Attendances: A cause for concern

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

We are clearly losing our supporter base and fast.A new low under the dreaded tenure of Venkys happened tonight I believe....we experienced our lowest league gate at Ewood since it was rebuilt some 28 years ago.Apathy within the Town is clearly at an all time high since the dark days of the mid 80's.

Blackpool(with all due respect) had some two thousand more on Bloomfield tonight,let that sink in.

A decade of owner negligence,lack of supporter/owner interaction coupled with a CEO who appears to have little connection nor understanding of the local demographics of the Town and then you throw in a Manager well past his welcome and you have a recipe for disaster...you reap what you sow.

To see Ewood so empty is a heartbreaker,this is not what JW wanted.A radical change of direction is needed within the corridors of Power at Ewood before It's too late.

Genuinely worried and saddened at events unfolding.

Edited September 14, 2021 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[SanDimas1988]

What would you change to fix this downward trend?

[Mattyblue]

Was always going to happen with such a poor number of STs sold this summer, we don’t attract many walk ons, so our crowds wax and wane on the back of ST sales.

That’s why it is absolutely pivotal that we move heaven and earth each summer to keep the existing ST holders in the tent, even if we can’t attract new ones in decent numbers… alas the present regime just aren’t interested and are happy to just rinse the ever dwindling core for as much as possible. 

[tomphil]

3 minutes ago, SanDimas1988 said:

What would you change to fix this downward trend?

I think it's too late now to be honest this season so we'll just meander on and hope to shift a few half STs.  Something very radical needs to happen in summer though, so many opportunites have been missed particularly after promotion.

Those of us who've seen it before have been warning of it ending up like this for years but the wooden bookends in suits always know better don't they !

[Sparks Rover]

5 minutes ago, SanDimas1988 said:

What would you change to fix this downward trend?

As one example.  I've not had one bit of bumph and over the years they've sent loads out....sometimes they spent on some fancy marketing pieces for season tickets etc...not had anything through the door for ages.

[Mattyblue]

Noticed the club made a point in highlighting the crowd figure on a Facebook post last night. I’ve certainly not noticed them do they before.

Looks to me as a circling of the wagons and ‘f-you’ to the ones that aren’t there ‘supporting the lads’, not a wake up call to the worst crowds in 30 plus years.

 

 

[JHRover]

We can discuss it all day and night on here but the big problem is that we will spend more time thinking, worrying and discussing it than the people at Rovers will.

Venkys won't know or care.

Waggott will only be interested in £s through the till and making those that go pay more.

The general staff down there will see their job getting easier on the same pay. Easier to handle 9000 than 14000.

No incentive to anyone down there to boost numbers.

This is how clubs die. 

The problems at Blackpool, Bolton, Portsmouth etc. came and went in the space of a few years. Ours are a decade in the making and will continue.

[IrelandsRover]

If we keep getting results, attendances will improve

[Mattyblue]

Slightly, but not by a lot. You may, say, sell an extra 1,000 or so on a Saturday (if it’s not a ridiculously priced ‘A’ or ‘A+’ game at £40-£50) if we are doing well.

However, a substantial crowd increase will only happen by selling more season tickets in the summer, ST holders make up the vast majority of our attendance base (something some people still don’t seem to grasp on this forum), we have never sold many on a match by match basis even when flying high in the PL. Always been the way here, so ergo selling less STs in a summer leads to the opposite, as we are seeing now…

Edited September 15, 2021 by Mattyblue

[blondie]

3 minutes ago, IrelandsRover said:

If we keep getting results, attendances will improve

Not at the walk on prices at present, totally out of context with the area and situation.

If walk on prices were realistic, and conversely season tickets were aligned price wise, then perhaps, but for this season it is a catastrophe.

[47er]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

Noticed the club made a point in highlighting the crowd figure on a Facebook post last night. I’ve certainly not noticed them do they before.

