Attendances

[47er]

57 minutes ago, philipl said:

I will post this here as well as in the Bolton thread.

Our neighbours in Bolton and Bury are tragically going to the wall tomorrow.

That's around 16,000 regular home supporters between them.

Drog's long dreamed of Lancashire United.

 

What are we going to do to welcome them to Ewood?

 

.

If Rovers folded, I would cease to be interested in football and would follow no-one. I simply could not support another team.

I imagine Bolton fans would feel the same.

This might well change with  new generations over time but Boltoners would be much more likely to gravitate to Manchester. In fact, I'm certain of it.

[Mattyblue]

When did you meet all these Bolton fans? In the 90s PL days certainly, we had non Rovers fans from all over who wanted to take in the top players, and in the olden days fans would often watch one side one week, another t’week after. Football is much more tribal now.

Doesnt matter if they can’t get in to the Manchester clubs, the kids will ‘support’ them anyway. Many Bolton supporting parents would much rather buy their kids City shirts then go to Ewood. Look how narky Nob Enders get about an odd Rovers fan over there, yet have no issue with the literal thousands of Liverpool and United ‘fans’ in Preston. Sad but true.

Is it worth doing? Yeah why not, but I doubt much take up.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Mattyblue

[philipl]

Just now, 47er said:

If Rovers folded, I would cease to be interested in football and would follow no-one. I simply could not support another team.

I imagine Bolton fans would feel the same.

This might well change with  new generations over time but Boltoners would be much more likely to gravitate to Manchester. In fact, I'm certain of it.

But that is no excuse for Rovers management not using an enlightened marketing campaign to try to attract another few thousand.

Compare proximity maps with and without Bolton and Bury and Rovers' catchment area dramatically increases. I bet Andy Holt at Stanley won't be sitting this out without doing something to win over Bury fans. 

[Paul]

@Mattyblue thanks for the earlier response.

[Mattyblue]

No problem, any excuse to get gabbing about my favourite topic 

Edited August 26, 2019 by Mattyblue

[Stuart]

The quality of debate in this thread is second to none. Well done everyone.

I guess when you combine the demographic and size of the town then we need to be attracting people from the wider catchment area. But if Paul’s experience is a common one then these folks will not travel unless it was to watch PL football on the cheap - unless Rovers were suddenly competing with Liverpool and Man City (the equivalent of what happened between 1992-1996) in which case they would possibly pay. It would be interesting to know how many of these fans now have Burnley STs for the PL football attraction.

So how do you attract non-Blackburners to Ewood without PL football? With great difficulty it sounds like.

If we turn our attention to the heartlands then, imho, the draw has to be price. I take the point that there are no top 6 PL names to being in the crowds so it has to be about being part of a culture of watching live football and it meaning something to you. Being part of a community. That won’t get off the ground, barring the generation game (dads and kids) while our pricing is at the levels it is - particularly walk on prices so our income may need to take a hit if we are to increase crowds. Although if we get double the attendance for half the price then it breaks even.

If the only alternative is PL football then we need a manager who can deliver it. You could well imagine there being a large increase in ST sales if we did get into the PL - particularly if that lot stayed up.

[JHRover]

10 minutes ago, Stuart said:

 

So how do you attract non-Blackburners to Ewood without PL football? With great difficulty it sounds like.

If we turn our attention to the heartlands then, imho, the draw has to be price. I take the point that there are no top 6 PL names to being in the crowds so it has to be about being part of a culture of watching live football and it meaning something to you. Being part of a community. That won’t get off the ground, barring the generation game (dads and kids) while our pricing is at the levels it is - particularly walk on prices so our income may need to take a hit if we are to increase crowds. Although if we get double the attendance for half the price then it breaks even.

If the only alternative is PL football then we need a manager who can deliver it. You could well imagine there being a large increase in ST sales if we did get into the PL - particularly if that lot stayed up.

Brighton built a new stadium in the middle of fields in the middle of nowhere with no parking and beyond walking distance of any residential areas. Prior to that they'd had 4 figure gates renting an athletics ground. Never been in the Premier League and been regular League One strugglers.

