v Watford (h) 23/12/23

[Hasta]

Looking good looking at the seat map above. Let's hope they actually get all the bars open on the concourse for this one.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Hasta

[rigger]

23 minutes ago, Hasta said:

Looking good looking at the seat map above. Let's hope they actually get all the bars open on the concourse for this one.

 

 

The Rovers will probably get all the bars and staff up and running, just in time for the Cambridge game !

[J*B]

1 hour ago, Herbie6590 said:

Encouraging…

On course for circa 15.5K home fans at the moment. 1K away. 

[Hasta]

Please turn up Rovers.

[the original david brent]

I wonder if there is a contingency plan to open another part of the ground such as 1 half of darwen end lower or blackburn end upper? I guess the problem will be staffing and catering. 
Sales have pleasingly picked up over the last couple of days. We don’t want a situation where there’s a real late surge and fans are turned away on the day.

[Mattyblue]

Presume they would, they did for Oxford. But as the Riverside still has whole blocks pretty much empty I doubt it’s going to be required.

[Miller11]

I’m hoping there are a good number of walk ons and on the day sales. Some early wages and Universal Credit payments for Christmas should hopefully help tomorrow 🤞🤞

At 2 quid a ticket there should be some groups of kids all going with their mates, if the weather is reasonably kind.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

1 hour ago, the original david brent said:

I wonder if there is a contingency plan to open another part of the ground such as 1 half of darwen end lower or blackburn end upper? I guess the problem will be staffing and catering. 
Sales have pleasingly picked up over the last couple of days. We don’t want a situation where there’s a real late surge and fans are turned away on the day.

Won’t be necessary. There are still a reasonable number of seats available across the JW and BBE not to mention the half empty Riverside. Scary to think that even with £10 tickets the stadium will still be half empty and yet it’ll be considered it a decent turn out. Would be great to get up to 20k though.

[Mattyblue]

It won’t be half empty. But generally yes it just shows how difficult it is to get a 20,000 crowd with only 9,000 ST holders.

But to pretty much fill the Blackburn End lower and a giant stand like the Jack Walker (as well as far more in the Riverside than the standard one man and his dog) from such a low base will be a big success.

Now if we had say 12,000 ST holders (like we bloody well should have) and then sold 7/8k walk ons all of a sudden the place is looking very well populated.

Sell more STs, sell more STs, sell more STs is always the answer to the perennial crowd question at this club.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Mattyblue

[roversfan99]

The problem with the perception to these offers is always people not appreciating that a doubling/tripling or whatever it turns out to be of walk ons is a great success, taking it out of context.

We know the type, "still nowhere near full," "people just like to slag off the club" or "what more can the club do with fans like this."

The ground wont be full but it will be a much bigger crowd and crucially once you take away the season ticket sales which obviously provide a low base, a considerable increase in walk ons are what matters. So the numbers seem very healthy if people see it in context and dont have unrealistic expectations. It could also lead to further sales beyond this game and should also create additional indirect sales of merchandise etc.

[Mattyblue]

Yep, some fans honestly expect Ewood to be full for offers like this.

Suddenly 20,000 walk-ons are going to come out the woodwork for a mid table second division game. 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Mattyblue

[JHRover]

35 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

It won’t be half empty. But generally yes it just shows how difficult it is to get a 20,000 crowd with only 9,000 ST holders.

But to pretty much fill the Blackburn End lower and a giant stand like the Jack Walker (as well as far more in the Riverside than the standard one man and his dog) from such a low base will be a big success.

Now if we had say 12,000 ST holders (like we bloody well should have) and then sold 7/8k walk ons all of a sudden the place is looking very well populated.

Sell more STs, sell more STs, sell more STs is always the answer to the perennial crowd question at this club.

Could always promote half season tickets, but at not much different price to a FULL season ticket at Preston and Bolton and with presumably zero ambition to do anything in the January transfer window I can't imagine many will see much value in those.

[Ben-2000]

Plenty of tickets still available (albeit mainly in the Riverside).

Possible for the JW lower corner to be opened if the rest of the stand became v. close to selling out but that would be it, if indeed they bothered atall.

[tomphil]

Most clubs our size in similar towns don't have a stadium the size of Ewood and as said above it's always the perception of everyone else that ends up slagging off the support.

Lets be honest a lot of football fans especially in certain places ( and some of our own).are thick as mince so a 15k crowd at second tier Rovers is considered good by most of us yet shite by everyone else because it's still 'half empty'.

People have the perception of us as a similar sized club to Boro. Derby, Norwich etc but because we rarely get similar numbers it's because of shit support.   They couldn't be further from the actual truth given the area, demographics, economy etc.

It's a cross we'll always have to bear but to see some of our own so called fans chiming in as well just shows what we are up against.

5 thousand extra buyers means it's a roaring success and covers any loss of revenue that the 1.5/2k only who would pitch up normally at cat B prices.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

It won’t be half empty. But generally yes it just shows how difficult it is to get a 20,000 crowd with only 9,000 ST holders.