Looks to me as a circling of the wagons and ‘f-you’ to the ones that aren’t there ‘supporting the lads’, not a wake up call to the worst crowds in 30 plus years.

 

 

Yes, you're right. Trying to make supporters feel guilty for not going rather than facing up to "why?"

Wouldn't like the answers would they?

[tomphil]

12 minutes ago, IrelandsRover said:

If we keep getting results, attendances will improve

When a game comes along on a Saturday that a few more part timers or lapsed fans might fancy then they get charged £32 ?

The club has made the rod for its back this season i think so it will take spectacular form or a good uptake in half STs to make much difference.

[Wood26]

Say we sold 10k tickets at £30 that would be £300,000.

If tickets were reduced to £20, we would need to sell and extra 5k to make the same money.

Does anyone think 5k fans would come over sake of it being £10 cheaper, I don’t think so.

I think lack of success, investment in team is the main issue. If we got promoted by some miracle, attendances would go up regardless if tickets were same price.

[Mattyblue]

15 minutes ago, tomphil said:

When a game comes along on a Saturday that a few more part timers or lapsed fans might fancy then they get charged £32 ?

The club has made the rod for its back this season i think so it will take spectacular form or a good uptake in half STs to make much difference.

£38-£45 in the Jack Walker for a ‘A’ or A+ game, the stand most popular for walk-ons.

Madness and will only stall any potential momentum re a bump in crowds if we went on a good run.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Mattyblue

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

We had our chance when we got promoted. We’d 25,000 plus on for the final game of the season. Then you get the manager waffling on about bringing a few squad players in to “ help out “ the existing players. It was obvious the existing team wasn’t good enough to get a second promotion. A couple of high profile signings would have made all the difference. I’ve said it lots of times before but I would have fired Mowbray at that point. Absolutely not the manager to take us to the next stage.

We stuck with him and look where we are now. More. or less back where we were when he came in and he’s lost us 5,000 or 6,000 fans with his dog shit football.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[roverblue]

A lot of season ticket holders around me didn't turn up last night, Tuesday night against Hull isn't really one to entice the fans!

 

It would be fairer to compare a Saturday 3pm attendance with the the last few years instead, probably still down on what it has been.

Putting the price up £100 in the Riverside was an idiotic move and has probably lost a couple of thousand purely based on cost.

[JHRover]

Never mind attendances increasing, I'd be more than happy if we could just get back to the figures that we were getting a few years ago in this division.

Because one thing everyone should remember over the coming weeks and months is that 9000 is not normal or typical of this club in this league - between 2012 and 2019 gates were higher than that and up until the Coyle fiasco we were getting season ticket sales of 10-11,000. Not ideal or enough to relax on but enough to ensure crowds of 13-14000 a week and a solid core to build on.

What has happened over the last couple of years is an erosion of those numbers and at a rapid rate.

Some will say that the reason for that is poor football or people not wanting to watch mid-table Championship fare. I'm not sure I would agree with that given the figures above. It is probably a factor - but I can't overlook the fact that the recent 25% fall in sales and decline to 8000 then 6000 season ticket holders under Waggott's management correlates directly with the club introducing not small but significant price increases.

If we were floating around with 10 or 11,000 season ticket holders but unable to achieve an increase on that then it might be something that the club could take in its stride and say that is 'our lot' at this level without promotion. But when you are facing a decline of approaching 50% sales on what we had a few years ago at this level - down from 11,000 to circa 6,000 - then there should be all sorts of alarm bells ringing. Yet I get the impression there's no such thing, Just a shrug of the shoulders whilst Waggott gets his calculator out and plots how much he needs to increase prices to cover it.

[Mattyblue]

1 minute ago, roverblue said:

A lot of season ticket holders around me didn't turn up last night, Tuesday night against Hull isn't really one to entice the fans!

 

It would be fairer to compare a Saturday 3pm attendance with the the last few years instead, probably still down on what it has been.

