It's a hard call, Mum. I think it's a bit early to go saying he's gone, but at the same time once Fergie leaves, or possibly even Mourinho, I think he's gone. Nothing less than that, though.

Sparky had an odd history with Chelsea. I was talking to some Chelsea fans about this very thing yesterday, and they seemed to think that there's no chance of that. By the same token, I talked to a Manchester ex-pat who seemed to think that Hughes isn't the first choice to replace Sir Alex, either, so...

We HAVE to have a testimonial for Brad. Wild horses couldn't keep me away from that one.

Just so long as he isn't passing his groin onto others, I think Rovers will be fine. Should he be caught passing the groin, we have issues...

Yeah - I wear kit to work on occasion and have been forbidden from wearing this year's because my employer thinks the Bet24 logo is too lowbrow for the office. The guy who supports Chelsea can wear his kit till the cows come home, but all I can wear is my AMD kit.

Corporate boxes are there for executives to a) have a perk, take out favored clients, and c) reward employees. The worse Rovers play, or the smaller our fanbase is, the less all 3 become viable reasons to buy in. It happened in Dallas with the Cowboys in the late 80s-early 90s. The attraction isn't so much the "I'm at the game" as "I'm above the hoi polloi, in luxury, getting served food by a waiter, and I'm watching footy. w00t!" I think it's the air of privilege more than anything else.

Burnley. Now and forever.

If Lonsdale is losing money, how can we get a decent kit sponsor? Who would want us if our kit company loses money?

I dunno... How about Michael Dell buys the team, injects 500 million, moves the team to Austin, Texas to be near his home so he doesn't have to travel to get to the games, we get Beckham on a ludicrous transfer, and convince Pele to come out of retirement and play in some insane scheme to get ratings, the Dingles go up and become the first team in Prem history to score no goals and get no points and are drummed out of the FA for such a poor showing. Oh, and it snows on Christmas AND Boxing Day.

2 actually. And they're the greatest female footballers of all time, so I can definitely see why they're on the list. Mia Hamm was a phenom.

We CANNOT go down if the Dingles go up. There is no greater horror on this planet. If we go down and they go up it's enough to drive a man mad. I swear if that happens I will burn every piece of Lonsdale crap I own, pretend it's 1995, and start supporting Millwall.

Can you imagine the sheer horror of the Dingles in the Prem with us in the Championship?

Club crest would almost certainly be. 'arte et labore' is in the context of a football item, though I imagine you could set up 'Arte et labore painters' with no problem Blue & white halved - don't know. A color itself (in the US at least) can be copyrighted, but you can't stop someone from painting their house burnt orange and white (common here in University of Texas country). I would say you could likely not duplicate club items, but I don't know that making, say, a blue and white halved dress shirt would constitute a violation Player names - I don't know what the situation is with that in the UK. In the US player names are licensed by the players' union for the individual sport, and you have to have an agreement with the union to use names on merchandise. Chants - Depends. Chelsea's "Blue Is The Color" was released on LP in the 70s with the players singing it. That's a fairly clear copyright. I don't know that any of our chants ever hit that level of entrenched copyright. Rover - I doubt it. Drawing of players - see above Drawing/model of ground - probably, but I don't know UK copyright law that well

Copyright violations?

I'll buy one for a young fan. I was wondering what to get myself (metaphorically) for Christmas, and that seems to fit the bill quite nicely.

The online one and/or the one at Ewood?

No, I totally agree that he should go to a team like Rovers. I'd love to see him here - the more American exposure Rovers get, the happier I am. Oh, and he's a decent talent too, so you know, improving the team would be nice. As for the work permit - a lad from my high school ended up in the ManYoo youth based on his British father and the consequent UK citizenship. Apparently for players that young it is rather difficult. I base this off of conversations with his HS coach who told me the whole story (knowing that I'm one of the few football fans that have come through his clutches).

Haven't written, though that is a good idea. I realize that Sports World runs the club shop now. I'm more concerned with the lack of official merchandise I can purchase. I have to get my scarves through eBay or third party sites. I can't get keeper kit. Presuming Rovers had made other items, they'd be available through the club shop. The club shop is bad for a variety of reasons. The customer service issues are indeed not Rovers' fault. The lack of merchandise is.

Chelsea's online store sells it. So does West Ham's. And Aston Villa's. And that's just 3 random teams off the top of my head. Plus Friedel is more to us than I would say any other keeper in the Prem. WHY do we not have merch for him? As an American, I ESPECIALLY want kit for him. People actually know who he is over here other than Rovers fans.

That and his handlers in the US will never let him sign for a team as "small" as Rovers. He's the Next Big Thing over here. If he goes anywhere it's going to have to be a Big Club so that the US fans can think our football program is advancing apace. That being said, his manager at DC wants him to go play at a team like PSV Eindhoven, so maybe we have a shot.

...except that our club store is horrid, our kit is low class (sorry Lonsdale, but you're crap), and I've seen no evidence of any attempt to play a US friendly. Okay, the last one is wishful thinking, but our marketing so far as our merchandise goes is ######. Williams may be a genius at other things, but he needs to hire a deputy in charge of goods.

The brand new "3rd kit" of course. Available in bright fuscia and chartreuse halves, with squiggly bits and a red triangle in the center.

Also, does the Rovers Store proper carry goalkeeper kit? The one online doesn't and I'd like to pick some up...

Without starting this again, it annoys me that I've had to go to eBay and other sites to buy my scarves, rather than the club page. I HATE our marketing department. We lack quality kit, we lack a variety of items that I can get from the club... It frustrates me no end.

FC Dallas away. Wait... damn...