Fans Forum/Roverstore/Commercial Chat

[Hasta]

37 minutes ago, rigger said:

Has there been another forum meeting, and are there any minutes ?

https://www.rovers.co.uk/fans/fans-forum/

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, ElTwis said:

The ST issue is frustrating. I get that the prices are better than they have been but the fact remains they're still higher than I (middle aged male, decent enough job, young family) can justify. Cut them to £200 and I get one, if I get one then my 2 sons do as will my 70yo Aunt despite the fact we won't make it to more than realistically 8/9 games. Instead we'll now buy tickets on a game by game basis and maybe go to half that. 

 

I can just feel they're itching to bang prices up again using this season as an example that "cutting prices doesn't work"

How much does that cost over a season? 

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

They shouldnt be increasing the price at any interval, full stop.

It's seem it happens everywhere to get fans to buy tickets early instead of late in the summer/just before the season starts. 

https://www.blackpoolfc.co.uk/news/2024/may/20/2024-25-season-tickets-on-sale-now-/

https://wiganathletic.com/news/2024/april/16/2024-25-season-ticket-prices-revealed-at-supporters-groups-presentation/

I'm not saying right BTW but it's what clubs is fans buying early in the summer. 

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

And I was just pointing out again that Venkys have no interest in the football club. 

If that was the case we would keep ownership of it. 

[roversfan99]

It isnt right, regardless of what happens elsewhere, and it has likely put a low ceiling on the potential season ticket sales.

Waggott seems genuinely confused as to why no sales were really made once signings were made and we had started well. A baffling naivety towards the considerable price increase he set and in previous forum meetings refused to reconsider.

Venkys continued ownership of this football has been a source of confusion pretty much since they sadly joined. But we have it in black and white from their pet snake Suhail that basically they are concentrating on more domestic businesses. That shows that Rovers are not anywhere near the forefront of their mind.

Edited September 23 by roversfan99

[Mattyblue]

The tone in those minutes is far stronger than I ever remember. ‘hugely disappointing’ etc. I don’t recall that when they sold a hugely disappointing 6,995 STs in 2021/22.

Along with sob stories about the leccy bill and player wages, *shock horror*, rising with inflation, they are obviously rolling the pitch for a substantial rise next season - and the lemmings will lap it up, ‘well nobody bought one when we had that enormous price cut last summer, so fair play to the club, I reckon’.

[alex l]

ST pricing will always be difficult to balance. If as noted in the minutes we were the only club in the league to reduce pricing then clearly slashing prices is a punt none of the 24 were willing/needed to take. 

It's been discussed loads before but if we halved the price would we really double attendance? No guarantee. Yes income would increase for other match day revenue but so does extra cost such as security/staffing. A bigger crowd also doesn't necessarily result in better results - Bolton and Bradford didn't get promoted despite home support likely amongst the best within their leagues. 

[Mattyblue]

You substantially reduce adult prices or you get promoted. That is the *only* way to see a significant increase in gates here. Simple as that. But as neither of those will happen, we won’t see a significant increase.

Twenty quid off a ticket was never going to lead to said significant rise, why on earth would it, especially after a season as bad as that? But it did prevent the big drop off that was surely coming if they’d have actually increased them, so a success of sorts.

The worrying thing is Swag et al seemingly did expect a surge on the back of a twenty quid cut, after a season of farce. They just don’t understand their own fanbase, which is just a tad worrying.

[ABBEY]

was the state of Ewood ignored?

 

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, alex l said:

ST pricing will always be difficult to balance. If as noted in the minutes we were the only club in the league to reduce pricing then clearly slashing prices is a punt none of the 24 were willing/needed to take. 

It's been discussed loads before but if we halved the price would we really double attendance? No guarantee. Yes income would increase for other match day revenue but so does extra cost such as security/staffing. A bigger crowd also doesn't necessarily result in better results - Bolton and Bradford didn't get promoted despite home support likely amongst the best within their leagues. 

The prices were cut by a slight amount and for only a short period of time, at which point we had just come off the back of a terrible season and were the last team to sign anyone with rumours circling regarding our off field position. By the time that any glimmer of positivity came back with a couple of signings, the prices comparatively were

The comments from the fans forum are misleading.

[Forever Blue]

That’s a hilarious answer to why more money wasn’t spent in the transfer window. And they wonder why season ticket sales are shit. 

Edited September 24 by Forever Blue

[Upside Down]

I take it swag didn't meet his target then.

Oh well.

[ABBEY]

OH WELL NEVER MIND...

 

wheres the trying not to laugh but wetting oneself button

[tomphil]

3 hours ago, alex l said:

ST pricing will always be difficult to balance. If as noted in the minutes we were the only club in the league to reduce pricing then clearly slashing prices is a punt none of the 24 were willing/needed to take. 

It's been discussed loads before but if we halved the price would we really double attendance? No guarantee. Yes income would increase for other match day revenue but so does extra cost such as security/staffing. A bigger crowd also doesn't necessarily result in better results - Bolton and Bradford didn't get promoted despite home support likely amongst the best within their leagues. 

But s seasons ago Preston as one example slashed early bird prices significantly so have just held that discount or increased price slightly.

Therefore it's just the usual spin Waggot always puts on this subject to form his own narrative ie it's not worth us doing it. It's crystal clear that from a finance point of view he'd prefer 9/10k home fans in total paying as much as he could squeeze them for whilst then being able to cut matchday staffing costs to the bone.

That's his way of working the evidence has been there for years and despite what they say in public in private it was panic mode that led to this seasons discount being increased by a whopping tenner.

Edited September 24 by tomphil

[Hasta]

We were a shambles on the pitch for the second half of last season and a shambles in the Indian courtrooms. The talk all summer was of selling Szmodics and having no money to spend. We hadn't won a home game under the new manager. Of course that wasn't a platform for increasing sales organically.