Putting the price up £100 in the Riverside was an idiotic move and has probably lost a couple of thousand purely based on cost.

Looking at the West Brom game. We were about 1500 down on a Saturday 2019/20 game, which is pretty much the number of STs lost this summer in comparison to that 2019/20 season .

Same for midweeks, 10,500 would have been a standard Tuesday night game attendance with a few hundred away fans, last night was just over 9,000.

As I keep saying, it’s all about flogging STs, if we lose sales, we lose crowds, it’s that simple.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Lots of things have caused me to lose significant interest in the club but Mowbray and the football being played are top of the list. Have we ever played well for a full 90 minutes in all the time he’s been here ? Even when we were running away with it in the promotion season most games contained 45 minutes of dross. People aren’t going to pay good money to watch rubbish like last nights first half when it’s on TV.

[jim mk2]

There's also the Covid factor. There's many people who have found other things to do with their time over the past 18 months, which will affect clubs such as Rovers with a smaller fanbase. Couple that with the disappointing results, lack of marquee signings and the general feeling of malaise around the club resulting from the training ground sale and the state of the ground, and it's no surprise attendances have slumped.

[roverandout]

1 hour ago, IrelandsRover said:

If we keep getting results, attendances will improve

No they won't.  Thats a naive way of looking at things.  It runs deeper than a few 'good results'. 

[roverblue]

13 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Lots of things have caused me to lose significant interest in the club but Mowbray and the football being played are top of the list. Have we ever played well for a full 90 minutes in all the time he’s been here ? Even when we were running away with it in the promotion season most games contained 45 minutes of dross. People aren’t going to pay good money to watch rubbish like last nights first half when it’s on TV.

I have got to say that I very rarely find going on Ewood boring, even though last nights first half was a shambles we still got there in the end and got a 2-0 win. I don't think there will be many teams in the Championship that will dominate for 90mins, although I would love it if Rovers showed up for a bit longer as you say!

 

We have been really fortunate under Mowbray to have what feels like a great home record (at least when we were allowed on the ground) and I personally really enjoy the battles at Ewood where in most cases we come out on top.

[tomphil]

29 minutes ago, roverblue said:

A lot of season ticket holders around me didn't turn up last night, Tuesday night against Hull isn't really one to entice the fans!

 

It would be fairer to compare a Saturday 3pm attendance with the the last few years instead, probably still down on what it has been.

Putting the price up £100 in the Riverside was an idiotic move and has probably lost a couple of thousand purely based on cost.

They still get counted in the crowd figures though.

As Mattyblue has said there are next to no walk ons for a game like last night and don't forget Satursday game and the like have been boosted by around a thousand kiddies tickets handed out.  

It's a dire situation that has been creeping up for years.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

11 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

There's also the Covid factor. There's many people who have found other things to do with their time over the past 18 months, which will affect clubs such as Rovers with a smaller fanbase. Couple that with the disappointing results, lack of marquee signings and the general feeling of malaise around the club resulting from the training ground sale and the state of the ground, and it's no surprise attendances have slumped.

Once people walk away you have a devil of a job to get them back. I walked away from my Rugby League club after being a regular home and away attender for 15 years. I didn’t go again for about 10 years and apart from reading the match reports in the local press I lost interest totally. Then they moved grounds to the football ground very near to where a lived at the time. One Sunday I had time on my hands and I went to a game. Right away I was hooked again, but if they hadn’t moved grounds chances are I would have never gone again.

[jim mk2]

1 hour ago, IrelandsRover said:

If we keep getting results, attendances will improve

 That used to happen in the past - Rovers fans have always been fickle. The problem now is there's so many excuses not to go - including the latest, live feeds - that it's often easier to stay at home than attend. For my part, I've found other things to do with my time since the pandemic, and I'm sure there's many like me. 

If by some fluke we managed to sustain a place in the top 6 this season I think attendances will improve somewhat, but only to around the 12k mark