmas gesture' from the club. Hope it's more than £3 off a ticket having spent £115 on Leeds, Sheff Utd, Millwall and Newcastle x 2 since Xmas.

Edited January 16, 2019 by JHRover

[arbitro]

52 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Course it worked.

Over 12,000 home fans attending a midweek 3rd round replay in January and it was live on TV.

I’d say there was considerably more Rovers fans actually in the ground than many league matches.

Take out the Liverpool/Man Utd matches, I’d say it was the best attended cup tie we’ve had for donkeys years, possibly since Burnley in 2005. 

More home fans than the Man City weekend tie in 2014, more than the 5th round weekend tie against West Ham in 2016.  More than double the figure for fairly recent weekend ties against Stoke, Swansea etc. Nevermind the quarter final replay against Millwall or league cup semi against Villa.

Lets hope Waggott is comparing like for like when gauging its success.

I sit in the JW Upper and recognise lots of regulars for league matches. Last night there was a significant number of people I haven't seen before. It would be interesting if the club put out the numbers of actual season ticket holders and non season ticket holders who were there last night. The club should be contacting the latter to see what they can do to make them regular attendees.

[MCMC1875]

3 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I sit in the JW Upper and recognise lots of regulars for league matches. Last night there was a significant number of people I haven't seen before. It would be interesting if the club put out the numbers of actual season ticket holders and non season ticket holders who were there last night. The club should be contacting the latter to see what they can do to make them regular attendees.

Many season ticket holders from other stands bought tickets in the JW Upper just for a change.

[only2garners]

I noticed as I was going into the JW Upper last night that I was the only person around me using my season ticket - everyone else had paper tickets. I firstly assumed it was a lot of non ST holders but then realised a lot were probably refugees from elsewhere in the ground.

[SBlue]

Looked well on the telly with the majority in the two big stands.

[Hasta]

As MattyBlue has stated, compared to previous FA Cup games under Venkys, of course it has worked.

We got more home fans on for a midweek FA Cup tie than we do for league games, despite the fact that Newcastle are not really a big attraction.

Does anyone see any logic whatsoever in doubling the admission cost from 5pm? Why not just charge the usual stupid matchday surcharge rather than doubling the cost.

 

[K-Hod]

2 minutes ago, Hasta said:

As MattyBlue has stated, compared to previous FA Cup games under Venkys, of course it has worked.

We got more home fans on for a midweek FA Cup tie than we do for league games, despite the fact that Newcastle are not really a big attraction.

Does anyone see any logic whatsoever in doubling the admission cost from 5pm? Why not just charge the usual stupid matchday surcharge rather than doubling the cost.

 

I believe that was because it was what Newcastle did and there's a reciprocal pricing agreement, though I may be wrong....

[gumboots]

From what I saw, there were plenty prepared to pay the double cost. Plenty queueing

[only2garners]

2 hours ago, K-Hod said:

I believe that was because it was what Newcastle did and there's a reciprocal pricing agreement, though I may be wrong....

That's right. For cup ties pricing has to be agreed between the two clubs and whatever is agreed for the first tie has to be done in a replay as well.

 

1 hour ago, gumboots said:

From what I saw, there were plenty prepared to pay the double cost. Plenty queueing

That's been the case all season gumboots. We have averaged about 2,000 walk-up tickets a game over the season so far and about 800 of them or 40% have been bought with the £3 surcharge.

[Mattyblue]

I take it it used to be substantially higher than 40% of match ticket purchasers who bought them in the run up to KO?

If not, the surcharge has made little difference and is purely ripping folk off...

Edited January 16, 2019 by Mattyblue

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

55 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

I take it it used to be substantially higher than 40% of match ticket purchasers who bought them in the run up to KO?

If not, the surcharge has made little difference and is purely ripping folk off...

Or they could buy tickets earlier in the day..... 

The club is a business. In a perfect world the tickets would be free. I’m not defending it necessarily but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. 

I understand that for one off games it could be  tricky but for regular season fixtures, fans will have plenty of time to buy tickets without the surcharge. I don’t really understand the fuss. 

[Mattyblue]

We don’t live in a perfect world, that’s why tickets currently cost between £22 and £30 which is more than enough for bottom half second tier football.

