Attendances

[K-Hod]

I'm in JW Upper and the view is tremendous, though granted, there's more atmosphere on the moon.

I just sit with whoever will have me though, so Biz currently has that dubious pleasure......

[47er]

27 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

I'm in JW Upper and the view is tremendous, though granted, there's more atmosphere on the moon.

I just sit with whoever will have me though, so Biz currently has that dubious pleasure......

I think you've got the dubious pleasure K-Hod! I'll bet he argues about the weather!

[chaddyrovers]

The Blackburn End upper tier will be re-opened for the game against Stoke to give 2,500 new #Rovers fans the chance to be part of an exciting ‘Next Generation'! ? https://t.co/TFiHjGUthR https://t.co/WWIb1XondR

[1864roverite]

It’s a great idea Chaddy

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, 1864roverite said:

It’s a great idea Chaddy

I agree pal. Get them addict early to supporting Rovers

[Don Said]

Really happy to see the club finally do something proper to re-engage the community & to set the foundations for future fans.

Brilliant move but it’s only scratching the surface - don’t let it stop here Rovers.

[Mattyblue]

They’ve been in touch with the schools for a while over this, great idea. Long overdue.

I know lads that are still regulars now that started with a school trip to Ewood.

Not just a Rovers issue, but unless kids have an avid family, there’s every chance they are glory fans. It’s worse than its ever been, so get them interested in local clubs early.

[Mattyblue]

Bizarre part of it is that they turned down 1,000 people and capped it at 2,500.

Why? There’s 18,000 empty seats!

Edited March 28, 2019 by Mattyblue

[Don Said]

Just now, Mattyblue said:

Bizarre part of it is that they turned down 1,000 people and capped it at 2,500.

Why? There’s 18,000 empty seats!

My thoughts too.

If we’re making a day of it, give out as many as we can to people who wouldn’t be there otherwise.

Multiplies the chance of reattenders, nothing to lose.

[Stuart]

37 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

They’ve been in touch with the schools for a while over this, great idea. Long overdue.

I know lads that are still regulars now that started with a school trip to Ewood.

Not just a Rovers issue, but unless kids have an avid family, there’s every chance they are glory fans. It’s worse than its ever been, so get them interested in local clubs early.

It’s a good initiative. Free tickets for youngsters so this needs to be recognised before people start spouting about the crowd size.

I just hope every ticket puts a bum on a seat. Recently got offered several free junior tickets and couldn’t give them away! ☹️

[chaddyrovers]

Been saying for months Rovers should be targetting Kids at Schools. I got into Rovers by my dad taking me to games. Tho my Primary school took us to odd games. My deputy headteacher Mr Henderson was a big Rovers fan at that time

[arbitro]

It's a really good initiative and hopefully the club will stock up on merchandise and food in advance. It would be good if they did it at least once more before the season ends and maybe give everybody who attends a flier advertising season tickets. Otherwise it's a wasted opportunity.

[AAK]

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

They’ve been in touch with the schools for a while over this, great idea. Long overdue.

I know lads that are still regulars now that started with a school trip to Ewood.

Not just a Rovers issue, but unless kids have an avid family, there’s every chance they are glory fans. It’s worse than its ever been, so get them interested in local clubs early.

Did you not mention this initiative for the stoke game so some weeks ago? I'm sure you did, if not someone did on here. So either you or they got it spot on.

[Tom]

Glad they are trying something new there, hopefully a few of them return 

I still miss my seat on the front row of the BBE upper though 

[JHRover]

A good idea and good to see the club trying something. If nothing else it will make the sparsely populated Blackburn End look a lot better.

I heard about it a few weeks ago but thought they were introducing it as a permanent thing.

Not sure why it's capped at 2,500 when there's 3,000 seats up there. Also only just over 50% of those with tickets are schoolchildren, so a fair amount of adults in there.

My only concern would be the risk of upsetting a few people - in particular those who formerly sat up there for many years who paid good money who were forced out and now those seats are being given away for free. Likewise those in the family stand at the moment who have paid for their seats might not be too impressed.

Ultimately though it is the only way we're going to be able to attract good numbers of new fans. i hope it is done regularly and spread around the whole of Lancashire. About time we tapped into our wider region. 

[AshleyClifford]

This is a great idea. I like it. The best part is while we only offered 2500 we had over 3500 applications. I think you always have to set a cap at what you give away. Maybe some of those that missed out will buy a ticket anyway ? 

[MarkBRFC]

21 minutes ago, AshleyClifford said:

This is a great idea. I like it. The best part is while we only offered 2500 we had over 3500 applications. I think you always have to set a cap at what you give away. Maybe some of those that missed out will buy a ticket anyway ? 

Only if you can't fit them in. For the sake of an extra 1000 applications I'm sure we could have fit them in somewhere!

[AllRoverAsia]

Great initiative, more please. 

I hope the kids all get a goody bag with some Rovers stuff in it,  definitely a scarf. It will cost Rovers a bit but in the long run pay dividends. 

Get them hooked young 

[Oldgregg86]

Just now, AllRoverAsia said:

Great initiative, more please. 

I hope the kids all get a goody bag with some Rovers stuff in it,  definitely a scarf. It will cost Rovers a bit but in the long run pay dividends. 