They knew they needed to make extra effort to get their new ground filled up before they got promoted to the Premier League. They couldn't offer Premier League football, or big names. 

So they set about making it as easy as possible for people to get there - free public transport for ticket holders, regular coaches and buses from all sorts of areas outside of Brighton into the ground, publicising routes and benefits to people, trains to drop people off outside the ground and waiting to get them away afterwards. All in all a well co-ordinated operation which saw their gates rise massively from about 6000 a week to 26000 a week in the space of a few years.

Then there's the efforts made to get people to the ground as early as possible and encouraging them to stay behind afterwards to allow traffic to die down. Good bar offerings, good beer, entertainment, the list goes on.

Now that's an extreme example with some obvious differences to what we are dealing with - obviously the Sussex catchment area is much bigger and wealthier than ours and they've crucially had an upwardly mobile club driving that growth but more examples here of the efforts clubs have made which have paid off for them. 

We should be looking at Leyland, Chorley, Bamber Bridge, Lancaster, Hyndburn and Rossendale as our catchment area. A massive population. Accepted we have a lot of competition but we need to get ahead of the game and think outside the box. The fact we offer nothing in those areas except a few posters for season tickets is the problem.

[Stuart]

34 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Brighton built a new stadium in the middle of fields in the middle of nowhere with no parking and beyond walking distance of any residential areas. Prior to that they'd had 4 figure gates renting an athletics ground. Never been in the Premier League and been regular League One strugglers.

They knew they needed to make extra effort to get their new ground filled up before they got promoted to the Premier League. They couldn't offer Premier League football, or big names. 

So they set about making it as easy as possible for people to get there - free public transport for ticket holders, regular coaches and buses from all sorts of areas outside of Brighton into the ground, publicising routes and benefits to people, trains to drop people off outside the ground and waiting to get them away afterwards. All in all a well co-ordinated operation which saw their gates rise massively from about 6000 a week to 26000 a week in the space of a few years.

Then there's the efforts made to get people to the ground as early as possible and encouraging them to stay behind afterwards to allow traffic to die down. Good bar offerings, good beer, entertainment, the list goes on.

Now that's an extreme example with some obvious differences to what we are dealing with - obviously the Sussex catchment area is much bigger and wealthier than ours and they've crucially had an upwardly mobile club driving that growth but more examples here of the efforts clubs have made which have paid off for them. 

We should be looking at Leyland, Chorley, Bamber Bridge, Lancaster, Hyndburn and Rossendale as our catchment area. A massive population. Accepted we have a lot of competition but we need to get ahead of the game and think outside the box. The fact we offer nothing in those areas except a few posters for season tickets is the problem.

Excellent post

[Proudtobeblue&white]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Excellent post

Of course it is, but these clowns have no f'ing idea how to run a football club?

[47er]

Long gone now of course but I wonder what would have happened had Jack Walker gone ahead with plans to build a new stadium in the Salmsbury area just off the M6?

I was opposed to it at the time but we were flying in the Premiership and we would presumably have attracted new fans from the west/central Lancashire area.

Might have been better off in the long-run? Just a thought.

[old darwen blue]

2 hours ago, 47er said:

Long gone now of course but I wonder what would have happened had Jack Walker gone ahead with plans to build a new stadium in the Salmsbury area just off the M6?

I was opposed to it at the time but we were flying in the Premiership and we would presumably have attracted new fans from the west/central Lancashire area.

Might have been better off in the long-run? Just a thought.

My understanding was that he threatened to build it at Rishton where the Euro Garage services now are?

[47er]

7 hours ago, old darwen blue said:

My understanding was that he threatened to build it at Rishton where the Euro Garage services now are?

Never heard that one. I always thought it was Salmsbury or stay. The attraction was ease of access to M6 plus the local towns and villages nearby-- Chorley, Leyland and so on.

And green-field site meant custom parking.

Edited August 29, 2019 by 47er

[Mattyblue]

Yeah I thought it was always Whitebirk/Rishton.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Thank God it never came to fruition...would have been an out of Town Soulless disaster post Jack Walker glory era.

Ewood is where the heart is.

