Attendances

[OldEwoodBlue]

1 hour ago, pk1875 said:

Buy tickets on a match by match when not working was the plan. Yesterday I got an early finish (12.00) and thought should I get down and buy a ticket? Not prepared to pay the additional £3.00 to do this so watched it online instead...... Makes no sense at all.

Nobody should have to pay this 3 quid Waggott Tax.

I'm glad you didn't.

No wonder there are 20,000 empty seats.

The club can't grasp 20,000 opportunities instead choosing to rip off a few hundred.

 

[tomphil]

1 hour ago, pk1875 said:

When Waggot closed the DE, without any or minimal warning a few of us met with him down at Ewood. We suggested the W01 singing section in the jack Walker Lower. Waggot nodded and agreed, stating the club will work with you on this idea, the social media guy will be in touch.... What happened?

Nobody got in touch
The Club did nothing to promote it
The Club moved away fans to Riverside half of DE
The Club then moved away fans upstairs...

Before people say the JW Lower didn't attract numbers, The DE section got split around the ground, the club did nothing to help out with the W01 and then moved away fans as far as possible...

This left me this year not buying a season ticket, I miss half the games due to work. This year the thought of paying £700 to be next to an empty stand appealed like a hole in the head.

Buy tickets on a match by match when not working was the plan. Yesterday I got an early finish (12.00) and thought should I get down and buy a ticket? Not prepared to pay the additional £3.00 to do this so watched it online instead...... Makes no sense at all.

I just reckon the police and stewards getting fed up of having to do something inside and outside the ground to justify their wages banged the drum for that one.  We've seen how they've handled the PNE game in recent years and i'm sure they'd have every local game kicking off at dinner time if they could.

Once it was put to Waggot that it might be a cost saver as well that was it, section closed.  It wasn't often great but there was a bit of life in that end anyone who thinks it looks and sounds better now must be a right misery guts, so what if they were often only a few hundred in both sections ?  At least there was a murmur of encouragement for the team attacking that end, taking set pieces etc as well as a bit of banter with away fans giving it an actual football match feel.   I often think a lot at Ewood think they are at the theatre the game kicking off is like the curtain going up and a hush decends and thery don't want any distraction from a few herberts shouting at each other over a fence to their right/left..?

[JHRover]

There's two ways of looking at the crowds thing. 

Of course back in the 2000-01 period we had both more people coming to watch AND the numbers watching in the Championship were much less on average. But then the makeup of clubs in the Championship has also changed significantly. Historical minnows like Bournemouth, Watford, Burnley who would have got 10,000 a week or so maximum at Championship level have gone on to get themselves promoted, whereas historical big city clubs like Leeds, Villa, Sheffield and Forest have become Championship regulars. Back in 2001 time there were clubs like Crewe, Grimsby etc. in the league.

This shows that the make-up of the top divisions has changed significantly. Arguably numbers through the turnstiles have come to be less and less important over the years as rich owners have flooded in and Sky tv money props up the division.

Nonetheless it is a fact that clubs like Forest, Bristol City, Brighton, Cardiff, Huddersfield, Derby etc. have in the last 10-15 years been able to significantly increase their attendances having previously had very average gates at this level. 

They haven't done it overnight, they haven't waved a magic wand, most haven't been able to offer Premier League football or promotion. They've just set out to bring new people in and retain them, think outside the box, employ people to come up with initiatives, improve the matchday experience so kids and younger people enjoy it.

Nothing ever changes at Ewood. Still go about things as though it is 1999 rather than 2019. 

A very small but simple example - when we got our Jumbotron screen it was one of the first of its kind at a football ground in England. We were one of the first to go out and get one. Since then virtually every club has got hold of one and use those screens to do all sorts. Videos, replays, highlights, sponsors, scores. But at Ewood we don't put ours to its full potential. All we use it for is to show the teams, a few scores and then a slideshow of adverts. Yesterday was the 4th home game in a row where the screen displayed a faulty image of the Stoke match from last year over the top of a menu. A small point but it sums it up - a complete lack of interest or effort by those running it to get 100% use out of it. It just looks like people turn up at noon on matchday, switch it on and off we go. 

It goes on and on. A complete failure to properly honor former players who have passed away. Why? Can't be bothered. Playing music pre-match so low that it can hardly be heard. There has to be more done and every year that goes by without doing it makes it harder to recover.

 

[chaddyrovers]

16 minutes ago, JHRover said:

 

Playing music pre-match so low that it can hardly be heard.

 

Not everyone wants music being high where you cant talk to people around you. I always enjoying a chat to people around where you sit discussing football, cricket, family, plans for after the football. The woman in front of me hate the music being loud 5 to 10 mins before kick off. So the club cant cater for everyone choices. 

