The State of Ewood Park!

[arbitro]

3 hours ago, matt83 said:

On the face of it it’s only weeds, litter and a shabby looking stadium. Not a big deal right. But for me these little old weeds are symptomatic of everything wrong at the club. 

The fact is no one based at ewood from Waggott to the cleaner thought what a bloody mess I’ll take the initiative with some weed killer and a broom. As most fans I know feel there’s no standards or pride at the club and that culture starts at very top in India.

So although its only weeds and litter I think if we can’t get basic housekeeping right how can we get the bigger issues right. Of course history tells us we don’t. 

It's not just weeds. The fascia around the Blackburn End and JW Stand are filthy and discoloured due to lack of maintenance. These need specialist equipment and cherry pickers to clean them and no doubt a lot more time given the ongoing neglect. The galvanised railing on the perimeter is rusty. I just wonder what the inside of the ground is like.

[matt83]

17 minutes ago, arbitro said:

It's not just weeds. The fascia around the Blackburn End and JW Stand are filthy and discoloured due to lack of maintenance. These need specialist equipment and cherry pickers to clean them and no doubt a lot more time given the ongoing neglect. The galvanised railing on the perimeter is rusty. I just wonder what the inside of the ground is like.

Agreed. It’s like someone said above the best way to maintain is to chip away at the small things before they add up to a big problem. Looks like rovers are happy to let the ground rot from the inside out before acting.

Where we normally sit in the jw theres a hole in the roof so when it rains it drips on your head. Fortunately there’s a spare 20,000 seats to chose from but just another example of the ground falling into disrepair. 

[Sparks Rover]

50 minutes ago, arbitro said:

It's not just weeds. The fascia around the Blackburn End and JW Stand are filthy and discoloured due to lack of maintenance. These need specialist equipment and cherry pickers to clean them and no doubt a lot more time given the ongoing neglect. The galvanised railing on the perimeter is rusty. I just wonder what the inside of the ground is like.

Yes, to get everything right around the ground, cleaning, etc I bet you wouldn't get much change from 50k.  

Who is the ops manager at the club ?

[tomphil]

Keeping the weeds at bay, picking up crap and generally just running a brush around is the easy inexpensive bit. That's why it's ridiculous it gets neglected. 

[K-Hod]

I’ve got a brick near there, will be fuming if it isn’t jet washed by the start of the season tbh.

[TheRovers1994]

The ground has started to become a state over the last few years, the outsides of the staves are dirty need cleaning and smartening urgently, if you walk round the backs of the riverside there is old crap dumped there, seats fading, the seats should be changed to royal blue and white anyway  to lighten the place up for starters like what Sunderland did, no initiative at this club wagon needs to pull his finger out cause the stadium can make a difference when it comes to recruiting players and sponsors cause atm ewood is looking like some league 1 standard shithole like turf moor in ways when its always been a great premiership standard stadium 

 

Sort it out waggot ffs 

[JHRover]

Again it comes down to a complete lack of interest from India. No way would people like Waggott get away with the ground being in the state it is at any other club. You look at Andy Holt at Accy he has spent countless hours of his own free time up at the Crown Ground, resurfacing car parks, cleaning the place up, making small incremental improvements but putting time and effort in and the place is now clean and a tidy little ground.

Either Waggott can't get the funds approved to spend tidying the place up (from the owners who care and who never refuse a cheque) or he simply isn't bothered and neither are his employers because they sit on the other side of the world and have no pride or respect for this club. 

I'm afraid harking back to the 80s and how the ground used to be just isn't right. It isn't the 80s anymore. We have a modern top class stadium and it is being run into the ground by incompetence and negligence. 

A decade has gone and other than the essential pitch maintenance nothing ever gets done to the ground. 

Waggott comes to fan consultation meetings and starts talking about rebuilding the Riverside - a project that would cost millions and take years to get off the ground and yet under his watch the place is overrun with weeds, rubbish and grime all avoidable with regular maintenance. 

He probably thinks he is clever by saving a few quid on the annual upkeep bills and isn't bothered that our historic home is rapidly becoming a sh!thole with his name responsible for it. He won't get credit in India for making the ground look nice if it costs them more money.

We're run by a bunch of corner cutters. Try to scrimp and save a few grand a year by letting the shop front of the club fall into decay and filth and yet happily write off £15 million losses and extra unnecessary wages for Smallwood and Hart to not play.

Someone in the office is on £300,000 per year. I'd be asking why that person couldn't be paid £250,000 per year with the difference going into stadium improvements every summer.

[tomphil]

Stevie boy for some unfathomable reason set his target too high for ST sales after putting prices up. He admitted he'd left himself a few hundred grand short of his budget right from the get go so no surprise the easiest of corners get cut.

We've done all we can of course !

