Attendances: A cause for concern

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

2 hours ago, Gav said:

Excellent crowd last night and great support, tremendous to see.

The town wants to get behind the football team and if we're doing well the fans will come, its always been that way.

Onwards and upwards.

 

Great vocal support but numbers need to be better Gav.Did we not play Rochdale at home,same time of year in DIV 1 about three years ago in front of 15,000+?

Standards and expectations have fallen through the floor when we are applauding 13,500 home fans turning out and at cheap ticket prices!!

The Huddersfield prices are ridiculous..

Edited December 30, 2021 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 minute ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Great vocal support but numbers need to be better.Did we not play Rochdale at home,same time of year in DIV 1 about three years ago in front of 15,000+?

Standards and expectations have fallen through the floor when we are applauding 13,500 home fans turning out and at cheap ticket prices!!

Rochdale would have brought more than Barnsley for a game like that. It’d be their Cup Final.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Not many more Tyrone if memory serves me right.

[MarkBRFC]

No Saturday home game until February 19th now which is a bit ridiculous.

Hope our form continues until then or we'll be back to 10k attendances.

[Gav]

37 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Great vocal support but numbers need to be better Gavu.Did we not play Rochdale at home,same time of year in DIV 1 about three years ago in front of 15,000+?

Standards and expectations have fallen through the floor when we are applauding 13,500 home fans turning out and at cheap ticket prices!!

The Huddersfield prices are ridiculous..

The Rochdale game was Boxing day SG, traditionally one of the best attended matches of the season, we'd have beaten that gate  had this been 3pm on Boxing day I'd wager.

Last night was a good turnout which will build should the side continue winning.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Gav

[Mattyblue]

Depends. I see it in two ways.

If you look at it from a ‘we are where we are’ angle, considering we now only have 7,200 ST holders, and other night games this season have had c8k home fans in, then yes it was a good turnout, as it means a shed load bought a match ticket and the gate was therefore well up on previous night games.

However, if you look at it more broadly, i.e how far the ST base has fallen even in the post Bowyer years, 13,400 home fans for a Christmas fixture when we are a point off top… is not a good crowd.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Mattyblue

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Not a good crowd for our position and compared to just the average attendance in this league.

The damage done to our fan base is massive and stupid prices come this Sunday don't help the situation either.

[simongarnerisgod]

two things that would boost the crowd ino

a public apology from venkys and a positive message from them about ambition

a ceo who knows  about the area and football in general,swag has`nt got a clue about the game imo

i don`t hold much hope for any of the above in reality🤫

[tomphil]

2 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Great vocal support but numbers need to be better Gav.Did we not play Rochdale at home,same time of year in DIV 1 about three years ago in front of 15,000+?

Standards and expectations have fallen through the floor when we are applauding 13,500 home fans turning out and at cheap ticket prices!!

The Huddersfield prices are ridiculous..

Yet again gauged by the away support by men in suits, Hudds usually bring more than Barnsley so we'll stick a tenner on the price. 

Absolutely nuts, i'd wager a similar home turnout to last night but more away fans.  Sadly that justifies it to Waggot and co, totally missing the point as usual. That could and should be a bumper gate with a little help from the price fixers.

[jim mk2]

2 hours ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Standards and expectations have fallen through the floor when we are applauding 13,500 home fans turning out and at cheap ticket prices!!

Agree with that. A very poor turnout

[1864roverite]

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

Agree with that. A very poor turnout

Covid among a midweek game in the festive period ?

I think it was a good effort by Rovers fans overall despite no help from the decision makers at the club!

Ticket pricing for Sunday is absolute bollocks

[Mattyblue]

18 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Agree with that. A very poor turnout

It was actually a good ‘turnout’, as a load more folk than normal ‘turned out’ to buy match tickets… however, as we now have ‘very poor’ numbers of ST holders, crowds just won’t get to where we expect for standard priced matches week to week, as even large numbers of walk ons can’t take up the slack of all those lost regulars - even with this heady league position. You’d be needing c8,000 walk ons every week - and that ain’t happening.

Though obviously a cheap ticket offer or two and games in the run in would be exceptions and would draw in much bigger numbers.

Waggot’s horrendous management of ticketing over his tenure has come home to roost this season and it has exposed just how hollowed out the club’s regular match going fanbase had become.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Mattyblue

[Hasta]

17 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

Agree with that. A very poor turnout

Hang on. You were saying that anyone who went to Ewood with Omicron so rife was barmy last week. 

[jim mk2]

4 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Hang on. You were saying that anyone who went to Ewood with Omicron so rife was barmy last week. 

They are; but as it's clear 95 per cent of the population (not including myself I should add) have decided Covid is just a "bad cold", and that they're going to carry on regardless even if it is a threat, I would have expected at least 18,000 on Ewood in view if the team's recent form and the general air of optimism. 

[Mattyblue]

So considering we only have c7,000 ST holders, you expected TEN THOUSAND people to buy a match ticket for a standard priced Championship game? That never even got close to happening for big PL games. We are a club who’s attendance is always built on ST sales (and said ST numbers have dropped dramatically over the last couple of years), not vast numbers of folk buying on the day.