We got to the ground for 1.30pm.yesterday got our burger from burger van behind the Rovers store then heading inside the stadium to watch the cricket and Norwich/Chelsea match. 

I dont have the magic answers to get fans back or to increase attendance back to what the were 10 years ago. 

Edited August 25, 2019 by chaddyrovers

[tomphil]

The music at Ewood is a continual debate i remember us moaning it was too loud as far back as when Ince was boss.  Once sat next to 6 thousand Sunderland fans in the far end of the Riverside who were in full voice pre match and the music cranked up and completely drowned them out.  Fair enough you may think except a nice chant was spreading around the whole home sections you could actually here the BBE from there as well then boom ear splitting music.

They've never got it quite right i don't think.

[47er]

The announcements are absolutely deafening. Ridiculously so.

[Paul]

@Mattyblue a couple of your comments on attendance struck me as contradictory. You repeated, as has long been said by many, Rovers attendance as a percentage of population is high. You've also said many times, a point I agree with, much of our support comes from outside of the town and this is where we must look in the future. Plus you feel the percentage of fans with a Blackburn address is at it's lowest level. I feel it is either one or the other and cannot be both.

I can only back up my view with real experience but no stats. I live six miles from the ground just over halfway to Chorley. In the days when I sat in Nuttall Street I could leave home at 2.35/2.40 and be in the ground for KO. In our PL days we would leave at 2.00pm and often not get home till 6.15pm. Today we set off at 2.25 mainly because we park on the DE but one of my lads sits in the BBE. The strange thing about today is there is never a queue to get to Ewood but always one to get home along LBR. We're usually in the house around 5.40.

My point would be in the PL days the proportion of fans based outside of Blackburn was much higher than credited and it remains so today. Drive along LBR on matchday and one would hardly know there is a game on. The fans who used to stream down to the ground simply are not there.

I realise everything I say on this is anecdotal but I feel this high percentage of the town population has been a fallacy for decades. It was a comfort blanket we wrapped ourselves in to defend what some saw as poor support levels in the PL and still do today.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. In the '90s 30-40 people from my village went to Ewood. Today I know of four, three of them from my house. There are myriad reasons people have stopped going and frankly no amount of club sales promotion will bring them back.

The only solution to increasing support is PL football. This will bring back a proportion of true Rovers plus those who simply want to watch live PL football. That is the point at which careful, clever pricing will have it's biggest impact. Local floating fans who want to see Liverpool, City, Utd, Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea and will view a reasonably priced ST as a good way to watch those teams. As for the rest of the PL? Is anyone other than their own support very bothered about Watford or Brighton? In my view we had a lot of floating fans in the PL days, far more than people recognise.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2019 by Paul

[Mattyblue]

We’ve always had a good fanbase outside of Blackburn. From Darwen which is a hotbed to the towns of Hyndburn, Bamber Bridge and other parts of South Ribble, Chorley itself and the villages on its periphery, Haslingden, Whalley and Clitheroe and on I could go.

Jim Wilkinson posted a programme from the early 80s on Twitter recently that listed all the supporters branches from around Lancashire, properly organised organisations with chairmen, secretaries etc. So of course we have, as an aside another big mistake of the club was to disband all such groups around the time of the millennium. 

All clubs use the actual town they are based in as a barometer of how well supported they are. It’s all a bit of dodgy accounting, but everyone does it, Burnley do it constantly, as do the media ‘another full house at Turf Moor, amazing as Burnley is a town of only 80,000’. Great stat, but we all know that large amounts of their support has always come from ‘Greater Dingleland’, Colne, Nelson, Bacup, Rawtenstall, Padiham, Keighley, Barnoldswick Etc etc.

So yes thankfully we’ve always had good support outside Blackburn and a good thing too, because demographically the town has changed massively in 20 or so years. So what has changed is now many more born and bred Blackburners are living outside of the town across Lancs as well as non Blackburners who have always been Rovers fans and have travelled in to Ewood on a match day, that’s why I believe that Blackburn addresses have never made up a lower percentage of our ST holders as they do today.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Mattyblue

[tomphil]

I'm sure that in the mid 90's we came out top or joint for local support in a poll of Prem clubs ST fans that lived within 5 miles of the ground.

[MarkBRFC]

Yeah, I think it was us and Middlesborough around 95/96ish.

Long, long time ago though.

[arbitro]

Just now, tomphil said:

I'm sure that in the mid 90's we came out top or joint for local support in a poll of Prem clubs ST fans that lived within 5 miles of the ground.

I remember that too. I think it was based on the postcodes of season ticket holders and we came out with a really high proportion. I would think the results would be similar now albeit with significantly smaller numbers.

[OldEwoodBlue]

I doubt the volume of the music contributes to the attendance figure.