But to pretty much fill the Blackburn End lower and a giant stand like the Jack Walker (as well as far more in the Riverside than the standard one man and his dog) from such a low base will be a big success.

Now if we had say 12,000 ST holders (like we bloody well should have) and then sold 7/8k walk ons all of a sudden the place is looking very well populated.

Sell more STs, sell more STs, sell more STs is always the answer to the perennial crowd question at this club.

Surely any new ST holders will be taken from within the regular walk up crowd so the overall total for a game like tomorrow would likely be the same. A higher ST base would certainly help for the regular midweek fixtures though.

[Mattyblue]

Not how it works here. We have a core of 2/3k that buy matchday tickets, that doesn’t particularly change if we have 8k ST holders or 12k. Our average gates wax and wane purely on the back of ST holder numbers.

Which makes sense as I know plenty of folk that just aren’t interested in buying a ST and others that just wouldn’t bother at all if they stopped their ST.

Indeed it isn’t unique to Rovers. Bolton’s gates have boomed purely on the back of much higher ST sales.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Mattyblue

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

7 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Most clubs our size in similar towns don't have a stadium the size of Ewood and as said above it's always the perception of everyone else that ends up slagging off the support.

Lets be honest a lot of football fans especially in certain places ( and some of our own).are thick as mince so a 15k crowd at second tier Rovers is considered good by most of us yet shite by everyone else because it's still 'half empty'.

People have the perception of us as a similar sized club to Boro. Derby, Norwich etc but because we rarely get similar numbers it's because of shit support.   They couldn't be further from the actual truth given the area, demographics, economy etc.

It's a cross we'll always have to bear but to see some of our own so called fans chiming in as well just shows what we are up against.

5 thousand extra buyers means it's a roaring success and covers any loss of revenue that the 1.5/2k only who would pitch up normally at cat B prices.

‘To see some of our own fans chiming in just shows what we’re up against’

That didn’t take much provocation did it. Commenting that a good crowd by our standards would still leave Ewood nearly half empty is hardly critical of the fans who are turning up. I just want to see the club do more to bring the fans in and be more creative and brave when setting ST prices. We’ll never fill Ewood but it’d be nice to see it a bit fuller than it is now wouldn’t you agree?

Tomorrow is a positive step but I still think a lot more could be done by the club.

[BlackburnEnd75]

What are we saying would be a good crowd tomorrow? 

17,500? Or is that over ambitious. Its hard to gauge

[Rogerb]

34 minutes ago, BlackburnEnd75 said:

What are we saying would be a good crowd tomorrow? 

17,500? Or is that over ambitious. Its hard to gauge

Be amazing in view of what day tomorrow is but I get your point.

[Mike Graham]

It is looking like 16.5k to 17k.  I had hoped for a few more but this is still a fantastic achievement thanks to the Supporters Trust and the coalition of fans groups, brfcs and of course the Club.

The joint working with the Club, fans groups and the Community Trust is something to build on.

The Club have welcomed our ideas and involvement.  We need to take this further and look at how we can influence future ST pricing and options.

[Mattyblue]

These games are great, who doesn’t love seeing a substantially busier ground? It will be a vastly bigger crowd than if it had been left as a standard Cat B. Ergo big success.

But yes, season tickets are by far the most important ‘consumer’ product they need to get right. Unfortunately I just can’t see any offer that will move the dial with this current CEO.
 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Mattyblue

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

It’s difficult at this time of year. Too many other things to do for lots of people.

[wilsdenrover]

5 minutes ago, Mike Graham said:

It is looking like 16.5k to 17k.  I had hoped for a few more but this is still a fantastic achievement thanks to the Supporters Trust and the coalition of fans groups, brfcs and of course the Club.

The joint working with the Club, fans groups and the Community Trust is something to build on.

The Club have welcomed our ideas and involvement.  We need to take this further and look at how we can influence future ST pricing and options.

Thank you for all your efforts.

On the bit in bold - has the club indicated to you that they’d be open to suggestions?

[damo100]

6 minutes ago, Mike Graham said:

It is looking like 16.5k to 17k.  I had hoped for a few more but this is still a fantastic achievement thanks to the Supporters Trust and the coalition of fans groups, brfcs and of course the Club.

The joint working with the Club, fans groups and the Community Trust is something to build on.

The Club have welcomed our ideas and involvement.  We need to take this further and look at how we can influence future ST pricing and options.

The weather will play a big part in this come Saturday. 

[Mike Graham]

4 minutes ago, wilsdenrover said:

Thank you for all your efforts.

On the bit in bold - has the club indicated to you that they’d be open to suggestions?

Yes.  The challenge is that the owners set financial targets for sales so we may have focus more on the structure and options of the ST offer.
One of our Supporters Trust Board members has already made a presentation to the Club and we will have further discussions.  If you have any ideas please send them to [email protected] or post on brfcs under the Trust thread.