Feel like I’m banging my head on the wall here, surely it’s fairly simple maths, but folk just can’t seem to grasp WHY crowds aren’t higher considering large numbers ARE buying match tickets. But I’ll give it another go:

We did have 10,000+ ST holders until fairly recently, add your 6k walk on purchasers and the 750 away fans, there’s your near 17/18k.

We now have 7,200, add your 6k and 750… there’s your 14k. 

Crowds aren’t what we expect due to the disaster of the summer ST sales period which led to our lowest numbers of ST holders for 30+ years, not because folk aren’t turning out and buying tickets now  in big numbers for individual games - because they are.
 

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by Mattyblue

[1864roverite]

5 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

They are; but as it's clear 95 per cent of the population (not including myself I should add) have decided Covid is just a "bad cold", and that they're going to carry on regardless even if it is a threat, I would have expected at least 18,000 on Ewood in view if the team's recent form and the general air of optimism. 

Jimbo we are double jabbed and boosted but got the virus just before Xmas let me reassure you I have had worse colds and the hardest part of it is isolation but as long as you have tv food radio and alcohol you can survive😅

[Upside Down]

We have lost 10000 fans over the last 11 years. A few good results are not going to bring them back.

We went from being treated like we were an essential part of the club, woven into the very fabric that is Blackburn Rovers, to being just punters, a revenue stream there to be exploited and dismissed at will.

 

Some of those fans will never be back. Some will only return under certain conditions.

The change needs to come from the top.

I am not just some punter who is here to provide a source of revenue. The club needs the fans more than the fans need the club.

Edited December 31, 2021 by Upside Down

[OldEwoodBlue]

Running back after a few wins would make me a shallow hypocrite. Not happening.

I stopped my ST due to the owners.

I refuse to get a covid passport to attend a football match (or anything else) so walking on isn't an option regardless of results.

Watching and waiting for all the changes behind the scenes which may give some incentive to consider returning.

[JBiz]

45 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Running back after a few wins would make me a shallow hypocrite. Not happening.

I stopped my ST due to the owners.

I refuse to get a covid passport to attend a football match (or anything else) so walking on isn't an option regardless of results.

Watching and waiting for all the changes behind the scenes which may give some incentive to consider returning.

Each to their own, for me, life is too short to stop doing things you love, and even though I agree that covid passes are pointless (you can simply report any result without even taking a test), it seems another way of excluding yourself from anything you’ve previously enjoyed.

[1864roverite]

1 hour ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

Running back after a few wins would make me a shallow hypocrite. Not happening.

I stopped my ST due to the owners.

I refuse to get a covid passport to attend a football match (or anything else) so walking on isn't an option regardless of results.

Watching and waiting for all the changes behind the scenes which may give some incentive to consider returning.

Doesn't make you a hypocrite at all. You can support the team and players whilst still having grievance with the owners, plenty of fans are in that position but as has been pointed out, the team and club are far bigger than the owners.

You are missing out on a period of excellent football, togetherness and pride in the shirt. The atmosphere in the ground is getting better than at any time over the last 10 years.

[Mattyblue]

750 half season tickets sold, may get to 800 before they go off sale.

It’s the most since the PL as usually only a couple of hundred or so sign up, so a fair enough effort, and at least we are now back up to a mighty 8,000 ST holders!

So please Rovers, let that 7,200 be the absolute floor and ensure the kitchen sink is thrown at the summer sales campaign…

[Blue n whites]

Very poor turnout. Was shocked given how cheap the tickets where. IMO makes the argument about cheap tickets magically putting on thousands to EVERY home gate debatable.

But. It was the best atmosphere I've experience at Ewood in years. Was well worth the long journey. So much so I'm trying to get back down for Huddersfield.

There is a feel good factor about the place, a tremendous amount of young lads that go. Which is pleasing as we have lost a generation of fans. Plus the fans who are on the most reduculas self imposed ban I've ever seen. 

All in all. We have a team who are trying, and we are having relative success by our own standards. Long may it continue. 

[Mattyblue]

What was cheap? Barnsley?

It was still £20 to £25, just normal pricing at a lot of clubs, and still 6,000 bought a ticket, which is double the usual.

[Blue n whites]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

What was cheap? Barnsley?

It was still £20 to £25, just normal pricing at a lot of clubs, and still 6,000 bought a ticket, which is double the usual.

25 quid to take me and my daughter to a football game.  Yes. That was cheap. Maybe I'm too used to paying scottish championship prices. My bad

[tomphil]

13 hours ago, Blue n whites said:

Very poor turnout. Was shocked given how cheap the tickets where. IMO makes the argument about cheap tickets magically putting on thousands to EVERY home gate debatable.

But. It was the best atmosphere I've experience at Ewood in years. Was well worth the long journey. So much so I'm trying to get back down for Huddersfield.

There is a feel good factor about the place, a tremendous amount of young lads that go. Which is pleasing as we have lost a generation of fans. Plus the fans who are on the most reduculas self imposed ban I've ever seen. 

All in all. We have a team who are trying, and we are having relative success by our own standards. Long may it continue. 

Yawn....yet again it needs pointing out at least 6 thousand fans bought tickets to this game. That really isn't poor, 9k v fulham is, 14k plus v barnsley isn't.

Are you another who doesn't quite 'get' Rovers ?