[matt83]

Thought of a solution. Every time an Elliott Bennett fuck up leads to a goal or penalty he has to do a few hours hard labour maintaining the ground. A couple of months into the season the ground will be so clean you’ll be able to eat your dinner off the floor. Eventually he’ll owe that many hours of cleaning he won’t have time to play. Win win. 

[A Northern Horde...]

Ewood all Spik 'n' Span this morning for our first home game?......  ?

Edited August 29, 2020 by A Northern Horde...

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

I'd throw the pitch into the equation.  It's been awful for the last few years and cut up badly again on Saturday.  

Our pitch used to be top draw under Steve Patrick.  No idea who does it now but it's another thing that's gone downhill under the current stewardship.

 

[arbitro]

5 minutes ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

I'd throw the pitch into the equation.  It's been awful for the last few years and cut up badly again on Saturday.  

Our pitch used to be top draw under Steve Patrick.  No idea who does it now but it's another thing that's gone downhill under the current stewardship.

 

The head groundsman is Trevor Wilkin who has been there for years, even before Stevewas there. The pitch is suffering from a lack of investment. I heard that £30k is all he was allowed to spend this close season.

[Mattyblue]

Didn’t we used to have an Ewood team and a Brockhall team? Now it’s just one trying to cover both sites?

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

34 minutes ago, arbitro said:

The head groundsman is Trevor Wilkin who has been there for years, even before Stevewas there. The pitch is suffering from a lack of investment. I heard that £30k is all he was allowed to spend this close season.

I'm sure the guy is decent but our pitch was shocking in the 80s too, prior to Patrick when we had no money.  The pitch is the frontline of the business. First thing you notice on TV.  Also has a major impact on the first team playing style. Clearly you can't make a silk purse out of  a sow's ear.

 

Depressing stuff. 

[LDRover]

43 minutes ago, arbitro said:

The head groundsman is Trevor Wilkin who has been there for years, even before Stevewas there. The pitch is suffering from a lack of investment. I heard that £30k is all he was allowed to spend this close season.

But, but, but, they never refuse to pay.....

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

8 minutes ago, LDRover said:

But, but, but, they never refuse to pay.....

In which case the wrong people are asking.

[JHRover]

When you look at the lack of investment and terrible state of Ewood is anyone remotely surprised that the pitch is now looking a mess?

No investment or pride now for a decade. I know the ground staff do the best they can. They can only work with what they are given, which I understand to be very little.

[Mattyblue]

Because of the late start to the season, there are a large number of Saturday/Tuesday fixtures over winter. If it is looking a mess in August, you can only imagine what it will be like in January...

[JHRover]

Yes admittedly only about 6 weeks between the Reading and Doncaster games meaning not a lot of time to carry out a lot of work on the pitch but there was 3 months earlier in the year that could have been used instead.

[Prelude]

Has anyone been past the ground recentley to see if they have cleaned the exterior? 

[A Northern Horde...]

Don't think they have.

[Riversider28]

46 minutes ago, Prelude said:

Has anyone been past the ground recentley to see if they have cleaned the exterior? 

I was going to, but when I got there I realised I’d left my machete back home in the shed. 

[arbitro]

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

Because of the late start to the season, there are a large number of Saturday/Tuesday fixtures over winter. If it is looking a mess in August, you can only imagine what it will be like in January...

I really think it will be a case of penny wise, pound foolish as we progress and the pitch deteriorates through lack of investment. And then parts will have to be relaid at significant cost because of the penny pinching in the first instance.

[Norbert Rassragr]

The pitch will be like those you see on The Big match revisited, all either mud or sand.

[tomphil]

4 hours ago, Wing Wizard Windy Miller said:

I'm sure the guy is decent but our pitch was shocking in the 80s too, prior to Patrick when we had no money.  The pitch is the frontline of the business. First thing you notice on TV.  Also has a major impact on the first team playing style. Clearly you can't make a silk purse out of  a sow's ear.

 

Depressing stuff. 

It did get voted best pitch a time or two back then to be fair.

Weather/climate is bonkers these days so couple that with a dose of thick rob Peter to pay Paul penny pinching and lockdown and this is what you'll get. Another example of the set of clowns down there being to dim to realize lack of necessary investment ends up costing far more in the long run.  Team, management, stadium now pitch they'll never learn it's like the govt with the potholes in roads all over the country.

I remember the pitch used to be completely relaid once every few years it was deemed a necessary evil but ever since these lot turned up it just gets reseeded. Never the same over a season even if the weathers perfect and it also means it needs doing more or less every summer.

New pitch etc costs big money, several hundred grand probably but ffs surely it's kind of THE most important thing for football club as far as i can tell the game is played on it. How much does Waggot cost and what exactly has be brought to the table since he turned up ?

Apart from cementing the managers position even more that is.

Edited August 31, 2020 by tomphil