Another £3 because you buy your tickets at 1.30pm is a pisstake and not far off half of those buying tickets are being ripped off. 

It was not something we needed for 20 years before last season, a period when we had much higher attendances by the way.

I agree, it is a fuss - one created by the club.

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Mattyblue

[JHRover]

4 minutes ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

Or they could buy tickets earlier in the day..... 

The club is a business. In a perfect world the tickets would be free. I’m not defending it necessarily but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. 

I understand that for one off games it could be  tricky but for regular season fixtures, fans will have plenty of time to buy tickets without the surcharge. I don’t really understand the fuss. 

We as a club need to be encouraging as many people as possible to buy tickets and come to Ewood, arguably more so than many of our rivals who can rely on 20,000 a week. If some of those people can't or won't commit to going until a few hours before kick off those people should not be penalised or deterred due to a needless surcharge.

Some people cannot or will not make a decision until the last minute. Some people work Saturday mornings, or decide given what the weather is like or what the wife is doing. Why should that mean you pay more than those who decide on Friday lunchtime?

[Hasta]

1 hour ago, magicalmortensleftpeg said:

Or they could buy tickets earlier in the day..... 

The club is a business. In a perfect world the tickets would be free. I’m not defending it necessarily but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. 

I understand that for one off games it could be  tricky but for regular season fixtures, fans will have plenty of time to buy tickets without the surcharge. I don’t really understand the fuss. 

Because there is no justification for it other that to squeeze extra money off the fans. 

Why do prices have to go up after 12pm on a match day. Why not go up on the day of the game? Why not go up if you don't buy them over a week in advance? What's different about 11.58am and 12.02pm on a Saturday?

Why don't they put replica shirts and other merchandise up £3 on match days as well. They can be bought in advance.

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Hasta

[HowieFive0]

Is there any real proof that the post midday surcharge actually affects people willing to buy tickets ? The only place where ive actually heard a hoo ha about this surcharge is on here ? 

Im a season ticket holder who mixes in a decent cross section of Rovers fans in work and socially including the Accy supporters coach  and not once has the conversation drifted to this surcharge ? People are aware of it but don't seem as irate or remotely bothered by it as some posters on here . 

For whatever reason the surcharge is there  (and we are not alone in the EPL to implement a surcharge on match days ..Bradford a fiver  ?) and the club documents this surcharge for all to see .

Last night it looked like people were reasonably ok with buying tickets for 20 quid after missing out on the tenner for whatever reason.

 

[SBlue]

Ah good I’m glad we’re back on this again.

[HowieFive0]

Just now, S8 & Blue said:

Ah good I’m glad we’re back on this again.

Believe me ...I don't want to be back on this ..but I really don't see the problem ..its there ..in this day and age of being able to buy a ticket via a pc ..phone ..there are ways to avoid the surcharge.  My point I was stating is..  is this surcharge such a big deal amongst rovers supporters or just a handful of posters on a messageboard ?

My feeling is its not really an issue.

[Mattyblue]

Most Rovers fans I know are season ticket holders who don’t spend their time on sites like this, so I imagine most of them don’t even know about it.

However, nearly half of our match ticket buyers arent using tablets or mobiles to purchase, but are still buying post 12pm on a match day and being charged extra for it, so it obviously isn’t having the desired effect of making folk buy early, just ripping people off. 

I have no idea if its putting anyone off coming, but why put any more obstacles in the way, when we have nearly 20,000 empty seats every week? Look across Ewood Park on a match day,  the surcharge isn’t exactly a form of crowd control!

Edited January 16, 2019 by Mattyblue

[only2garners]

Presumably we might find out how much an issue it is this weekend.

[Hasta]

10 minutes ago, HowieFive0 said:

Believe me ...I don't want to be back on this ..but I really don't see the problem ..its there ..in this day and age of being able to buy a ticket via a pc ..phone ..there are ways to avoid the surcharge.  My point I was stating is..  is this surcharge such a big deal amongst rovers supporters or just a handful of posters on a messageboard ?

My feeling is its not really an issue.

It doesn't affect me one bit as I've got a season ticket. However it affects one of my mates and I've yet to hear one good reason why it's implemented.

The doubling of the cost did actually lose them one sale last night but if it was a reciprocal agreement with NUFC then that explains that (as illogical as it it)