Get them hooked young 

Scarf in this weather

Surly it would be better to give out blue and white tinted sun glasses so they see everything the way chaddy does

[AllRoverAsia]

Just now, Oldgregg86 said:

Scarf in this weather

Surly it would be better to give out blue and white tinted sun glasses so they see everything the way chaddy does

I think it's actually a big bucket full of sand. 

[Don Said]

Bolton at home on Easter Monday is Category A. 

Not saying it had to be dirt cheap (I'm a ST holder so don't want the value to be undercut) but with people off work, and this being the penultimate home game against local rivals we had a really good opportunity to pull in a larger than usual crowd. But most importantly, with the season petering out with nothing to be excited about, this was the last chance to get bodies through the door to sell the product as well as we can before next season. Do we want to shift any season tickets???

Anybody deciding to walk on on the day will have to fork out £27-£34. On that alone we've wiped out the chance of pulling in a decent pool of folk waking up with a free day who may fancy a mooch down to the football. This is an end of season game in the second tier. Both sides in the bottom half of the table. Category A in my mind used to be playing a top 4 Prem side.

On this topic, it's one step forward, two steps back.

[JHRover]

Just now, Don Said said:

Bolton at home on Easter Monday is Category A. 

Not saying it had to be dirt cheap (I'm a ST holder so don't want the value to be undercut) but with people off work, and this being the penultimate home game against local rivals we had a really good opportunity to pull in a larger than usual crowd. But most importantly, with the season petering out with nothing to be excited about, this was the last chance to get bodies through the door to sell the product as well as we can before next season. Do we want to shift any season tickets???

Anybody deciding to walk on on the day will have to fork out £27-£34. On that alone we've wiped out the chance of pulling in a decent pool of folk waking up with a free day who may fancy a mooch down to the football. This is an end of season game in the second tier. Both sides in the bottom half of the table. Category A in my mind used to be playing a top 4 Prem side.

On this topic, it's one step forward, two steps back.

I'm in two minds on this. Bolton need sending a message after what they did to our fans at their place earlier this season when it was £34 quid or whatever it was for a TV game, so I'd be very reluctant to allow them to come to Ewood for much less. A shame but Rovers have to fight fire with fire.

At the same time I agree, a game like this simply has to be cheaper than nearly £30 an adult. If Waggott believes a local derby is going to get Bolton or Rovers fans turning up in big numbers at those prices he's in for a shock. They could be effectively down by then whilst we're going nowhere fast.

To that end I'm sure if we were clever about things we could have the best of both worlds. Allocate Bolton the upper tier at Gold prices e.g. £30+ an adult, only open the lower tier when those 3,000 are sold out. Reduce prices for Rovers fans by offering a proper discount for members or making the Riverside/BBE Lower much cheaper.

It can be done with a bit of imagination.

[Mattyblue]

Exactly right Don.

Make it £15 a ticket anywhere in the ground. Us and Bolton would sell substantially more. A season ticket pack (ha!) with every purchase .

But nah, make it £27- £34 in the hope Bolton fetch 3,000 or so to rip off. 

I hope Bolton do come ‘in a taxi’, it will be a fitting finish to a season of largely poor away followings to Ewood and blows a hole in that nonsense Waggott was coming out with in the summer about moving home fans from the DE due to all those upcoming massive followings.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Mattyblue

[Proudtobeblue&white]

53 minutes ago, JHRover said:

I'm in two minds on this. Bolton need sending a message after what they did to our fans at their place earlier this season when it was £34 quid or whatever it was for a TV game, so I'd be very reluctant to allow them to come to Ewood for much less. A shame but Rovers have to fight fire with fire.

At the same time I agree, a game like this simply has to be cheaper than nearly £30 an adult. If Waggott believes a local derby is going to get Bolton or Rovers fans turning up in big numbers at those prices he's in for a shock. They could be effectively down by then whilst we're going nowhere fast.

To that end I'm sure if we were clever about things we could have the best of both worlds. Allocate Bolton the upper tier at Gold prices e.g. £30+ an adult, only open the lower tier when those 3,000 are sold out. Reduce prices for Rovers fans by offering a proper discount for members or making the Riverside/BBE Lower much cheaper.

It can be done with a bit of imagination.

Imagination is in very short supply at the club.

[Don Said]

46 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

I hope Bolton do come ‘in a taxi’, it will be a fitting finish to a season of largely poor away followings to Ewood and blows a hole in that nonsense Waggott was coming out with in the summer about moving home fans from the DE due to all those upcoming massive followings.

Another big mistake came from that - not addressing the atmosphere issue.

I wasn't overly fussed about the Darwen End moving, the criminal mistake within that was not designating a clear section as a singing/atmosphere section. If marketed correctly i'm sure N01 of the BBE would've been really successful as the 'traditional end' I grew up in awe of. If not N01, there are loads of options whether it be the BBE upper, JW corner, Riverside corner of wherever. With clear comms we would've made a fist of it rather than letting 95% of people interested not bother, and leaving 5% of them to congregate in an area with not enough bodies to make any noise. We neglected the situation and have been left with an even worse atmosphere.

I think I'm correct in saying only 2 clubs, Leeds and Preston brought comfortably more than half of the capacity of the Darwen End. Leeds are bound to go up and none of the relegated or promoted clubs would be expected to fetch more than 3000. So it'll be even more pointless next year. If we had left the ST holders in the Darwen End they would've had to move less than any other season in the last decade bar league one!