Attendances

[barry_]

I know that i'm banging an old point here (and i'm well aware of the opinions concerning this issue)

But!

The closure of the DE for home fans has been detrimental (imo) to the atmosphere in the ground.

I had to move to the BBE and have okay seats in N01 but the atmosphere is poor.

Very little vocal support and I haven't enjoyed going to the games so much (due to the move) so this will probably be my last year with a season ticket.

[Mattyblue]

I’m next to NO1 and they sing a fair bit from where I am.

The DE could’ve stayed open for me, but unless you were one of the few dozen singing in it, you couldn’t hear anything in the rest of the ground, so a bit of a stretch to say the atmosphere’s got worse.

It will always be pretty poor with 18,000 empty seats.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Mattyblue

[pk1875]

16 minutes ago, barry_ said:

I know that i'm banging an old point here (and i'm well aware of the opinions concerning this issue)

But!

The closure of the DE for home fans has been detrimental (imo) to the atmosphere in the ground.

I had to move to the BBE and have okay seats in N01 but the atmosphere is poor.

Very little vocal support and I haven't enjoyed going to the games so much (due to the move) so this will probably be my last year with a season ticket.

I agree the closure of the DE has damaged match day atmosphere...

The JW lower section is a great view but the club have done all they could to limit the JW lower.

I have missed the last half dozen or so home games now mainly due to work.

Everything considered we will just buy tickets on a match by match basis next season.

[Mattyblue]

Instead of giving up, why not and try and open a dialogue with the club for a PROPER singing section...

[Proudtobeblue&white]

5 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Instead of giving up, why not and try and open a dialogue with the club for a PROPER singing section...

But where?

Growing up, BE was the raucous place to be, DE was always the away end. The concrete structure didn't help.....

When there were a few on, I always thought the current BE, when populated up and down could make a fair din. Butchering the ground by Waggot has not helped any Rovers fan. We have been here before. It was like a morgue yesterday. 

[Mattyblue]

Surely the performance was the cause of that?

[Proudtobeblue&white]

It's the lack of cohesion that makes it quiet. A crowd should lift their team. The nonsense of closing the upper BE, singing DE has completely dissipated any crowd noise. Look at Palace, who are incredibly vocal. IMO making the BE safe standing and charging a tenner, I'd be there every home game, irrespective of form. See German clubs. The current Rovers regime has no imagination, and is actively disincentivising folk from going.

[AAK]

37 minutes ago, pk1875 said:

I agree the closure of the DE has damaged match day atmosphere...

The JW lower section is a great view but the club have done all they could to limit the JW lower.

I have missed the last half dozen or so home games now mainly due to work.

Everything considered we will just buy tickets on a match by match basis next season.

I've said before, and some may not agree, but I choose not go now. As I always sat in the darwen end, loved the atmosphere. There is no atmosphere anywhere else in the ground, and the atmosphere is part of the enjoyment for me and a few others. If you try and sing in any other stand you get looked at like you're either a thug or your pissed. I would say it's probably the wors ground in the top 2 divisions for atmosphere now. Away support is tremendous.

Edited February 18, 2019 by AAK

[Mattyblue]

Nobody in N01 does that! I hear them as I’m adjacent to them. I sat in the Jack Walker for the Bristol City game and I could hear N01 then too.

End of the day the atmosphere will always be poor with so many empty seats, the few dozen singing on the Darwen End made no difference to that.

[old darwen blue]

5 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Nobody in N01 does that! I hear them as I’m adjacent to them. I sat in the Jack Walker for the Bristol City game and I could hear N01 then too.

End of the day the atmosphere will always be poor with so many empty seats, the few dozen singing on the Darwen End made no difference to that.

Utter rubbish, the Darren Enders made plenty of noise and contributed to the atmosphere. 

And when I was one of the 6000 loyal in the 70/80s, the Blackburn End made a lot of noise with not so many in it. Don’t blame the lack of atmosphere on empty seats, I’m not going over it all again but there’s too many spectators on Ewood and not enough supporters. 

[Mattyblue]

You lot sang I could see that, but due to numbers in later seasons you couldn’t really be heard. Not your fault, just a fact due to dwindling numbers.