Edited August 29, 2019 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Mattyblue]

Tickets for Reading away.

£20 for ST holders and £18 in the family area.

Looking on their website that is the price for members every week (no Cat A+ and the rest of it) until it goes up on match day.

An affluent area of the country too...

Edited August 29, 2019 by Mattyblue

[JHRover]

Amazing what clubs can do. Reading also restrict away followings to a couple of thousand in half the stand behind the goal and wedge them between the two most vocal areas of home fans. Would be easy for them to move home fans to other parts of the ground and open up the full stand behind the goal for 4000 away followings but they refuse it. 

[JHRover]

Getting a bit fed up waiting for Sky to announce their next batch of TV games. As it stands they have announced up to but not including 5th October. We are down to play QPR away and I want to book the train before the prices go up. I don't want to risk it because knowing my luck they'll move the game for TV. 

They are supposed to announce the TV games a minimum of 5 weeks before it takes place. That's this Saturday so they're pushing it right to the wire.

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Thank God it never came to fruition...would have been an out of Town Soulless disaster post Jack Walker glory era.

Ewood is where the heart is.

When you consider how many troop to Rovers on foot from Ewood, Mill Hill and Lower Darwen that must make up the core of the core support so imagine games now in a stadium in Salmsbury without half of those.

They really would have had to put free buses on.

[Mattyblue]

The Whitebirk stadium would’ve been great for the Hyndburn fans though...

[Stuart]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

The Whitebirk stadium would’ve been great for the Hyndburn fans though...

And beyond, such is the network infrastructure.

[HowieFive0]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

The Whitebirk stadium would’ve been great for the Hyndburn fans though...

Whitebirk was also muted as an area for a new Stanley ground.

As ideal it would be for someone from Hyndburn like me I would have hated it.Going to Ewood actually in a town in a community surrounded by terrace streets with history actually makes it feel like a town team. A ground ( or stadium!) on an industrial estate would be absolutely  soulless.

I wonder what capacity they would have gone for ..we could have ended up with a right white elephant...

Edited August 29, 2019 by HowieFive0

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

The Whitebirk stadium would’ve been great for the Hyndburn fans though...

I suppose it would've been similar to Bolton like what regulars they might have lost from the Burnden area over the years they gained in newbies from Horwich and Adlington.  

[DeeCee]

7 hours ago, HowieFive0 said:

Whitebirk was also muted as an area for a new Stanley ground.

As ideal it would be for someone from Hyndburn like me I would have hated it.Going to Ewood actually in a town in a community surrounded by terrace streets with history actually makes it feel like a town team. A ground ( or stadium!) on an industrial estate would be absolutely  soulless.

I wonder what capacity they would have gone for ..we could have ended up with a right white elephant...

I feel the same but we're dinosaurs, cinema, choice of restaurants, bowling alley etc, is the modern way.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

8 hours ago, HowieFive0 said:

Whitebirk was also muted as an area for a new Stanley ground.

As ideal it would be for someone from Hyndburn like me I would have hated it.Going to Ewood actually in a town in a community surrounded by terrace streets with history actually makes it feel like a town team. A ground ( or stadium!) on an industrial estate would be absolutely  soulless.

I wonder what capacity they would have gone for ..we could have ended up with a right white elephant...

Spot on...the match atmosphere is not the best at present but the Ground and surrounding area retains a sense of History and Character.

Ewood was a sports ground before the Rovers moved in and before most of the housing in the district was built!

Edited August 29, 2019 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Stonesrick]

11 hours ago, JHRover said:

Getting a bit fed up waiting for Sky to announce their next batch of TV games. As it stands they have announced up to but not including 5th October. We are down to play QPR away and I want to book the train before the prices go up. I don't want to risk it because knowing my luck they'll move the game for TV. 

They are supposed to announce the TV games a minimum of 5 weeks before it takes place. That's this Saturday so they're pushing it right to the wire.

No chance QPR game will be live on Sky. Their game at home v West Brom is live the Saturday before. Can’t see anyone being on in consecutive  weeks unless you are (we want you back in the Premier League) Sky’s favourite - Leeds Utd.