The very fact there is a discussion about it partly explains why ewood is a desolate sterile environment.

Next we will have fans complaining to the stewards that the away supporters are too noisy or they swore and upset the children.

[Mattyblue]

I don’t think so arbito, BB2 and BB3 definitely still full of Rovers fans, however large swathes of Blackburn, particularly the BB1 area has changed massively since the mid 90s and won’t house anywhere near the amount of Rovers fans it did then.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Mattyblue

[OldEwoodBlue]

 

Just now, Mattyblue said:

I don’t think so arbito, BB2 and BB3 definitely still full of Rovers fans, however large swathes of Blackburn, particularly the BB1 area has changed massively since the mid 90s and won’t house anywhere near the amount of Rovers fans it did then.

True but so many dont attend for a variety of reasons. I hardly know anyone who still goes (including myself) and each has their own personal reasons or straw which broke their back.

Oxford game showed they are still here and still love "Our Rovers" but the club failed to follow it up and get them back.

It is nothing to do with the BAME community as far as I can see.

Plenty of Rovers fans to fill Ewood but they are just ignoring or ripping off the fans which they already have.

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, OldEwoodBlue said:

I doubt the volume of the music contributes to the attendance figure.

The very fact there is a discussion about it partly explains why ewood is a desolate sterile environment.

Next we will have fans complaining to the stewards that the away supporters are too noisy or they swore and upset the children.

Not everyone wants music being play loud tho. People like to talk and watch the game on the tv. 

Playing music before a game doesnt get me more.up for the game or have any baring on my support for the team

[Mattyblue]

My point is, a lot of our fanbase has moved further away than a 5 mile radius to Ewood, not that the fans no longer exist.

Why crowds have dropped is a different issue.

[arbitro]

1 minute ago, Mattyblue said:

I don’t think so arbito, BB2 and BB3 definitely still full of Rovers fans, however large swathes of Blackburn, particularly the BB1 area has changed massively since the mid 90s and won’t house anywhere near the amount of Rovers fans it did then.

Out of 8600 I would have thought that a high proportion are local although I don't really know how that equates to postcodes. I was thinking more of people I know and see at games who live within a few miles of Ewood.

[Mattyblue]

Darwen and Lower Darwen (BB3) and south Blackburn, so Ewood, Mill Hill, Livesey, Pleasington, Feniscowles is largely BB2 and full of Rovers fans.

BB1 is north and east Blackburn and that demographically is a different place than it was in the 90s, much fewer Rovers fans in those areas.

[OldEwoodBlue]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

Not everyone wants music being play loud tho. People like to talk and watch the game on the tv. 

Playing music before a game doesnt get me more.up for the game or have any baring on my support for the team

Point proven.

Replace "people" with "I"

 

So any thoughts on attendances ?

[chaddyrovers]

1 hour ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Point proven.

Replace "people" with "I"

 

So any thoughts on attendances ?

Look at the people inside the stadium on Saturday watching the cricket..about 30 to 40 ppl. Or Elderly lady in front of me who doesnt know why the music is so load about 5 to 10 mins before kick off. 

Ive already said my thoughts on attendances previously. 

[philipl]

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?

 

.

[Mattyblue]

The issue is always tribalism. Would I go watching Bolton if roles were reversed? Would I hell! I’d be trying to get FC Rovers  off the ground or I’d give up on the game entirely.

 However, if the worst happened to Bolton you can get into the schools. Especially in areas like Turton, Belmont and Bromley Cross that are very close to Darwen, indeed large parts of that area are in BwD borough even if they see themselves as Boltoners. 

But in reality the kids of Bolton will become even more City/United than they are already.

[Neil Weaver]

I'd agree on the tribalism Matty, but don't you think it'd be largely for the current generation (those who currently attend games)?

A lot of kids would gravitate towards City/United you're right but with a bit of effort - like the club going into schools or giving tickets to school kids, both in the coming years) - surely we could pick up a few new fans.  Is it worth the investment for a hundred or two, I really don't know.

[Mattyblue]

 

The vast majority of current match going Bolton fans wouldn’t attend Rovers matches in the Championship if you let them in for free.

I certainly think the club should be in the schools, big old area is ‘Greater Bolton’, I.e the town itself, the villages near Darwen, Horwich, Lostock, Westhoughton Etc.

Like vultures, aren’t we...

Edited August 26, 2019 by Mattyblue

[philipl]

I disagree, I remember meeting Bolton fans quite frequently at Ewood when Bolton were playing away.

Is there capacity at OT or the Etihad for more fans/? No

I'd send a voucher for two free games at Ewood to everyone on the Bolton and Bury databases together with a suitably sombre letter of sympathy and urging small town team support.