[JHRover]

The club has to take accountability for the decline in atmosphere. They chose to shut two stands and move longstanding season ticket holders from their seats. No matter what the JW Lower corner block is never going to be a sensible place to create a singing section. It's too low down, too out of the way and too small. The club know this, the lack of any promotional material suggests that they didn't want to encourage people to sit there. Notice that Reading have a singing area of a few hundred fans next to the away end like the DE was, they refuse to close it to enable huge away followings like Rovers do.

The revelation that the PNE noon kick off is at Rovers request and not the police is confirmation of what we are up against. Comfort zone stuff. 1 of 7 home games between Middlesbrough and August at 3pm on Saturday, 6 of 7 away games at 3pm Saturday. Sickening 

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by JHRover

[Mattyblue]

The club is just consistently behind the times.

From simple things like having Fosters and John Smith’s as your drink choice to not embracing the fast emerging fan culture in areas like singing sections. Areas we innovated in like radio station, in house TV all gone. The ground itself is massively in need of a deep clean.

Often feels we are still operating in the 90s - but a stripped down version.

[arbitro]

10 minutes ago, JHRover said:

The club has to take accountability for the decline in atmosphere. They chose to shut two stands and move longstanding season ticket holders from their seats. No matter what the JW Lower corner block is never going to be a sensible place to create a singing section. It's too low down, too out of the way and too small. The club know this, the lack of any promotional material suggests that they didn't want to encourage people to sit there. Notice that Reading have a singing area of a few hundred fans next to the away end like the DE was, they refuse to close it to enable huge away followings like Rovers do.

The revelation that the PNE noon kick off is at Rovers request and not the police is confirmation of what we are up against. Comfort zone stuff. 1 of 7 home games between Middlesbrough and August at 3pm on Saturday, 6 of 7 away games at 3pm Saturday. Sickening 

 

I noticed that the volatile East Midlands derby is being played on Monday night. I really don't understand Rovers (or Caleys) concerns for the Nobbers game. Any disorder will occur away from the ground and the police will, as always deal with it. The 'bubble' we have for the Burnley matches is at the request of the police but clearly they don't have any concerns for the Preston games as evidenced by the 3 pm kick off over there. But ultimately Waggott should be questioning him and linking the ridiculous decision to lost revenue and another example of pissing off supporters.

[Mattyblue]

Villa/West Brom 3pm last weekend.

Rovers V Bolton 5.30pm at their place, 3pm here on Easter Monday. 5600 Rovers at PNE - 3pm, reverse fixture noon.

What is the story? I thought it was that there was some agreement that if a club got over 5,000 tickets at Ewood, Rovers and the police agreed it had to kick off at 12pm on ‘safety grounds’.

Is that not the case and Rovers have just unilaterally changed it?

Edited February 19, 2019 by Mattyblue

[JHRover]

5 minutes ago, arbitro said:

I noticed that the volatile East Midlands derby is being played on Monday night. I really don't understand Rovers (or Caleys) concerns for the Nobbers game. Any disorder will occur away from the ground and the police will, as always deal with it. The 'bubble' we have for the Burnley matches is at the request of the police but clearly they don't have any concerns for the Preston games as evidenced by the 3 pm kick off over there. But ultimately Waggott should be questioning him and linking the ridiculous decision to lost revenue and another example of pissing off supporters.

From Caley's perspective what incentive is there for bigger crowds? Does he get paid more if there's an extra 5000 turn up? No. Does he have more pressure on him and work to do? Yes. What time does he clock off after a noon kick off? Probably home in time for tea, job done. For a 3pm kick off he might not get home until 7 or 8pm. No good.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if it was something so petty as that. That's the extent to which people have entered the comfort zone with minimal accountability here. The myth that it is done on police instruction is gradually being exposed as a lie and hopefully the pressure will grow on those responsible to explain their decisions.

If you want to increase home crowds start by playing more at 3pm Saturday and not being on TV as a result. From Middlesbrough onwards I reckon all but Stoke and maybe Bolton will be available on Sky TV. Surely Waggott is looking at that and can join the dots.