Yasir acknowledges a lack of signings was an issue with supporters. Add to that last summers 'cheap' signings were generally shit.

So when we did suddenly get our act together and start bringing players in, by then the season tickets were no longer 'cheaper'. They had gone up by £82 in my area. The club were told by numerous people that the pricing should have been held all summer because people aren't going engage with that increase.

If they'd have been on sale at the original "early bird" price after the Derby game I guarantee they would have sold 20% more tickets than they did after that game at the "Fat Cat" price which they ended up at.

You see this in business all the time. Stupid people making bad decisions but cleverly spinning a narrative upwards to try and justify themselves. Normally they are the only ones who gets to communicate with a higher level.

 

Edited September 24 by Hasta

[MarkBRFC]

15 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

why is that such a massive thing for you? 

They budget for 10,000 ST sales. the under 12's were massive up and That is the future of our fan base. 

We have sold 21 more season ticket than last season. They should have held the prices for at least another month at least at £349

Do we know how much Cantwell and Toth cost Rovers?

Agreed, but again what's the point in having really cheap under 12's tickets if the adult can't afford there's to take them?

[j166429]

So nothing discussed about Ewood needing some cleaning up? What about those Man United flags that were displayed on the BBE?

[chaddyrovers]

11 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

It isnt right, regardless of what happens elsewhere, and it has likely put a low ceiling on the potential season ticket sales.

Nowhere did I right but its seems to happen at other clubs. 

11 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Venkys continued ownership of this football has been a source of confusion pretty much since they sadly joined. But we have it in black and white from their pet snake Suhail that basically they are concentrating on more domestic businesses. That shows that Rovers are not anywhere near the forefront of their mind.

That's what Waggott and Suhail are here to run the club and any major decisions need to be decided by one of the owners/or more. 

Of course they are focus on domestic businesses cos that's how they make their money. No money to be made in football. 

Why they are still here would be my first question to them

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

The prices were cut by a slight amount and for only a short period of time, at which point we had just come off the back of a terrible season and were the last team to sign anyone with rumours circling regarding our off field position. By the time that any glimmer of positivity came back with a couple of signings, the prices comparatively were

The comments from the fans forum are misleading.

It should have longer period of sale at the cheaper price. 

Should whether we make signings early in the summer really have an impact on season tickets..

[chaddyrovers]

12 minutes ago, MarkBRFC said:

Agreed, but again what's the point in having really cheap under 12's tickets if the adult can't afford there's to take them?

It's a fair point for some people who can't afford whilst I think just over £15 per match to watch Rovers 23 times is cheap from my opinion whilst showing empathy towards other people who can't commit to a ST for financial, family or work reasons 

[Mattyblue]

The pitiful numbers of adult tickets sold makes it abundantly clear that the market does not deem them good value.

[Wheelton Blue]

Here we go again, round and round in circles.

Chaddy thinks ST's are value for money.

The overwhelming evidence of tickets sold, or lack of, completely suggests otherwise.

[ABBEY]

48 minutes ago, j166429 said:

So nothing discussed about Ewood needing some cleaning up? What about those Man United flags that were displayed on the BBE?

lip service and smoke up ones arse blowing.

cosying up to pune ain't for me and don't sit right

Edited September 24 by ABBEY

[J*B]

Well done to the club for bringing Suhail to the meeting. If he's in charge they can't keep him hidden away, so its good to see he attended and hopefully felt like it was worthwhile.

The comments on STs are bonkers. In what world they thought the pricing they delivered would see an increase of 10% is a level of delusion that I cannot comprehend. Let's be clear, if the kids tickets weren't so cheap then the number of STs sold this season would have been catastrophic and thats simply down to poor pricing and a poor product. The club are responsible for the feelings within the fanbase and if they cannot see its a direct result of poor management and a lack of understanding of economics in the region then they deserve all they get. 

[arbitro]

Once again Waggott/Pasha reiterate that there is no impediment (apart from matching it) to the Punekars sending money over. But the question still remains - have they actually sent some? I don't believe they have and we are still surviving off player sales, tv income and season ticket money.

I'm happy to be proved wrong.

And this looks like a cost cutting move https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/september/23/changes-to-opening-hours/. It was predicted with the move to digital ticketing. I hope it there are redundancies that the employees gets what they are entitled to.

 

[Wheelton Blue]

Opening hours of 10-4 makes no sense.

If the intention is to limit opening hours in order to cut costs, then why not do 12-6? At least then (working) customers have the opportunity of going either at lunch time or after work.

They patently don't want footfall in the shop.

[rigger]

I think it states somewhere that the season ticket prices for adults was reduced to the level of five years ago. Does that mean that the management are accepting that the tickets five years ago where massively overpriced. Personally I would have had a big reduction on my ticket price because I have turned 65, but I still don't think the season tickets are value for money, so I didn't get one. 

[MarkBRFC]

36 minutes ago, arbitro said:

Once again Waggott/Pasha reiterate that there is no impediment (apart from matching it) to the Punekars sending money over. But the question still remains - have they actually sent some? I don't believe they have and we are still surviving off player sales, tv income and season ticket money.

I'm happy to be proved wrong.

And this looks like a cost cutting move https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/september/23/changes-to-opening-hours/. It was predicted with the move to digital ticketing. I hope it there are redundancies that the employees gets what they are entitled to.

 

Yet you can't nip down and buy an away ticket from the ticket office. Ridiculous.

Just on that, are the actual ticket office windows open during the week, or is everything done from the club shop?

I was under the impression that they shut those ticket office windows (apart from matchdays) years ago, but that article reads like they are still open.