Edited February 19, 2019 by JHRover

[blueboy3333]

How do we know Rovers moved the PNE game? And do we know why? 

[JHRover]

23 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

How do we know Rovers moved the PNE game? And do we know why? 

The official Lancashire Constabulary Police twitter account for Preston confirmed the other day that the reason the game is at 12 noon is because Rovers made a request to have it at that time and the police had agreed to that request, not because the police had insisted on it kicking off then.

So I suppose it depends which account you believe - the police (supported by the fact that everyone else can avoid noon kick offs and so can we when Man Utd or Liverpool come to town) or Rovers. I know who I hold responsible, but even if I'm wrong and the police are insisting on it, that still doesn't mean Rovers can't do anything about it.

 

[blueboy3333]

10 minutes ago, JHRover said:

The official Lancashire Constabulary Police twitter account for Preston confirmed the other day that the reason the game is at 12 noon is because Rovers made a request to have it at that time and the police had agreed to that request, not because the police had insisted on it kicking off then.

So I suppose it depends which account you believe - the police (supported by the fact that everyone else can avoid noon kick offs and so can we when Man Utd or Liverpool come to town) or Rovers. I know who I hold responsible, but even if I'm wrong and the police are insisting on it, that still doesn't mean Rovers can't do anything about it.

 

Cheers. I wasn't questioning what you wrote I just wondered how you knew. I may have to work and miss the game. 

[tomphil]

A club that wants to scrape in every penny it can alienates probably hundreds of potential matchday punters and a good few of its paid upfront ST holders every time these type of fixtures come around. 

All so the suits can get home early on a Saturday for a change because as the Police have confirmed there is no other reason for it.

[JHRover]

Just now, blueboy3333 said:

Cheers. I wasn't questioning what you wrote I just wondered how you knew. I may have to work and miss the game. 

Aye, I imagine there's plenty like you, plus plenty of others who have tickets who won't bother when they discover the game will be live on Sky Sports, plus plenty who would have gone at 3pm for the local derby but won't bother doing at lunchtime. Many, many reasons for that, ranging from other commitments, saving money by watching on tv or just not enjoying it as much at 12 noon, people making the decision either don't recognise or don't pay any attention to but then come out with stuff about 'commitment'.

As I've said many a time - any other club in the league that willingly allows or even requests that its most popular fixtures to be moved to 12 noon?

 

 

[Mattyblue]

It could’ve been an embarrassing crowd against Preston. As if their form hadn’t picked up coupled with red button coverage they wouldn’t have fetched many and we certainly won’t be selling many at around £30. And it would’ve served Waggott right.

With their current form though I imagine they now will get close to filling the Darwen End.

[blueboy3333]

2 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Aye, I imagine there's plenty like you, plus plenty of others who have tickets who won't bother when they discover the game will be live on Sky Sports, plus plenty who would have gone at 3pm for the local derby but won't bother doing at lunchtime. Many, many reasons for that, ranging from other commitments, saving money by watching on tv or just not enjoying it as much at 12 noon, people making the decision either don't recognise or don't pay any attention to but then come out with stuff about 'commitment'.

As I've said many a time - any other club in the league that willingly allows or even requests that its most popular fixtures to be moved to 12 noon?

 

 

Perhaps our owners wanted to watch it at tea time in Pune with their friends rather than later in the evening. They may have a bit of a do to go to.? 

[pk1875]

Stuart Caley has for too long and continues to play a part in the dwindling match day atmosphere, from over zealous stewarding, stand closures and ridiculous adjustments to kick off times. He is a yesterdays man, too long in the tooth and out of touch with the clubs needs to improve revenue by improving match day experience.

He wants to remain in his comfort zone and smaller subdued crowds enable this. Maybe it's time the club looked at bringing in a younger more in touch and forward thinking Stadium / Safety manager, one who embraces larger crowds and improved atmosphere.    

[Mattyblue]

I’ve noticed that since they’ve been brought back downstairs, away fans have now been moved from the traditional away half of the Darwen End to the Riverside half.

I imagine Caley wants a 3,000 seat buffer zone between the visitors and the couple of dozen folk in the corner of the Jack Walker.